Experimentally induced ileal ulcers in rats. A model to study non-specific inflammatory bowel disease

A surgical technique was used to establish chronic intestinal ulcers in Sprague-Dawley rats. A 2-cm-long segment of the distal ileum was excised and left attached on the mesentery. The ileum was reanastomosed. The excluded ileal segment formed a 'cyst' of various sizes. Initially, the anastomoses healed well, but after 6-8 weeks para-anastomotic ulcers developed in more than 50% of the rats. Histopathology showed a chronic inflammatory reaction with a predominance of mononuclear cells and increased numbers of eosinophilic granulocytes. The surface of the ulcers was covered with bacteria. Penetrating ulcers with fistula formation occurred. It is concluded that this experimental model may be useful for time sequential studies of the development of chronic and ulcerative ileitis. It may also be used to study the effect of medical and surgical regimens for the treatment of non-specific chronic inflammatory bowel disease.     

Pyogenic liver abscess: an improvement in prognosis

Forty-six patients with pyogenic liver abscess have been treated at Paul Brousse Hospital between 1966 and 1986. The overall mortality was 24 per cent, all 11 deaths occurring in 24 patients seen prior to 1978 when there was often a considerable delay in the diagnosis of liver abscess (mean 90 +/- 71 days). In seven patients the diagnosis was not made until post-mortem examination. The mainstay of treatment was surgical drainage. Since 1978 high resolution imaging techniques for the liver, and in particular ultrasound, have been available. The diagnostic delay has been significantly reduced (mean 28 +/- 20 days, P less than 0.01). Patients are receiving definitive treatment at an earlier stage in the evolution of the disease process, with fewer established complications prior to treatment (P less than 0.05). Percutaneous drainage under ultrasound control is the preferred initial drainage procedure in high-risk patients. There have been no deaths in 22 patients treated for pyogenic liver abscess since 1978 (P less than 0.001).     

Chromogenic ionophore-based methods for spectrophotometric assay of sodium and potassium in serum and plasma

We report spectrophotometric methods for quantifying sodium and potassium in serum and plasma without sample pretreatment or solvent-extraction steps. The methods are based on novel chromogenic ionophores characterized by molecular structures highly preorganized for binding, which result in exceptionally high sensitivity and selectivity (negligible responses to sodium at 80 to 200 mmol/L in the potassium assay and to potassium at 0 to 10 mmol/L in the sodium assay). The within-run imprecisions are comparable with those for ion-selective electrodes (for K, 1.0% at 4.5 mmol/L; for Na, 1.1% at 136 mmol/L); the analytical range is 2-10 mmol/L for potassium, 80-170 mmol/L for sodium. The results for greater than 100 patients' samples correlated well with results obtained with ion-selective electrodes (r = 0.99 for K, 0.97 for Na). The ready-to-use aqueous reagents will be available under the trade name of ChromoLyte for use with Technicon's RA family of clinical analyzers.     

High-resolution HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 genotyping in Japanese patients with testicular germ cell carcinoma.

We report for the first time the frequency distributions of HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 genes in 55 patients with testicular germ cell carcinoma (TGC) using the modified PCR-RFLP method and compare the results with those for 1216 healthy Japanese control subjects. The modified PCR-RFLP method produced accurate, reproducible cleavage patterns that are easily discriminated. HLA-DRB1*0410 was the susceptibility allele (RR = 3.26, P = 0.006) and DQB1*0602 appears to be a candidate protective allele (RR = 0.26, P = 0.02) for TGC in the Japanese. None of the HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 alleles showed a specific tendency for histological type or clinical stage of the tumours. Previous studies based on serotyping methods failed to show these allelic associations. High-resolution genotyping is essential because the peptide-binding domain of MHC class II molecules is determined more precisely by their genotypes than by their serotypes. In addition, inherent technical difficulties and typing errors of up to 25% make serotyping inefficient. Our results suggest that high-resolution genotyping is a useful genetic marker to determine risk for TGC.     

