TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR PLASMA CORTISOL AND PROLACTIN IN HUMAN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS PATIENTS AND HEALTHY AFRICAN CONTROLS

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Authors
  1. Radomski, M.W.
  2. Buguet, A.
  3. Montmayeur, A.
  4. Bogui, P.
  5. Bourdon, L.
  6. and others
Corporate Authors
Defence and Civil Inst of Environmental Medicine, Downsview ONT (CAN)
Abstract
We have previously demonstrated that human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) at the stage of meningoencephalitis results in a major disruption of the circadian rhythmicity of sleep and wakefulness that is proportional to the severity of the disease. This paper examines the corresponding 24-hourly secretion in cortisol and prolactin and compares it with the hourly distribution of sleep composition in infected patients and healthy African subjects. The secretion of cortisol in humans follows a circadian rhythm relatively independent of the sleep-wake cycle, whereas that of prolactin exhibits flunctuations over the 24-hour day that are strongly related to the sleep-wake cycle. After the clinical classification of the patients according to the severity of the disease, hourly blood samples were taken over 24 hr via an indwelling catheter. Plasma cortisol and prolactin were analyzed by radiommunoassay, and the variations in the hourly concentrations were analyzed for the presence of a potential 24-hr rhythm (ciradian). All of the healthy African subjects showed significant ciradian rhythms in both cortisol and prolactin secretion, similar to data on humans from temperate regions, and sleep-related anamnestic afternoon peak of prolactin. TRUNCATED.
Keywords
Sleeping sickness
Report Number
DCIEM-95-17 — Reprint
Date of publication
01 Jan 1995
Number of Pages
6
Reprinted from
Am J Trop Hyg, vol 3, no 52, 1995, p 281-286
DSTKIM No
95-04130
CANDIS No
152603
Format(s):
Document Image stored on Optical Disk;Hardcopy

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