OBJECTIVE The quantitative assessment of gland responsiveness to exogenous stimuli is typically carried out using the peak value of the hormone concentrations in plasma, the area under its curve (AUC), or through deconvolution analysis. However, none of these methods is satisfactory, due to either sensitivity to measurement errors or various sources of bias. The objective was to introduce and v...

Social regulation of the internal milieu is a fundamental behavioral adaptation. Cephalic capability is reflected by anticipatory behaviors to serve systemic physiological regulation. Homeostatic regulation, a dominant perspective, reflects reactive responses; allostatic regulation, the physiology of change, emphasizes longer-term anticipatory, and feedforward systems. Steroids, such as cortiso...

The hypothalamus receives a rich supply of adrenergic and noradrenergic nerve fibres from the brain stem, terminating in many hypothalamic regions, including the paraventricular nucleus, which is the site of the cell bodies of corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) neurones in man. Experimental evidence has shown that an alpha 1 adrenoceptor mechanism stimulates adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACT...

Hillhouse EW, Burden J, Jones MT (1975): The effect of various putative neurotransmitters on the release of corticotrophin releasing hormone from the hypothalamus of the rat in vitro. I. The effect of acetylcholine and noradrenaline. Neuroendocrimlogy 17:1-11. Hoehn MM, Yahr MD (1967): Parkinsonism: Onset, progression, and mortality. Neurology 17:427-442. Lamberts SWJ, Klijn JGM, de Quijada M, ...

Five preterm, very low birthweight infants with severe hypotension and adrenocortical insuYciency are described. The profound hypotension was resistant to volume expansion and inotrope treatment, but responded promptly to corticosteroid treatment. A human corticotrophin releasing hormone (hCRH) test performed before corticosteroid treatment showed adequate pituitary response, and the endocrine ...