Radiographic evaluation of complications after jejunoileal bypass surgery

A retrospective analysis of 89 patients who underwent jejunoileal bypass surgery for morbid obesity disclosed 33 complications that were detected radiographically. Intestinal obstruction (10.1% of patients), cholecystitis (5.6%), renal stones (4.5%), peptic ulcer (3.4%), megacolon (6.7%), and elongation of the small intestine with hypertrophy of the mucosal folds of the jejunum (6.7%) were diagnosed solely by radiographic means.     

Microbial attack of nitrocellulose

This is a study dealing with the use of a microorganism for partial denitration of the surface of nitrocellulose-based small arms propellants, in order to gain burning rate control. An organism, Aspergillus fumigatus, was found to grow on pyroxylin suspended in a nitrogen deficient, carbon-containing nutrient medium. No growth was observed under the same conditions when carbon was absent. This would indicate that the organism utilized nitrogen from nitrocellulose without attacking the carbon backbone. Further, mechanism studies indicated that the organism did not utilize the nitrogen directly from nitrocellulose, but rather relied on a hydrolysis reaction for a source of nitrogen.     

Effective pulmonary capillary blood flow in infants with birth asphyxia

Effective pulmonary capillary blood flow was measured on the first day of life in twenty term infants with birth asphyxia and twenty-five normal term infants. The infants studied showed no clinical or laboratory evidence of respiratory distress. The mean effective pulmonary capillary blood flow of 121 ml/kg/min in the birth asphyxia group was significantly lower than the mean of 162 ml/kg/min in the normal group. The possible relationship of birth asphyxia and pulmonary hypoperfusion in the aetiology of the idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome is discussed.     

Preparation of toxic radio-iodinated ricin for use in ricin-ribosome interaction studies

Acidosis inhibits catecholamine-induced lipolysis in vivo and in vitro. The lipolytic response of canine subcutaneous adipose tissue to short (5 min) nerve stimulations at 4 Hz was, however, not influenced by hypercapnic acidosis (pH 7.0). The steady state outflow of glycerol during a prolonged nerve stimulation at 4 Hz was inhibited by 40 per cent (p less than 0.05) at pH 7.0. Similarly, glycerol outflow during vasodilatation induced by a 4 Hz stimulation in alpha-blocked adipose tissue was inhibited by 37 per cent (p less than 0.05). Post-stimulatory glycerol outflow was, however, not influenced by acidosis. This poststimulatory glycerol outflow, which may represent a complex wash-out phenomenon, forms the largest part of the response to short nerve stimulations. It is suggested that steady state, rather than poststimulatory lipolysis should be studied in order to see the influence of treatments such as acidosis on responses to nerve stimulation.