Evidence for a possible interaction between noradrenergic and serotonergic neurotransmission in the retrieval of a previously learned aversive habit in mice

The present series of experiments examined the effects of pretreating pirenperone-injected mice with a variety of non-serotonergic receptor antagonists on retrieval of a one-trial inhibitory (passive) avoidance task. Waterdeprived mice were trained to avoid drinking from a water spout located in the avoidance chamber by pairing footshock with licks from the water spout. Retention was measured as the suppression of drinking (latency to drink) 48 h later. Pre-test administration of pirenperone (1.0 mg/kg) significantly enhanced retrieval (increased latencies). The suppression of drinking could not be attributed to the nonspecific effects of pirenperone on behavior in general, as the performance of non-contigently shocked mice injected with the same dose of pirenperone did not exhibit a similar elevation in latencies. Of the seven pretreatment drugs examined, only phenoxybenzamine (1.0 mg/kg) completely blocked the pirenperone-induced response. Bicuculline (1.0 mg/kg) partially attenuated the enhanced performance resulting from pre-test pirenperone administration. The results suggest that the pirenperone-induced response may be partly due to activation of noradrenergic (alpha) neurotransmission.     

香港高危青少年对滥用咳药水的信念

目的:探讨香港青少年对滥用咳药水的信念。方法:应用《滥用咳药水信念量表》(Beliefs about Cough Medicine Abuse Scale-BACMAS),了解160名滥用咳药水及65名非滥用咳药水的香港青少年,对滥用咳药水的信念。结果:研究显示,此量表有高的内在一致性信度及效度(包括同证效度及构念效度)。一般而言,参加者认为滥用咳药水并不会带来很多好处,而他们亦了解滥用咳药水的危害。不过,仍然有为数不少的参加者认为,长期滥用咳药水并不会上瘾,而他们亦认为跟滥用咳药水的朋友交往并不危险。结论:此量表具有可接受的心理测量特性。青少年对滥用咳药水的自相矛盾信念,对预防滥用咳药水的工作有重要的启示。     

老年人生活质量研究进展

介绍了老年人生活质量概念及老年人生活质量常用评估工具,阐述了影响老年人生活质量的因素主要有躯体健康因素、经济因素、社会活动、精神心理因素等。     

电子医药期刊全文检索策略的探讨

医药期刊全文是医学和药学科研与实践过程中重要的参考文献,本文对目前国内外主要电子医药期刊全文的数据源以及检索途径和方法进行了分析和探讨,以期为医药从业者获取相关文献信息提供参考。     

Articular cartilage repair:Assessment and classification

To date, there has been no effort to organize assessment tools to interpret articular cartilage pathology as a continuumfrom normal to chondropenia to radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) and finally to frank OA. Today, secondary outcome variables can be measured with the Western Ontario McMaster Universities index, or its modification—Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score modification, the Lequesne index, the Cincinnati scale, the medical outcomes short form 36, and global assessments by visual analog scales. The emergence of magnetic resonance imaging or arthroscopy as outcome measures could significantly decrease the time for assessment and increase sensitivity to subtle cartilage changes over time. The clinician must use multimedia techniques to incorporate all comprehensive aspects of articular cartilage that may impact the intervention and quality of life.     

脑血管扩张剂—尼莫地平、硝苯吡啶和长春胺对大鼠及小鼠记忆障碍的改善作用

采用多次性训练的主动和被动迴避反应和水迷宫法,观察了尼莫地平、硝苯吡啶和长春胺对樟柳碱和戊巴比妥钠引起的大鼠和小鼠记忆障碍的改善作用。三种药物皆有不同程度的改善作用,其中尼莫地平的作用强度比硝苯吡啶和长春胺各大200和2,000倍。尼莫地平还可拮抗环己酰亚胺引起的记忆巩固不良,而其它两种药物则无此作用。长春胺对40%乙醇引起的小鼠记忆再现缺失有明显改善作用,其它两药则否。     

Proximal urea cycle defects are challenging to detect with newborn screening: Results of a prospective pilot study using post-analytical tools

