Buying and distribution of drugs: perceptions of officers of a network of primary health care in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo

The study present analyse the process to buy and distribution of medicaments for the Basic Unit of Health in municipal district of state S?o Paulo. To achieve some general considerations about the National Politic of Medicaments in Brazil, to emphasize feature relative the its structuration in the Unique System of Health.     

Apoptosis of neurons in the vestibular nuclei of adult mice results from prolonged change in the external environment

Five patients with non-cytotoxic drug-induced agranulocytosis were treated with recombinant human granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (rh-G-CSF). The drugs involved were dipyrone, captopril, clozapine and carbimazole. Bone marrow examination revealed a depleted granulopoiesis with normal erythro- and megakaryocytopoiesis. After discontinuation of the suspected drug, rh-G-CSF was administered daily at 5 microg/kg subcutaneously. The neutrophil counts were recovered between day 6 and 12 and patients were discharged from hospital shortly afterwards. Compared to data from the literature, the neutrophil recovery appeared to be faster than expected without the use of haematopoietic growth factors. In conclusion, rh-G-CSF at a standard dose of 5 microg/kg seems to be an effective treatment for drug-induced agranulocytosis.     

Restriction map of a 35-kb HLA fragment constructed by nested deletion 'drop-out' mapping

An efficient method for generating detailed restriction maps of large cloned DNA segments is demonstrated. The mapping strategy entails comparing restriction fragments from a parent clone and from nested deletion derivatives of that clone. In a set of deletion plasmids of decreasing size, an individual fragment will be lost, or 'drop-out', according to its position in the cloned fragment. In this demonstration, nested deletions were generated in both directions in a 35-kb DNA segment from the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region by intramolecular transposition of an engineered gamma delta (Tn1000) element present in a special 'deletion factory' cloning vector [Wang et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90 (1993) 7874-7878]. Fifteen plasmids with deletions extending in one direction and eleven plasmids with deletions extending in the opposite direction were digested singly by each of four restriction enzymes. A total of 36 cleavage sites were mapped in the 35-kb HLA fragment. This drop-out approach using nested deletions provides a simple and efficient means of mapping restriction sites, genes and other features of interest in cosmid-sized cloned DNA segments or DNAs.     

A prospective study of primary and secondary risk factor management in stroke patients

Stroke is a common event which often results in death or major loss of independence with immense human and financial costs, so identification of patients at risk, and prevention of stroke at the individual and population levels, is a high clinical and health priority. From August 1993 to July 1994, 468 stroke patients admitted to our hospital were assessed for the presence of stroke risk factors. All patients were followed up in hospital, and on discharge or death all hospital records were reviewed. We show that many risk factors remain uncorrected in stroke patients and that preventive measures are less than ideal at the community and hospital levels alike.     

Purinoceptor activation of chloride transport in cystic fibrosis and CFTR-transfected pancreatic cell lines

The regulation of chloride efflux from cystic fibrosis pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells (CFPAC-1) and wild-type CFTR-transfected CFPAC-1 cells (TPAC) was compared. Forskolin (10 microM) stimulated chloride efflux from the corrected TPAC cells but not from CFPAC-1 cells. Chloride efflux from both cell types was activated by thapsigargin (0.5 microM). The nucleotides ATP and UTP and the non-hydrolyzable ATP analogue, adenosine 5'-O-(3-thio) triphosphate (ATPgammaS), stimulated chloride efflux from both cell types. None of the other P2 purinoceptor agonists investigated elicited a response. The order of potency was ATP > or = UTP > or = ATPgammaS. Adenosine (10-100 microM) activated choride efflux from the TPAC but not the CFPAC cell line with no increase in intracellular cyclic AMP. Small but statistically significant inhibitions of the adenosine-(50 microM)-stimulated increase in chloride efflux were elicited by the A1 receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (CPX, 100 nM) and the A2 receptor antagonist 3,7-dimethyl-1-propylargylxanthine (DMPX, 10 microM). The A2A receptor antagonist 8-(3-chlorostyryl)caffeine (CSC, 100 nM) had no significant effect. These results provide evidence for the regulation of chloride efflux by P2Y2 purinoceptors in genetically-corrected and CF pancreatic cell lines. Studies with adenosine receptor antagonists indicate some possible involvement of A1 and A2 (but not A2A) receptors in the adenosine stimulation of chloride efflux, but the relatively small effects of the inhibitors coupled with lack of increase in cyclic AMP and a response only in the CFTR-transfected cells also suggests a possible direct effect of adenosine on CFTR.     

Effects of endothelin-1 on hippocampal synaptic plasticity

We examined the effects of puff application of endothelin (ET)-1 on the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) and heterosynaptic long-term depression (LTD) in hippocampal CA1 slices. ET-1 applied 2 min prior to tetanus blocked the induction of LTP, but facilitated the induction of heterosynaptic LTD. These ET-1 effects on synaptic plasticity were dose-dependent, and not due to a generalized depression of baseline responses. ET-1 did not alter NMDA receptor-mediated responses. These data provide the first evidence that endothelin modulates activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, and the potency of these effects suggests that endogenous ET-1 may play an important role in regulating memory storage processes.