Prevention of postoperative adhesions by single intraperitoneal medication

Postoperative adhesions account for a significant morbidity after abdominal, gynecological, or cardiac surgery. A large number of compounds have been suggested to prevent such adhesions, but none is generally accepted. We have compared eight different substances that could be beneficial for the prevention of postoperative adhesions in a new standardized rabbit model with measurement of the areas of adhesion. In 10 groups of 20 rabbits an area of abrasion of the serosa of the ileum, the appendix, and the abdominal wall measuring 10,000 mm2 was created by an emery piston during celiotomy. The controls received no medication. The treatment groups received a single intraperitoneal administration of 1 ml per 100 g body wt of normal saline (NaCl), 5 mg taurolidine (T), 0.5 U plasmin/300 U DNase (PD), 2000 IU streptokinase/500 IU streptodornase (SS), 7 mg phosphatidylcholine (PC), 4 mg hyaluronic acid (HA), 7 mg sphingolipid (SL), 7 mg galactolipid (GL), or 0.5 ml tetrachlorodecaoxide (TCDO), respectively. Ten days later the extent of adhesions was quantified by morphometry. The total area of adhesions (+/- SEM) was found to be 1998 +/- 124 mm2 in controls. The application of NaCl reduced the adhesions to 1368 +/- 58 mm2, of T to 1012 +/- 48 mm2, of PD to 673 +/- 33 mm2, of SS to 360 +/- 44 mm2, of PC to 335 +/- 84 mm2, of HA to 328 +/- 76 mm2, of SL to 278 +/- 80 mm2, of GL to 261 +/- 67 mm2, and of TCDO to 240 +/- 45 mm2. The effects of PD, SS, PC, HA, SL, GL, and TCDO were significant in comparison to controls and NaCl. Our experimental data suggest that the two new lipid substances, SL and GL, are the most likely candidates for routine clinical use in the prevention of postsurgical adhesions.     

Revisiting the Factor Structure of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges.

This study assessed the factor structure of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (QSU), a commonly used assessment of cravings for cigarettes, with a sample of smokers presenting for treatment in a smoking cessation trial. On the basis of previous research, three confirmatory factor analytic models were tested. Model 1 hypothesized a 26-item, 2-factor model using the items reported in the original QSU analysis by S. T. Tiffany and D. J. Drobes (1991). Model 2 hypothesized a 12-item, 2-factor model comprised of the 6 most robust items found in each of the 2 factors of the original factor analysis. Using the 12 items from Model 2, Model 3 hypothesized a 12-item, 1-factor model. The 2nd model was found to fit the data best. Reliability was also tested using values obtained in this 2nd model, and these estimates were found to be reasonably good. Future research directions for the QSU are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reovirus induction of and sensitivity to beta interferon in cardiac myocyte cultures correlate with induction of myocarditis and are determined by viral core proteins

Reovirus-induced acute myocarditis in mice serves as a model to investigate non-immune-mediated mechanisms of viral myocarditis. We have used primary cardiac myocyte cultures infected with a large panel of myocarditic and nonmyocarditic reassortant reoviruses to identify determinants of viral myocarditic potential. Here, we report that while both myocarditic and nonmyocarditic reoviruses kill cardiac myocytes, viral myocarditic potential correlates with viral spread through cardiac myocyte cultures and with cumulative cell death. To address the role of secreted interferon (IFN), we added anti-IFN-alpha/beta antibody to infected cardiac myocyte cultures. Antibody benefited nonmyocarditic more than myocarditic virus spread (P < 0.001), and this benefit was associated with the reovirus M1 and L2 genes. There was no benefit for a differentiated skeletal muscle cell line culture (C2C12 cells), suggesting cell type specificity. IFN-beta induction in reovirus-infected cardiac myocyte cultures correlated with viral myocarditic potential (P = 0.006) and was associated with the reovirus M1, S2, and L2 genes. Sensitivity to the antiviral effects of IFN-alpha/beta added to cardiac myocyte cultures also correlated with viral myocarditic potential (P = 0.004) and was associated with the same reovirus genes. Several reoviruses induced IFN-beta levels discordant with their myocarditic phenotypes, and for those tested, sensitivity to IFN-alpha/beta compensated for the anomalous induction levels. Thus, the combination of induction of and sensitivity to IFN-alpha/beta is a determinant of reovirus myocarditic potential. Finally, a nonmyocarditic reovirus induced cardiac lesions in mice depleted of IFN-alpha/beta, demonstrating that IFN-alpha/beta is a determinant of reovirus-induced myocarditis. This provides the first identification of reovirus genes associated with IFN induction and sensitivity and provides the first evidence that IFN-beta can be a determinant of viral myocarditis and reovirus disease.     