Effects of erythromycin on the propulsive motility of upper gastrointestinal tract in rats

The differences between the postprandial mixing or propulsion and the interdigestive motility of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are already known. Earlier studies showed dose-dependent differences in the effects of erythromycin on interdigestive motility. The various GI side-effects (vomiting, diarrhoea) also suggest that there are different effects of erythromycin on the GI motility. The aim of our study was to examine postprandially the propulsive effects of different doses of erythromycin on the movement of intraluminal contents in the upper GI tract of the rat. The animals were fasted for 24 h before the experiments but water was given freely. The rats received 1.5 ml 1.5% methylcellulose painted with 0.05% phenol-red intragastrically (test solution). Erythromycin(E. lactobionate) was given intravenously at doses of 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 5.0 mg/kg 15 min before the administration of a test solution. The animals were sacrificed 20,60 and 120 min after administration of methylcellulose, when the distance between the front of the painted intraluminal contents and the pylorus was measured and expressed as a percentage of the total length of small intestine. The phenol-red content in the stomach and small intestine was measured spectrophotometrically and the gastric emptying was calculated from the ratio of the measured total and intestinal phenol-red content. Our results showed that the small doses of erythromycin (0.1 and 0.25 mg/kg) accelerated gastric emptying after 20 min but did not change significantly the propulsive motility of upper small intestine; however, large doses of erythromycin (1.0 and 5.0 mg/kg) decreased gastric emptying and upper GI motility after 20 and 60 min. In summary, the prokinetic action of small doses of erythromycin was demonstrated, but its effecttime on GI motility is short and the ratio of the stimulating and inhibitory doses is 1:10. This paper was presented at the Section of IUPHAR GI Pharmacology Symposium on ’Biochemical pharmacology as an approach to gastrointestinal disorders (basic science to clinical perspectives)‘, October 12-14, 1995, Pécs, Hungary.     

Assessment of post-vaccination tuberculin sensitivity in Lagos-Nigeria.

An increase in the number of cases of tuberculosis, especially in children, has been observed recently. Post-vaccination conversion rate in babies immunised with BCG was assessed. Sensitization was detected as early as 4 weeks after BCG inoculation. Although 84.2% had physical evidence of BCG inoculation only 69.8% had developed detectable sensitization to the tubercle bacilli as shown by the Mantoux test.     

A prolonged outbreak of ornithosis in duck processors.

In 1985 an outbreak of ornithosis affected 13 of 80 (16%) workers in a duck-processing plant. New employees were three times more likely to become cases than established employees. The highest attack rate was in those on the production line. Following the outbreak, an occupational health scheme was set up to monitor the health of new recruits to the company. Serological evidence of recent infection was demonstrated in 18 of 37 (49%) new employees tested in the first 3 months of employment. Five (14%) also had clinical evidence of ornithosis. Veterinary investigation of the ducks demonstrated a high proportion with asymptomatic chlamydial infection. It is suggested that ornithosis may be more common in duck processors than is currently supposed. Strategies to reduce occupational risks are discussed.     

Spleen sizing by ultrasound in polycythaemia and thrombocythaemia: comparison with SPECT

Detection of non-palpable early splenic enlargement may aid diagnosis of primary polycythaemia (PP) and primary thrombocythaemia (PT). In this study linear spleen sizing by ultrasound has been compared with spleen volume estimation by single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) in 26 patients. Spleen length by ultrasound correlated well with SPECT volume estimation.
Ultrasound spleen length was also measured in 60 normal control subjects where the upper limit of the 95% reference range was 11.6 cm. Changes in spleen length with both age and body weight were substantial and overshadowed the imperfect reproducibility of this method. Therefore, interpretation of an individual's measured spleen length should be in relation to that predicted for adults of the same age and weight, particularly at the extremes of the younger, heavier patients and also the older, lighter patients.
Ultrasound spleen lengths of different patient groups (21 PP, 26 PT, 17 idiopathic erythrocytosis, 12 secondary polycythaemia, nine apparent polycythaemia) were compared both using the measured overall reference range and the differences from the values predicted for their age and weight. The comparison showed that almost all patients with PP whose spleens were not palpable had spleen lengths greater than the upper limit for the normal control group, but separation from the other patient groups was incomplete.
Detection of non-palpable splenomegaly by ultrasound length should remain a 'minor' criterion amongst the 'proposed modified diagnostic criteria' of PP.