Comparing functional results one year and ten years after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis for chronic ulcerative colitis

Proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the treatment of choice for most patients with chronic ulcerative colitis. Long-term results, however remain undefined; the major concern is that function may deteriorate. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess functional outcome in a subgroup of patients who have an IPAA for chronic ulcerative colitis for > 10 years. METHODS: Among 1400 IPAA patients, 75 consecutive subjects (31 females and 44 males; median age 31 at operation) were identified who had the procedure prior to 1982. All patients had functional results recorded 1 year and 10 years following ileostomy closure. RESULTS: There were four deaths during the follow-up period; none were pouch related. Two patients refused ileostomy closure. Of the remaining 69 patients, there were 8 (11 percent) failures, leaving 61 subjects available for study. Stool frequency (7 +/- 3, mean +/- SD) remained unchanged. Of the 50 subjects with initially excellent daytime continence, 39 (78 percent) remained the same, 10 (20 percent) developed minor incontinence, and 1 developed poor control after 10 years. Four of 10 subjects (40 percent) with initial minor daytime incontinence remained unchanged, 4 (40 percent) improved, and 2 (20 percent) worsened. The one subject with poor control at one year was unchanged. Nocturnal fecal spotting increased over the 10-year period but not significantly (38 percent vs. 52 percent; P = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS: After IPAA, functional results in terms of stool frequency and rate of fecal incontinence did not deteriorate with time.     

Ambient air measurements of aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons at urban,rural and motorway locations

Concern over the carcinogenic properties of certain volatile organics in air, particularly benzene, has recently been expressed. Reductions in the lead content of perol in the United Kingdom and other European countries are predicted to change the concentrations of aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons (1,2-dichloroethane and 1,2-dibromoethane) in ambient air. In order to provide baseline air quality data, prior to progressive reductions in the lead content of petrol, this study reports the results of a monitoring survey of ambient air concentrations of aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbon concentrations at urban, rural and motorway locations. A thermal desorption/gas chromatographic method analysing Tenax GC sampling tubes was utilised. Highest concentrations for benzene (9.7 ppb) and toluene (15.5 ppb) were measured at the urban site. The average benzene concentration is comparable with a proposed ambient air quality standard in the Federal Republic of Germany. Multiple regression analysis of nonmethane hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide air quality data demonstrated the importance of meteorological variables in defining measured concentrations. The toluene/benzene ratio (w/w) provided useful information in determining the degree of vehicle-related air pollution and supported evidence obtained from dynamometer studies of dealkylation of higher aromatics to benzene in engines operating at high speed and load at the motorway site.     

Water-soluble carbohydrates of tropical pasture grasses and legumes

The soluble carbohydrate composition of the leaves and stems of 5 tropical grass species—Cenchrus ciliaris, Chloris gayana, Cynodon dactylon, Digitaria decumbens and Setaria sphacelata—and 5 tropical legume species—Desmodium intortum, Desmodium uncinatum, Glycine javanica, Phaseolus atropurpureus cv. Siratro and Stylosanthes humilis—has been studied at two stages of growth. Reducing sugars, total soluble sugars, fructosan, starch and pectin have been estimated. Chromatographic analysis of 80% ethanol extracts indicated the absence of the oligosaccharides, raffinose and stachyose, from the leaves and stems of the tropical grass species. They were present in the tropical legumes. None of the tropical grass or legume species were found to accumulate appreciable amounts of fructosan. The carbohydrate storage form in the grass species appeared to be sucrose, with starch of less importance. The carbohydrate storage forms in the legume species appeared to be sucrose, starch and pectin. The nature of the principal carbohydrate storage form appeared to be a characteristic of the species.     

Polyglycerol Esters

When glycerol is heated with an alkaline catalyst to over 230 C, water is evolved and polymerization occurs to form a whole family of polyglycerols ranging from diglycerol with 3 hydroxy groups, to triacontaglycerol with 32 hydroxy groups. The carboxylic acid esters of polyglycerols prepared by direct esterification or by interchange, may be solid or liquid; saturated or unsaturated; aliphatic or aromatic; mono, di- or polycarboxylic acid esters; mono-, di-, or polyesters of the polyglycerol; single or mixed acid esters; high or low molecular weight; water or oil soluble; and with an HLB from about 4 to about 13. Polyglycerol esters find utility in a wide variety of food products including beverages, desserts, topping and baked goods. They are thermally stable and find application in several industrial systems.     

The metabolism of IgE. Studies in normal individuals and in a patient with IgE myeloma

IgE metabolic turnover studies with purified radioiodinated IgE were performed in normal individuals and in a patient with IgE myeloma. The validity of the turnover studies was established in several ways, including comparisons of radioiodinated IgE turnover with the turnover of endogenously labeled 14C-IgE and with the turnover of infused unlabeled IgE in a patient with hypogammaglobulinemia. The geometric mean serum IgE concentration in 73 normal adults was 96 ng/ml with a 68% confidence interval of 24 to 386 ng/ml. Metabolic turnover studies in 10 control individuals disclosed a geometric mean total circulating IgE of 4.1 mug/kg, a mean percentage of the total exchangeable IgE in the intravascular space of 41%, a mean half-time of survival of IgE of 2.7 days, a mean fractional catabolic rate of 94% of intravascular pool per day, and a geometric mean synthetic rate of 3.8 mug/kg/day. IgE has the lowest synthetic rate and highest fractional catabolic rate of the five major classes of immunoglobulin molecules. In contrast to these normal values, a patient with IgE myeloma had a serum IgE comcentration of 42 mg/ml, a total circulating IgE of 1.7 g/kg, and a synthetic rate of 270 mg/kg/day. Furthermore, although the synthetic rate was vastly increased, the survival time was prolonged and the fractional catabolic rate was decreased to 5.1 days and 16 to 22% of the intravascular pool per day, respectively. These data are compatible with the concept that IgE is catabolized in part by a mechanism common to all immunoglobulin classes and in part by a unique mechanism not available to other immunoglobulins. At very high IgE serum concentrations, such as those encountered in patients with IgE myeloma, the unique mechanism would be saturated and only the catabolic pathways available to all immunoglobulins would be available to IgE.     

Scanner design

The scanner is a subroutine which is frequently called by an application program like a compiler. The primary function of a scanner is to combine characters from the input stream into recognizable units called tokens. A method has been presented in this paper for designing such a scanner, also frequently referred to as a lexical analyser in the current literature. The major steps involved in this design process are: identification of tokens, construction of a state diagram, building driver tables and finally writing a scanning routine. The rules for generating the driver tables are described and an algorithm for the scanner, utilizing these driver tables, is included. The method has been successfully used to build the system scanner for a user oriented plotting language. It is concluded that the method is well defined, gives rise to a modular design and as such easily lends itself to language extensions.     

Self-efficacy and relapse in smoking cessation: A replication and extension.

In an effort to replicate and extend findings by M. M. Condiotte and E. Lichtenstein (see record 1982-01877-001), the relationship of a measure of self-efficacy—the Confidence Questionnaire—to posttreatment smoking status was assessed. Ss were 74 smokers (mean age 37 yrs). End-of-treatment self-efficacy scores were significantly correlated with follow-up smoking status at 3-mo and 6-mo follow-up, but not at 1 yr. When only Ss who were abstinent at termination were considered, self-efficacy still correlated significantly with 3-mo follow-up but not with 6-mo or 1-yr smoking status. Smoking during treatment was associated with lower end-of-treatment efficacy scores. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)