Gastrointestinal myoelectrical activity during the postoperative period in man

Myoelectrical activity of the gastrointestinal tract has been studied in the postoperative period of 13 patients who underwent cholecystectomy. The recordings have been performed by means of extracellular electrodes which were implanted at the levels of stomach, jejunum, ileum and colon during the surgical procedure. The records showed that fast activity is always persistent while the basic electrical rhythm is greatly disorganized during the immediate postoperative period. Such a characteristic pattern of the electrical activity suggested that the lack of peristaltic and propulsive movements, always noted during this period, is not correlated with a disappearance of gastrointestinal contractions, but only with a disturbance in their coordination.     

Methods of the use of ketorolac tromethamine in patients during the early postoperative period

An evaluation was done of respiratory failure in 149 children aged 3 to 15 presenting with funnel-shaped chest deformity (FCD). An original classification is suggested of degree of respiratory failure in FCD in children. Based on the index assessment of clinical and functional parameters an outline has been worked out for degree of respiratory failure. The criteria obtained are statistically significant; being able of giving quantitative assessment of degree of respiratory failure they can serve as control figures to be used in evaluations designed to study time course of changes in respiratory failure.     

Naltrindole administration during the preweanling period and manipulation affect adrenocortical reactivity in young rats

The effect of a daily injection of the delta-selective opioid antagonist naltrindole (1 mg/kg), from birth to postnatal day 19, on basal and post-stress corticosterone levels in 25-day old rats of both sexes was investigated. The effects of manipulation were studied by including two control groups, one group received daily injections of saline and a second one was not manipulated. The stress protocol consisted of a 3 min swimming session in water at 20 degrees C. Corticosterone determinations were performed by radioimmunoassay. Control non-manipulated animals showed a significant increase in corticosterone levels in response to stress. Manipulation decreased basal hormone levels in females and prevented the stress-induced rise in corticosterone in males. Functional blockade of the delta-receptor during the preweanling period by the naltrindole treatment inhibited the corticosterone response to stress in females. The results indicate the existence of sex differences in the effects of manipulation on hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and the involvement of the delta-opioid receptor in the modulation of the adrenocortical response to stress during the postnatal period.     

Maternal factors as determinants of food intake during the suckling period

In experimental animals, three ways in which maternal factors may have an important influence on food intake are described. The first is the olfactory cues which attract the infant to the mother, and specifically to the nipple. The second is the volume of milk ingested, which may be primarily determined by milk availability rather than by the infant appetite (if appetite even exists in the infant). The third is the available evidence which suggests that it is the mother who plays the active role in the process of weaning. It is concluded that the possibility that these factors are also operative in the human mother-infant dyad has not been subjected to systematic investigation.     

Pulmonary function in the early postoperative period

To the author's knowledge, an intensive investigation of pulmonary function during the first 2 postoperative days has not previously been reported. Consequently, in this study the effect of regional surgery on respiratory function, monitored every 4 h during the first 2 postoperative days, was analyzed. Hypoxaemia was a constant finding in all patients undergoing general anaesthesia. The degree and duration of hypoxaemia and spirometry changes were related to the site of surgical incision. Clinical signs of atelectasis were commonly observed during the first postoperative day and occurred after the change in PO2 and spirometry. Atelectasis was more common in patients having upper abdominal surgery. The current investigation reveals that the earliest postoperative change indicative of atelectasis is the fall in PO2; that auscultatory changes do not always occur in the presence of postoperative hypoxaemia; that auscultatory signs are not indicative of the extent of the PO2 fall; and that radiology represents a crude method of assessing postoperative atelectasis.     

What makes people study more? An evaluation of factors that affect self-paced study

The separation of chiral compounds by capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a very interesting field of research in different areas such as pharmaceutical, environmental, agricultural analysis etc. The separation of two enantiomers can be achieved in CE using a chiral environment interacting with the two analytes on forming diastereoisomers with different stability constants and thus different mobilities. A wide number of chiral selectors have been employed in CE and among them glycopeptide antibiotics exhibited excellent enantioselective properties towards a wide number of racemic compounds. Vancomycin, ristocetin A, rifamycins, teicoplanin, kanamycin, streptomycin, fradiomycin, and two vancomycin analogues, added to the background electrolyte (BGE), are the antibiotics studied by CE running the separation in untreated and/or coated fused-silica capillary. Due to adsorption and absorption phenomena, some drawbacks can be expected when using bare fused-silica capillary, e.g., changes of electroosmotic flow (EOF), broaden peaks, reduced efficiency and low sensitivity. Coated capillary and counter current mode can be the solution to overcome the above mentioned problems. This review surveys the separation of enantiomers by CE when macrocyclic antibiotics are used as chiral selector. The enantioselectivity can be easily controlled modifying several parameters such as antibiotic type and concentration, pH, ionic strength and concentration of the background electrolyte, organic modifier etc. The paper also presents a list of the latest chiral separations achieved by CE where antibiotics were used as chiral selector.     