Session frequency, regressive intensity, and the psychoanalytic process.

Argues that in most analyses, an increase in frequency will lead to qualitative changes in the data obtained and in the ways each person can use the material. The analysand should generate more associations that focus on the dyadic here and now. Each participant should better understand the other's personalized use of language. More frequent sessions should increase the analysand's sense of the "holding environment" and make a deeper therapeutic regression more likely, thus allowing more frequent access to more archaic material. It should also reduce the analyst's press to intervene or introduce "parameters." Efforts to help the analysand acquire missing psychological skills are more likely to bear fruit in a maximally intensive therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New research opportunities in superconductivity IV

This report surveys the considerable progress made over the last five years—such as the marketing of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), cellular wireless filter systems, and high current leads—and assesses needs and opportunities in the areas of fundamental science, materials development, thin film and device applications, and wire and bulk applications. It examines the challenges facing high-temperature superconductivity: from the need to understand the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity and the unusual “normal” state to the need for new instrumentation for material characterization. Advances in thin film and bulk materials are reviewed, and obstacles impeding the commercialization of HTS materials are examined. A report on the workshop on research needs and opportunities in superconductivity, held in Monterey, California, February 10–12, 1997.     

Effect of Castration and hormonal supplementation on cholesterol cholelithiasis in the male hamster

This study examined the effect of castration and dietary hormonal supplementation on cholesterol cholelithiasis in male hamsters. Animals fed a standard lithogenic diet developed cholesterol gallstones (17%) after 6 wk, while castrated hamsters did not form any stones. Addition of a synthetic androgen, methyltestosterone, to the lithogenic diet induced cholelithiasis in castrated animals (50%). The biles of normal and castrated-hormone supplemented hamsters had cholesterol saturation indices of 1.0 and 1.1, respectively, while the bile of the castrated animals remained unsaturated (0.6). The ratio of cholic acid/chenodeoxycholic acid in bile increased after castration, but returned to normal levels following hormonal supplementation. Biliary cholesterol carriers were separated by ultracentrifugation. Animals in the stone-forming groups (normal and castrated-hormone treated) had a significant proportion of their biliary cholesterol in vesicles (44 and 46%, respectively); castrated hamsters had less cholesterol in vesicle form (9%). The molar ratio of cholesterol/phospholipid in vesicles was reduced after castration (0.93 vs. 0.42) and increased by hormonal supplementation (1.89). In conclusion, when compared to normal male hamsters fed a standard lithogenic diet, castration reduced the cholesterol saturation of bile, lowered the vesicular/micellar ratio in bile, and inhibited cholesterol cholelithiasis. Dietary androgen supplementation increased the lithogenicity of bile, resulting in stone formation in castrated animals.     

Insights, Hope, Kindness, and Confusion: Odyssey of a Psychoanalyst.

Insights from the author's previous systematic research and psychoanalytic observations are summarized. In a nationwide Gallup sample, segregation was found destructive to African Americans and Whites, although differently so. Clinical experience delineated the number 4 as a symbol, the helpfulness of psychoanalysis, and meanings of schizophrenic symptoms. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pathogenesis (unconsciously based hurtful parenting) differentiated both parents of schizophrenics and inadequate therapists. A controlled project demonstrated that 70 sessions of psychoanalytic therapy were more helpful than medication with respect to schizophrenic thought disorder, hospitalization, and living a more human life. Masked clinical judgments from Rorschachs, TATs, and interviews were found to be valid. Clinical papers described treating lower socioeconomic status patients, not eating, the 4 bases of delusions, and the necessity to be kind, tolerant, stubborn, and confused and to avoid abstractions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acute and critical care in neurology

When subjects select a prime from a visual display while leaving a distractor prime unselected, response time (RT) or response accuracy to a subsequent probe may be impeded if the distractor prime and probe are identical, or if they are related to one another. This phenomenon, negative priming (NP), has obvious implications for understanding perceptual selection. However, it is not known whether NP results from other kinds of selection processes. The present studies were designed to investigate whether NP occurs when primes are selected from working memory rather than from a visual display. In the two experiments, the subjects memorized two primes, selected one prime for further processing, and classified the contents of a probe display. Significant NP occurred in both Experiments. In Experiment 2, however, NP occurred only under easy-selection conditions; the effect was reversed under difficult-selection conditions. The findings indicate a role for NP in memory processing, but contrast with the results from perceptual selection studies showing greater NP under difficult-selection than under easy-selection conditions. The present finding suggests a complex and perhaps strategy-dependent relationship between memory selection difficulty and NP.