The purpose of this pilot project was to evaluate the efficacy of the Collaborative Integrated Laboratory Reports (CLIR) postanalytical tools from Mayo Clinic for detection of newborns with proximal urea cycle disorders (PUCD) in the Georgia newborn screening program that uses the underivatized Neobase2 kit (Perkin Elmer). We evaluated 138,560 newborn screening (NBS) samples (between 125,000 and 130,000 children) and used the CLIR result interpretation guidelines to stratify results. Children at higher risk of having a PUCD received follow-up services including confirmatory lab testing (ammonia, plasma amino acids, urine orotic acid) or a repeat NBS sample. We made multiple adjustments to our CLIR PUCD tool and to our follow-up algorithms in order to reduce false positives. Regardless, a high number of NBS samples resulted with false positives in part due to the glutamine peak also containing lysine. No children were diagnosed with a PUCD during our study period, and the Emory Genetics Metabolic Center is unaware of any children diagnosed outside of the NBS system during that time. Based on our experience, PUCD is not suitable for statewide NBS using Neobase2 and CLIR. Other methodologies that can separate glutamine from other amino acids may have better performance.     

Evaluation of Different Screening Tools for Predicting Femoral Neck Osteoporosis in Rural South Indian Postmenopausal Women

The measurement of bone mineral density by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan is the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of osteoporosis, which has limited availability in many parts of India. This study was done to assess the diagnostic performance of 6 internationally validated tools (Simple Calculated Osteoporosis Risk Estimation [SCORE], age, bulk, one or never estrogen [ABONE], Osteoporosis Risk Assessment Instrument [ORAI] and Osteoporosis Self-Assessment Tool for Asians [OSTA], Fracture Risk Assessment Tool [FRAX®], and calcaneal quantitative ultrasound [QUS]) for the diagnosis of osteoporosis at the femoral neck (FN). This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2108 ambulatory South Indian rural postmenopausal women who were assessed with SCORE, ABONE, ORAI, OSTA, and FRAX® tools. QUS was performed in 850 subjects. Bone mineral density was estimated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan at the FN, and sensitivity and specificity were calculated for all tools for predicting FN osteoporosis. The receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed for each tool and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. FN osteoporosis was seen in 27%. The sensitivities of SCORE, ABONE, OSTA, ORAI, FRAX®, and QUS were 91.3%, 91.0%, 88.5%, 81.0%, 72.7%, and 81.9%, and the specificities were 36.0%, 33.5%, 41.7%, 52.0%, 60.5%, and 50.3%, respectively, for the FN osteoporosis. When the receiver operating characteristics were constructed, the AUC was good only for SCORE (0.806), and the performance of the rest was under fair category (0.713–0.766). In our large cohort of rural postmenopausal women, the SCORE screening tool was found to be useful with good sensitivity and good AUC for predicting FN osteoporosis. Thus, this tool may be used in resource-limited countries to screen the population at risk and to enable treating physicians to make appropriate management decisions.     

EAACI Position paper on the standardization of nasal allergen challenges

Nasal allergen challenge (NAC) is an important tool to diagnose allergic rhinitis. In daily clinical routine, experimentally, or when measuring therapeutic success clinically, nasal allergen challenge is fundamental. It is further one of the key diagnostic tools when initiating specific allergen immunotherapy. So far, national recommendations offered guidance on its execution; however, international divergence left many questions unanswered. These differences in the literature caused EAACI to initiate a task force to answer unmet needs and find a consensus in executing nasal allergen challenge. On the basis of a systematic review containing nasal allergen challenges of the past years, task force members reviewed evidence, discussed open issues, and studied variations of several subjective and objective assessment parameters to propose a standardized way of a nasal allergen challenge procedure in clinical practice. Besides an update on indications, contraindications, and preparations for the test procedure, main recommendations are a bilaterally challenge with standardized allergens, with a spray device offering 0.1 mL per nostril. A systematic catalogue for positivity criteria is given for the variety of established subjective and objective assessment methods as well as a schedule for the challenge procedure. The task force recommends a unified protocol for NAC for daily clinical practice, aiming at eliminating the previous difficulty of comparing NAC results due to unmet needs.