Inhibition of hepatic inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor function by ethanol and other short chain alcohols

OBJECTIVE: To formulate the fundamental structure of caring as lived by Critical Care Nurses. DESIGN: Colaizzi's phenomenological research method and Diekelmann's dialogue technique were applied. SETTING: The home of each nurse constituted the setting for the interview. The nurses were employed in critical care units in six large metropolitan hospitals in the Southwest. SAMPLE: The availability sample consisted of 15 female critical care registered nurses. The nurses' mean age was 35 years. The mean number of years in critical care nursing was 4.7. One nurse was Asian, one was Hispanic, and 13 were Caucasian. RESULTS: Caring was composed of affective, cognitive, action, and outcome subprocesses. The caring process originated in the nurse's feelings and knowledge, and moved the nurse to competent actions that contributed to patient, family, and nurse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding of the process of caring was strengthened by the findings. The decision process used by nurses would benefit from further examination for the presence of the affective and nurse outcome subprocesses.     

Apoptosis after traumatic human spinal cord injury

OBJECT: Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death seen in a variety of developmental and disease states, including traumatic injuries. The main objective of this study was to determine whether apoptosis is observed after human spinal cord injury (SCI). The spatial and temporal expression of apoptotic cells as well as the nature of the cells involved in programmed cell death were also investigated. METHODS: The authors examined the spinal cords of 15 patients who died between 3 hours and 2 months after a traumatic SCI. Apoptotic cells were found at the edges of the lesion epicenter and in the adjacent white matter, particularly in the ascending tracts, by using histological (cresyl violet, hematoxylin and eosin) and nuclear staining (Hoechst 33342). The presence of apoptotic cells was supported by staining with the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridinetriphosphate nick-end labeling technique and confirmed by immunostaining for the processed form of caspase-3 (CPP-32), a member of the interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme/Caenorhabditis elegans D 3 (ICE/CED-3) family of proteases that plays an essential role in programmed cell death. Apoptosis in this series of human SCIs was a prominent pathological finding in 14 of the 15 spinal cords examined when compared with five uninjured control spinal cords. To determine the type of cells undergoing apoptosis, the authors immunostained specimens with a variety of antibodies, including glial fibrillary acidic protein, 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase (CNPase), and CD45/68. Oligodendrocytes stained with CNPase and a number of apoptotic nuclei colocalized with positive staining for this antibody. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the hypothesis that apoptosis occurs in human SCIs and is accompanied by the activation of caspase-3 of the cysteine protease family. This mechanism of cell death contributes to the secondary injury processes seen after human SCI and may have important clinical implications for the further development of protease inhibitors to prevent programmed cell death.     

Tonsillar carcinoma: analysis of treatment results

A diffusion cell with an artificial membrane and the single-pass perfused rabbit ear were used to evaluate the percutaneous absorption of clonazepam from various 2-hydroxyethyl acetate (HEA) patches. The influence on drug permeation of the various type of enhancers (isopropylmyristate, lauryl alcohol, propylene glycol and water) in the patches was tested. A comparison between the two types of systems of percutaneous absorption of clonazepam has been done. The results showed that HEA patches produce controlled uniform drug release, modulated by the addition of enhancers.     

Introduction to the AFDC program. Aid to Families with Dependent Children

The NADYA Group, integrated in the Spanish Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (SENPE), and made up of professionals dedicated to Artificial Nutrition, and specifically, to Artificial Nutrition in the home, annually undertakes the task of collecting data on diagnosis, type of support, follow up characteristics, complications, and quality of life, of patients included in programs of at home artificial nutrition in Spain. In the Annual Register corresponding to 1994, 17 hospitality groups have participated, providing 369 patients with Home Enteral Nutrition, and 30 with Home Parenteral Nutrition. Home Enteral Nutrition is mainly applied in patients with neoplasias (36%) or neurological alterations (35%). The most commonly used access route in the nasogastric tube, although there is an observed increase in the application of Percutaneous Gastrostomies (21%) in relation to previous data of the Spanish population. There is an observed complications index of 0.07 episodes/patient-year, a mortality of 30% (neoplasias) and 20% (neurological alterations), and low rehabilitation indexes in this group. In Home Parenteral Nutrition, post-radiation enteritis, neoplasias, and mesenteric ischemia, are the main diagnostic groups. The majority of the patients have a tunneled tube (63%), with 37% using an implanted tube. With an index of hospitalizations of 0.83 hospitalizations/ patient-year, catheter septicemia justifies the majority of the re-hospitalizations derived from nutritional treatment (0.56 hospitalizations/patient-year), note the mortality of 37%. There are complete rehabilitations, continuing the previously normal activity in 80% of the cases.