Joint influence of alcohol, tobacco, and coffee on biological markers of heavy drinking in alcoholics

BACKGROUND: Recent reports suggest that gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) decreases with coffee intake. The aim of this study was to examine the joint influence of alcohol, tobacco, cotinine, coffee, and caffeine on biological markers of heavy drinking in an alcoholic population. METHODS: Subjects were 160 alcohol-dependent inpatients. Biological assessments, performed at admission, were plasma levels of GGT, apolipoprotein AI, aspartate aminotransferase, and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and urine cotinine and caffeine indexes. Years of alcohol abuse and of smoking, alcohol and coffee intake, and smoking rate were estimated in a semistructured interview, and Fagerstr?m Tolerance Questionnaire was completed by inpatients. RESULTS: Coffee intake, but not caffeine, correlated negatively with biological markers of heavy drinking, after controlling for alcohol and tobacco intake. Years of smoking correlated positively to MCV, after controlling for alcohol and coffee intake. CONCLUSIONS: Concerning the effect of coffee, the most likely hypothesis is that noncaffeine coffee fractions have a protective effect on liver cells. Concerning the effect of smoking, one can propose that the increase of MCV with smoking could be a consequence of carbon monoxide inhalation, leading to hypoxemia, or of folate deficiency.     

Plasma L-arginine concentration, oxygenation index, and systemic blood pressure in premature infants

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationships between plasma L-arginine concentrations and the severity of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) or systemic blood pressure in premature infants. DESIGN: Prospective, observational study. SETTING: Neonatal intensive care, tertiary referral hospital. SUBJECTS: Fifty-three premature infants. INTERVENTIONS: We measured arginine and nutritional intake, plasma arginine concentration, total amino acid concentrations, and blood pressure on days 3, 7, 14, and 21 of life. In 33 infants who received assisted ventilation, oxygenation index could be calculated to reflect the severity of RDS. The relationships between plasma arginine and oxygenation index or blood pressure were analyzed using multiple linear regression. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: On day 3, plasma arginine concentrations were decreased compared with normal published values. Arginine concentrations increased with the day of life of measurement (p < .001) and with arginine intake (p < .001). After adjusting for arginine intake and day of life, an inverse relationship was found between oxygenation index and plasma arginine concentrations: (p = .025). No similar relationship was found between oxygenation index and the concentration of total amino acids. A weak positive relationship was found between plasma arginine concentration and systemic blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Increments in the oxygenation index, reflective of an increased severity of RDS, are associated with a decrease in plasma arginine concentration. This finding may reflect arginine consumption by the nitric oxide synthase pathway in the lungs of premature infants with RDS, or may be explained by increased arginine catabolism. The lack of a similar relationship between total plasma amino acids and oxygenation index supports the first interpretation.     

Field experinence of the molluscicide "Frescon" in the control of fascioliasis (author''s transl)

The desipramine-sensitive uptake (neuronal uptake) of 14C-bretylium and 14C-bethanidine into the rabbit aortic adventitial layer from 3 X 10(-6) M solutions increased with time during a 20 min incubation. For both compounds a neuronal uptake of 50 pmol/50 mg wet weight adventitia was associated with 10% block of the contractile response to field stimulation at 16 Hz and 150 pmol/50 mg with 60% block. The concentration of blocking agents inside the neuron at 50% blockade was calculated to be 260 X 10(-6) M, an 87-fold increase over the medium. The bretylium in the neuron decreased by 50% during 20 min washout, and bethanidine by 29%. Desipramine when added to the bath 20 min following the addition of the blocking agents led to a loss of bretylium but not of bethanidine from the adventitia. Desipramine had little or no effect on the uptake, washout or disposition of either blocking agent in the media-intimal layers. The data indicate that bretylium has a greater propensity than bethanidine to be lost from the neurons; however, it appears to be recycled back through the membrane via the amine pump more readily than bethanidine. The fact that conservative calculations indicate that the neuronal membrane slowly established a concentration of the blocking agents within the neuron that is known to produce rapid local anesthesia when topically applied to adrenergic nerve trunks and which approaches a concentration needed to inhibit sensory endings suggests that local anesthesia may play a role in the mechanism of neuron blockade.     

Effect of long-term therapies with penicillin and sulfadiazine on Streptococcus mutans and lactobaccilli in dental plaque

Plaque samples were obtained from 13 children receiving long-term therapy with benzathine penicillin for the prevention of rheumatic fever recurrences, 31 children receiving oral sulfadiazine for the same purpose, and 29 untreated siblings. The therapies were found to have no effect upon the proportions of Streptococcus mutans or lactobacilli in dental plaque, upon the percentage of children harboring the organisms, nor upon the susceptibility of the organisms to penicillin and sulfadiazine. Of the S. mutans strains tested, 97% had a minimal inhibitory concentration of penicillin G of less than 48 ng/ml and, of the lactobacillus strains tested, 96.8% had a minimal inhibitory concentration of less than 1,600 ng/ml. All strains of both organisms were profoundly resistant to sulfadiazine.     

Inflammation of the tail in swine. Slaughter-house findings during 1972, 1973, and 1974 (author's transl)

In the Public Salughter-House of Utrecht, a percentage increase in the number of pigs with inflammation of the tail, which had or had not healed, was observed during the period from 1972 to 1974 inclusive. The most common secondary symptoms of inflammation consisted in embolic pneumonia, osteomyelitis of the vertebrae and abscess formation in other parts of the body, particularly the semimebranosus muscles. Osteomyelitis was found to be the most common complication in pigs in which the inflammation of the tail had healed, whereas this usually consisted in embolic pneumonia in those cases in which the inflammation of the tail had not healed. The bacteriological examination carried out in accordance with the Meat Inspection Regulations was positive in 21.7 per cent, 13.5 per cent of the cases respectively in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Micro-organisms were isolated much more frequently from the kidney than they were from the spleen and meat. There was no relationship between the presence of inflammation of the tail and climatological conditions during the fattening period. The losses at slaughter from inflammation of the tail in the Netherlands are estimated at 3-4 million guilders per annum.