Abnormal gastric motility in liver cirrhosis: roles of secretin

Cutaneous electrogastrography (EGG) revealed that the power ratio, an indicator of rhythmicity of EGG waveforms was significantly less in liver cirrhosis (power ratio: 28.2+/-14.5%) than in normal subjects (power ratio: 45.6+/-16.2%) (P < 0.01), thus demonstrating dysrhythmic EGG waveforms for liver cirrhosis. Gastric emptying time (T1/2), calculated from the half-life of retained radioisotope (RI) in the region of interest (ROI) in the stomach following the ingestion of RI containing test meal was significantly prolonged in patients with liver cirrhosis compared to the control (liver cirrhosis vs controls 43.2+/-20.3 min vs 24.8+/-9.6 min, P < 0.01). Of the five gastrointestinal hormones-gastrin, secretin, motilin, cholecystokinin (CCK), and glucagon-serum secretin was significantly higher in liver cirrhosis than the control (P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with the power ratio (r = 0.51, P < 0.01). Normal, regular EGG waveforms (power ratio: 47.1+/-10.2%) became dysrhythmic in normal volunteers (power ratio: 34.1+/-12.4%), when their serum secretin was experimentally increased to essentially that in liver cirrhosis and possible roles of hypersecretinemia in abnormal gastric motility in liver cirrhosis are proposed.     

Direct analysis of several Fusarium mycotoxins in cereals by capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

This article describes three experiments relating to the legibility of TV menus. Special emphasis is placed on the influence of a relatively new feature in TVs: the possibility to blend graphics and video. Three experiments are presented: one concentrating on the influences of blending level and video content; one concentrating on the influences of content and of colour combinations; and one concentrating on the influences of various font characteristics. The results are interpreted in terms of guidelines for blended TV menus.