Evaluation of the results of delayed rhinoplasty in cleft lip and palate patients. Functional and aesthetic implications and factors that affect successful nasal repair

Patients born with cleft lip and palate (CLP) present with a variety of nasal deformities. These are either congenital or iatrogenic. Our aim was to establish a correlation between aesthetic and functional nasal impairments in patients with CLP whose nasal reconstruction had been delayed. Fifty-four randomly selected patients with CLP deformities, all of whom had delayed nasal repairs were evaluated objectively, aesthetically in three planes, and functionally for symptoms of nasal obstruction, chronic maxillary sinusitis, and olfactory disturbances. Aesthetically the patients were analysed from 1:1 life-size full face, profile, and submental-vertex photographs, and full skull cephalograms. Nasal patency was assessed by rhinomanometry. The presence of chronic maxillary sinusitis and olfactory disturbances were deduced from the history. The degree of nasal dismorphism correlated with the severity of nasal functional impairments. Delayed nasal repairs in patients with CLP did not produce satisfactory aesthetic or functional results, probably because growth was retarded and midfacial development was disturbed at the time of delayed rhinoplasty and resulted in asymmetry. In CLP the nose should be repaired during the early primary cheilorhinoplasty, as this is essential for the restoration of a normally functioning and aesthetically pleasing nose.     

The types of headache that affect the elderly

Older people often describe their headaches as starting with vague neck discomfort and eventually moving to the temples and forehead. These are muscle-tension headaches, by far the most common type in the elderly. Although cervical osteoarthritis often is at fault, depression can be a significant factor, patricularly when headaches are chronic. There is no sure cure for tension headache, and often, several of the many remedies-ethyl chloride spray, moist heat, massage, antidepressant drugs, analgesics, local anesthetics, etc.-must be tried before an effective one is found. But just as important to successful therapy are concern, compassion, and a willingness to listen on the part of the physician. True migraine headaches are rare in the elderly. More prevalent is the type of vascular headache associated with giant cell arteritis, which is severe and resistant to any form of analgesic except the strongest narcotics. Vascular headaches also may result from congestive heart failure (which produces venous congestion in the cranial cavity), transient ischemia, increased intracranial pressure, and a variety of metabolic disturbances.     

Aversive stimulation during the stress-hyporesponsive period does not affect the number of corticotroph cells in neonatal male rats

Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate the effects of neonatal handling and aversive stimulation during the first 10 days of life on the number of corticotrophs in the anterior lobe of the pituitary of 11-day-old male Wistar rats. Since adult rats handled during infancy respond with reduced corticosterone secretion in response to stressors and with less behavior inhibition in novel environments, we assumed that neonatal stimulation could affect pituitary morphology during this critical period of cell differentiation. Three groups of animals were studied: intact (no manipulation, N = 5), handled (N = 5) and stimulated (submitted to 3 different aversive stimuli, N = 5). The percentage of ACTH-immunoreactive cells in the anterior lobe of the pituitary (number of ACTH-stained cells divided by total number of cells) was determined by examining three slices per pituitary in which a minimum of 200 cells were counted by two independent researchers. Although animals during the neonatal period are less reactive to stress-like stimulation in terms of ACTH and corticosterone secretion, results showed that the relative number of ACTH-stained cells of neonatal handled (0.25 +/- 0.01) and aversive stimulated (0.29 +/- 0.03) rats was not significantly different from intact (0.30 +/- 0.03) animals. Neonatal stimulation may have a differential effect on the various subpopulations of corticotroph cells in the anterior pituitary.     

Postoperative ileus as an indication for a 2d operation during the early postoperative period

The phagocytic and bactericidal activities to Salmonella pullorum (strain 9-25) or Salmonella senftenberg (strain 99D) were examined in chicken splenic phagocytes from 0-day-old to 2-month-old chickens. The phagocytic activity against S pullorum increased in splenic phagocytes from chickens older than 7 days, but significant changes in activity against S senftenberg were not observed during the experimental period. The bactericidal activity of splenic phagocytes against S senftenberg was higher than that of phagocytes against S pullorum during the same period. Increase of the bactericidal activity against S pullorum was observed with increasing age, but the activity of the splenic phagocytes from 0-day-old chickens against S senftenberg was similar to that of the phagocytes from 2-month-old chickens. Although delayed hypersensitivity was confirmed by delayed wattle reaction in 2-month-old chickens sensitized with living S pullorum, the sensitization did not markedly affect phagocytic and bactericidal activities.     

Ileus of the small intestine in the postoperative period

It is shown that there are difficulties in establishing the diagnosis of intestinal ileus postoperatively, since therapeutic measures, residual phenomena of the principal lesion and operative trauma alter the clinical picture of intestinal ileus. An experience with treatment of 14 patients, subjected to relaparotomy for intestinal ileus, is reported.     

Controlling factors in the development of ceruloplasmin in pigs during the neonatal growth period

The sequence of ceruloplasmin development and limiting factors controlling this process in neonatal piglets was studied in a randomized block design. Guided by the change in serum ceruloplasmin levels, the liver copper concentrations of piglets fed copper-deficient and copper-supplemented diets were compared in three different periods. The plasma of piglets was devoid of both apo- and holo-ceruloplasmin at birth. The system responsible for the synthesis of apoceruloplasmin developed shortly after birth as indicated by a steady increase in serum ceruloplasmin activity during the first week without being affected by the diet. Copper apparently was not the limiting factor at this stage since very high concentrations of copper were found in the livers of newborn piglets. However, the liver copper was depleted quickly within 1 to 2 weeks and became the limiting factor if the diet was deficient in copper. The livers of these piglets were fractionated by differential centrifugation to compare the liver copper distribution in the two dietary groups with and without copper supplementation. The treatments did not affect the copper distribution on a percentage of total liver copper basis. However, fractionation study revealed that, unlike adult pig livers, about 70% to 80% of copper was present in the heavier particle fractions of piglet livers.     

Fatal anaphylactic reaction to tetracycline in the postoperative period

A case of anaphylactic reaction in the form of acute cyanosis, hypotension with sudden and unexpected death of a patient in the post-operative period following the administration of tetracycline is described. There was no history of previous exposure to the drug.     

Ozone therapy of diffuse peritonitis in the early postoperative period

The functional status of the oxidative-antioxidative system was studied in 72 patients after vast cancer operations. Traditional surgical treatment and its combination with intraoperative irradiation were shown to lead to tense antioxidative defense and to suppressed T-cell immunity and to call for antioxidative and immunomodulating therapy. High intraoperative blood loss complicated by hemorrhagic shock injured the oxidative-antioxidative system greatly. The magnitude of this damage correlated with the rate of prehypoxia. Addition of the potent antioxidant Ceruloplasmin to the drug regimen normalized a recovery period, helped to correct posthypoxic multiorgan insufficiency, to recover oxidative-antioxidative balance, and to decrease the incidence of pyoinflammatory complications. Patients with endogenous intoxication showed activated lipid peroxidation, decreased functional activity of antioxidative defense components and of T-cell immunity in homeostasis. The use of Ceruloplasmin and Laprot had pronounced antiinflammatory and detoxifying effects on the patient's body and activated its antioxidative defense.     

Calnexin and other factors that alter translocation affect the rapid binding of ubiquitin to apoB in the Sec61 complex

Several secretory proteins, including apolipoprotein B, have been shown to undergo degradation by proteasomes. We found that the rapid degradation of nascent apolipoprotein B in HepG2 cells was diminished but not abolished by the addition of any of three different inhibitors of proteasomes. Ubiquitin is conjugated to apolipoprotein B that is not assembled with sufficient lipids either during or soon after synthesis. In addition, we found that apolipoprotein B that has entered the endoplasmic reticulum sufficiently to become glycosylated can be degraded by proteasomes. Furthermore, we detected ubiquitin-apolipoprotein B that is associated with the Sec61 complex, the major constituent of the translocational channel. Treatment of cells with monomethylethanolamine or dithiothreitol decreased the translocation of apolipoprotein B and increased the proportion of ubiquitin-conjugated molecules associated with Sec61. Conversely, treatment of cells with oleic acid, which increased the proportion of translocated apolipoprotein B, decreased the amount of ubiquitin-apolipoprotein B in the Sec61 complex. Finally, we found that inhibition of the interaction between calnexin and apolipoprotein B decreases the translocation of apolipoprotein B, increases the ubiquitin-apolipoprotein B in the Sec61 complex, and increases the proteasomal degradation of glycosylated apolipoprotein B. Thus, ubiquitin can be attached to unassembled apolipoprotein B in the Sec61 complex, and this process is affected by factors including calnexin that alter the translocation of apolipoprotein B.