Effects of somatostatin on the behaviour of thromboxane B2 and beta-thromboglobulin in type I diabetes
Gragnoli, G.; Signorini, A.M.; Tanganelli, I.
Acta Endocrinologica 109(1): 104-107
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-5598 PMID: 2408435 Document Number: 253318
Pharmacological studies have shown that the addition of somatostatin to insulin promotes a more rapid recovery from diabetic ketoacidosis. Contradictory results were reported concerning the action of somatostatin on platelet function, frequently deranged in diabetes. Therefore the plasma levels of thromboxane B2, a stable metabolite of proaggregatory thromboxane A2 and of .beta.-thromboglobulin, a marker of platelet activation, were studied in 9 control subjects and in 13 insulin-dependent diabetic patients before and during somatostatin injection, administered as an initial 250 .mu.g i.v. bolus followed by infusion of 300 .mu.g over 3 h. In both groups, after somatostatin infusion thromboxane B2 and .beta.-thromboglobulin levels showed, respectively, a progressive fall and an increase up to the 2nd h. Over the next hour thromboxane B2 increased and .beta.-thromboglobulin decreased but their levels did not return to basal values. During this experiment .beta.-thromboglobulin plasma values in diabetic patients did not differ from those of control subjects. Thromboxane B2, decreased in relation to pharmacological treatment, maintained elevated levels. Apparently, the dose of somatostatin used, produced in the diabetic patients a normal fall of thromboxane B2 in terms of percentage of base-line values, but increases of .beta.-thromboglobulin lower than in control subjects. Evidently, platelet function should be evaluated when somatostatin is used in the treatment of poorly controlled type I diabetes.