Effect of xylazine and ketamine on blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate in rabbits

New Zealand white and New Zeland white-Dutch Belted cross rabbits of both sexes were anesthetized using xylazine and ketamine alone and in combination while blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates were monitored. Blood pressure effects were measured from the aortic arch by a cannula implant through the left carotid artery. Ketamine-xylazine in combination at 35 and 5 mg/kg body weight, respectively, produced 45-60 minutes of surgical plane anesthesia. Anesthesia was induced in approximately 10 minutes. The average initial blood pressure drop was complete in 10 minutes and was 30%. Heart and respiratory rates dropped 19% and 77%, respectively, in the same time span. An additional blood pressure drop of 6-7% occurred as consciousness was regained. Blood pressure recovery was nearly complete (normal) about 6 hours following injection of the drug combination.     

Unilateral galactocele following augmentation mammoplasty

Subchronic oral exposure to styrene in rodents (25 or 50 mg/kg/day in mice; 160 or 320 mg/kg/day in rats and guinea pigs, 5 days/week) for 4 weeks resulted in moderate congestion of pancreatic lobules, focal inflammatory reactions around islets (in mice) and altered serum insulin level while blood glucose levels remained unaffected. Increased beta cell degranulation together with characteristic neoformation of islets were predominantly seen in pancreas of guinea pigs.     

Estimates of food and macronutrient intake in a random sample of Northern Ireland adolescents

Estimates of food consumption and macronutrient intake were obtained from a randomly selected population sample (2%) of 1015 adolescents aged 12 and 15 years in Northern Ireland during the 1990/1991 school year. Dietary intake was assessed by diet history with photographic album to estimate portion size. Reported median energy intakes were 11.0 and 13.1 MJ/d for boys aged 12 and 15 years respectively and 9.2 and 9.1 MJ/d for girls of these ages. Protein, carbohydrate and total sugars intakes as a percentage of total energy varied little between the age and sex groups and were approximately 11, 49 and 20% respectively of daily total energy intakes. Median dietary fibre intakes were approximately 20 and 24 g/d for boys aged 12 and 15 years respectively and 18 and 19 g/d for girls of these ages. Major food sources of energy (as a percentage of total energy intakes) were bread and cereals (15-18%), cakes and biscuits (12-14%), chips and crisps (13-14%), dairy products (9-11%), meat and meat products (9-11%) and confectionery (9%). Fruit and vegetable intakes were low at about 2.5% and 1.5% respectively of total energy intakes. Median fat intakes were high at 39% of total daily energy intakes. Major food sources of fat as a percentage of total fat intakes were from the food groupings: chips and crisps (16-19%), meat and meat products (14-17%), fats and oils (14-16%), cakes and biscuits (13-16%) and dairy products (12-15%). Median intakes of saturated fatty acids were also high at approximately 15% of daily total energy intake while intakes of monounsaturated fatty acids averaged 12% of daily total energy intake. Median polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intakes were low, comprising 5.2 and 5.5% of daily total energy intake for boys aged 12 and 15 years respectively and were lower than the PUFA intakes (5.9 and 6.3% of daily total energy intake) for girls of these ages. About 1.3% for boys and 1.4% for girls of daily total energy intake was in the form of n-3 PUFA. Ca and Mg intakes were adequate for both sexes. Based on these results, some concern about the dietary habits and related health consequences in Northern Ireland adolescents appears justified.     

Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses of behavioral marital therapy as an addition to outpatient alcoholism treatment

Thirty-six newly abstinent married male alcoholics, who had recently begun outpatient individual alcoholism counseling, were randomly assigned to a no-marital-therapy control group or to 10 weekly sessions of a behavioral marital therapy (BMT) or an interactional couples group. The cost-benefit analysis of BMT plus individual alcoholism counseling showed (a) decreases in health care and legal costs in the 2 years after as compared to the year before treatment, (b) a positive cost offset, and (c) a benefit-to-cost ratio greater than 1 indicating that health and legal system cost savings (i.e., benefits) exceeded the cost of delivering the BMT treatment. None of the positive cost-benefit results observed for BMT were true for participants given interactional couples therapy plus individual alcoholism counseling for which posttreatment utilization costs increased. Thus, adding BMT to individual alcoholism counseling produced a positive cost benefit, whereas the addition of interactional couples therapy did not. Individual counseling both alone and with BMT added showed substantial and significant cost savings from reduced utilization that substantially and significantly exceeded the cost of delivering the treatment; and the two treatments did not differ significantly on these cost savings and cost offsets. Individual counseling alone did have a significantly more positive benefit-to-cost ratio than BMT plus individual counseling due to the lower cost of delivering the individual counseling which was about half the cost of delivering BMT plus individual counseling. Cost-effectiveness analyses indicated that BMT plus individual counseling was less cost effective than individual counseling alone and modestly more cost effective than interactional therapy in producing abstinence from drinking. When marital adjustment outcomes were considered, the three treatments were equally cost effective except during the active treatment phase when BMT was more cost effective than interactional couples therapy. Study limitations are discussed.     

Treatment planning for radio-immunotherapy

To foster the success of clinical trials in radio-immunotherapy (RIT), one needs to determine (i) the quantity and spatial distribution of the administered radionuclide carrier in the patient over time, (ii) the absorbed dose in the tumour sites and critical organs based on this distribution and (iii) the volume of tumour mass(es) and normal organs from computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and appropriately correlated with nuclear medicine imaging techniques (such as planar, single-photon emission computerized tomography or positron-emission tomography). Treatment planning for RIT has become an important tool in predicting the relative benefit of therapy based on individualized dosimetry as derived from diagnostic, pre-therapy administration of the radiolabelled antibody. This allows the investigator to pre-select those patients who have 'favorable' dosimetry characteristics (high time-averaged target: non-target ratios) so that the chances for treatment success may be more accurately quantified before placing the patient at risk for treatment-related organ toxicities. The future prospects for RIT treatment planning may yield a more accurate correlation of response and critical organ toxicity with computed absorbed dose, and the compilation of dose-volume histogram information for tumour(s) and normal organ(s) such that computing tumour control probabilities and normal tissue complication probabilities becomes possible for heterogeneous distributions of the radiolabelled antibody. Additionally, radiobiological consequences of depositing absorbed doses from exponentially decaying sources must be factored into the interpretation when trying to compute the effects of standard external beam isodose display patterns combined with those associated with RIT.     

Aplastic anaemia and paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria: a study of the GPI-anchored proteins on human platelets

Twenty-six consecutive patients with acquired aplastic anaemia (AA) and nine patients with de novo paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) were included in this study. In these 35 patients a GPI-anchored molecule defect at the platelet surface was investigated by flow-cytometry. Platelets from eight out of the nine patients with de novo PNH were found to be deficient for the GPI-anchored molecule CD55, CD58 and CD59. We also detected a GPI-anchored molecule defect on monocytes, granulocytes, and erythrocytes in all patients with de novo PNH. Among the 26 AA patients, a GPI defect was detected on platelets in five patients. Interestingly, these five patients were also found to have a GPI-anchored molecule defect on erythrocytes, whereas in 10 patients the GPI-anchored molecule defect was only detected on monocyte and polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells.