Peripheral noxious stimulation induces CREM expression in dorsal horn: involvement of glutamate

Thermal washout curves have been proposed as noninvasive tools for analysing lower airway dimensions and pulmonary blood flow, but how upper airway heat transfer affects these washout curves is unclear. The present study was designed to compare extrathoracic and tracheobronchial contributions to thermal washout curves. Respiratory frequency, air ambient temperature, and body core temperature (tc) were varied in six male subjects before and after immersion in cold (1.1 degrees C) water for up to 2 h under three conditions: 1) control: ambient temperature (tamb) = 25 degrees C, rectal temperature change (delta tre) = 0 degrees C; 2) pre-immersion: tamb = 4 degrees C, delta tre = 0 degrees C; and 3) post-immersion: tamb = 25 degrees C, delta tre = -0.7 degrees C. Both peak expiratory nasal (tpn) and oral (tpo) airstream temperatures were measured. Each subject was tested twice. Expiratory tpo was generally higher than tpn in all conditions. Increasing breathing rates lowered tpn and tpo in the control and cold air environments. Orifice temperatures, which are presumed to reflect upper airway blood temperatures, correlated with both tpn and tpo. Lowering tc had no effect on washout curves during quiet breathing and affected only tpn during rapid breathing. The results suggest that while tracheobronchial conditions may contribute to thermal washout curves, extrathoracic conditions predominate. Strong correlations between orifice temperatures, peak expiratory nasal temperatures and peak expiratory oral temperature demonstrate the dominant role of upper airway heat exchange in determining thermal washout curves.     

Sarcoplasmic reticular Ca2+ pump ATPase activity in congestive heart failure due to myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVE: Earlier studies have shown a depression in the sarcoplasmic reticular (SR) Ca2+ uptake and gene expression in Ca2+ pump ATPase protein in congestive heart failure subsequent to myocardial infarction. It is the objective of this study to understand further the mechanisms of depressed SR Ca2+ pump activity in the failing heart. METHODS: Heart failure in rats was induced by occluding the left coronary artery for 16 weeks and the viable left ventricle was processed for the isolation of SR membranes. Sham-operated animals were used as control. The characteristics of SR Ca2+ pump ATPase in the presence of different concentrations of K+, Ca2+ and ATP were examined and the purity of these membranes was monitored by determining the marker enzyme activities. In addition to measuring changes in cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) protein kinase and Ca(2+)-calmodulin induced phosphorylation, alterations in SR phospholipid composition as well as sulfhydryl (SH) group content were investigated. RESULTS: Ca(2+)-stimulated ATPase activity, unlike Mg(2+)-ATPase activity, was depressed in the left ventricular SR from failing hearts as compared to control. The decrease in Ca(2+)-stimulated ATPase activity was seen at different concentrations of Ca2+, K+ and ATP but no changes in the affinities of the enzyme for Ca2+ and ATP were evident. The SR Ca(2+)-stimulated ATPase activities in the presence of both cAMP-dependent protein kinase and Ca(2+)-calmodulin were markedly decreased in the failing hearts when compared to control preparations. Furthermore, the 32P incorporation in the presence of cAMP-dependent protein kinase or Ca(2+)-calmodulin was also reduced in the experimental heart SR membranes. The phospholipid composition of the SR membranes from the failing heart was markedly altered. No changes in SH-group or the degree of cross contamination with other membranes were apparent in the failing heart SR. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that abnormalities in membrane phospholipid composition and phosphorylation of the enzyme may partly explain the observed depression in SR Ca2+ pump ATPase activity in heart failure following myocardial infarction.     

Long-term progression in chronic manganism: ten years of follow-up

We studied the long-term clinical course of five patients with chronic manganese intoxication. The mean scores of the King's College Hospital Rating Scale for Parkinson's disease increased from 15.0 +/- 4.2 in 1987 to 28.3 +/- 6.70 in 1991 and then to 38.1 +/- 12.9 in 1995. The deterioration was most prominent in gait, rigidity, speed of foot tapping, and writing. Tissue concentrations of manganese in blood, urine, scalp hair, and pubic hair returned to normal. Follow-up MRIs did not show paramagnetic high-signal intensity on T1-weighted images. The data indicate that clinical progression in patients with manganese parkinsonism continues even 10 years after cessation of exposure.     

The role of dietary fiber in the etiology of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The San Luis Valley Diabetes Study

Accuracy of patient positioning and dose delivery in mantle field irradiations was investigated on 29 patients treated between August 1990 and December 1991. Patients were treated in two different centers, University Hospital St. Rafa?l in Leuven and Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, where different techniques and procedures were used. Measurements were performed on 341 portal films and entrance doses were measured in 518 treatment set-ups. The impact of systematic errors occurring during treatment preparation and day-to-day variations on the accuracy of treatment execution were separately analysed. Daily reproducibility, defined as the deviation from the respective mean measured value for a treatment was demonstrated to be good for both the treated volume and the delivered dose and no difference between the two techniques was shown. Comparing the successive portal films of individual patients (reproducibility of a treatment, once it has started), only small day-to-day variations are found: the SD is 3.4 mm for craniocaudal movements and 2.6 mm for lateral movements. For dose delivery very narrow distributions are obtained with SDs of, respectively, 1.5% and 1.85% for the Leuven and the Villejuif group. This suggests that the position of the patient, which is often thought as the critical point in this complex set-up can be done in a very accurate way, regardless of the position used. To assess the global accuracy of the treatment, the actually treated volume and delivered dose were compared with the planned values. Apart from reproducibility this also takes into account the whole preparatory procedure between planning and the start of the therapy (first session).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)