Segmental hyperintensity on T1-weighted MRI of the liver: Indication of segmental cholestasis

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between segmental hyperintensity of the liver on T1-weighted images and segmental cholestasis in patients with obstructive jaundice. T1-weighted and T2-weighted MR images were obtained of 73 patients with obstructive jaundice caused by various diseases. Fat-suppressed T1-weighted images were also obtained of 10 patients. Eleven patients with segmental intra-hepatic bile duct dilatation (cholestasis) showed segmental hyperintensity on T1-weighted images and/or fat-suppressed T1-weighted images and no signal intensity difference on T2-weighted images. Sixty-two patients with widespread intrahepatic bile duct dilatation showed no intensity difference on T1-weighted and T2-weighted images (P < .01). Segmental hyperintensity on T1-weighted images was correlated with intrahepatic cholestasis.     

Day-Night Variation of Urine Volume in Parkinson's Disease

Abstract: Studies on the circadian rhythm of urine excretion in healthy men have demonstrated that the maximal urine flow occurs in the early afternoon and the minimal around midnight. In this study, an abnormality in the variation of urine volume was found in parkinsonian patients. Urine samples were collected during daytime (9:00–21:00) and nighttime (21:00–9:00). Fifteen healthy control subjects were examined and found to excrete 60% during the daytime and 40% during the nighttime of the total urine volume. Sixteen parkinsonian patients excreted 43% during the daytime and 57% during the nighttime. In contrast to the control subjects, the parkinsonian patients excreted a smaller volume of their urine during the daytime than during the nighttime. This finding might be related to the degeneration of dopaminergic and/or nondopaminergic neurons in the brain which control urinary excretion.     

乌贼墨诱生小鼠细胞毒因子活性的检测

用乌贼墨处理小鼠后，采集血清。经体外细胞毒实验证明：乌贼墨诱生的血清对人和鼠的肿瘤细胞株均有不同程度的杀伤作用。这一结果提示：乌贼墨可能具有诱生内源性细胞毒因子产生的活性。     

The pharmacokinetics of lignocaine in humans during a computer-controlled infusion.

Several types of chronic pain syndromes are effectively treated with sodium channel blockers such as lignocaine. Further investigation of this therapeutic modality would be facilitated by refinement of the parameters describing lignocaine distribution and elimination. This would allow precise lignocaine infusion by a computer-controlled infusion to attain and maintain stable target lignocaine concentrations. Arterial blood samples were obtained at frequent intervals during a computer-controlled infusion of lignocaine in 12 adult human volunteers. Plasma lignocaine concentrations of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 microg/ml were targeted for 15 min at each concentration. A three-compartment mammillary pharmacokinetic model best described the resulting concentration vs time profile. A population pharmacokinetic analysis was performed using three different techniques; the two-stage, pooled and mixed effects modelling. There was marked overshoot of the plasma concentration above the target prior to refinement of the pharmacokinetic parameters. The best parameters of a three-compartment mammillary model fit to the measured concentration using the pooled data approach were: V(1) = 7.44, V(2) =11.5 and V(3) = 97.71; Cl(1) = 0.585, Cl(2) = 2.23 and Cl(3) =1.64 l/min. Similarly calculated parameters using NONMEM were V(1) = 6.99, V(2) =12.2 and V(3) =1341; Cl(1) = 0.703, Cl(2) =1.24 and Cl(3) =1.49 l/min. The addition of age as a covariate of the pharmacokinetic parameters improved the model in both cases. Height, lean body mass and body surface area as covariates of the pharmacokinetic parameters did not improve the predicted value of the model. Prospective testing of the pharmacokinetic parameters will be required to define whether they function well. The refinement of pharmacokinetic parameters for the computer-controlled intravenous infusion of lignocaine will facilitate further research in pain therapy. Published lignocaine pharmacokinetic values have a relatively large central volume of distribution, and hence, when implemented as a computer-controlled infusion, result in dramatic overshoot shortly after targeting a higher plasma concentration. In light of the long-lasting pain relief provided by sodium channel blockade in neuropathic pain states, overshoot of plasma concentrations must be avoided if the concentration vs effect relationship is to be defined.     

Pulmonary embolism.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is an important health problem and often a major clinical challenge, not only because of the low specificity of its clinical manifestations but also because of the increasing number of medical circumstances that are risk factors for this illness and the importance of early identification, since prompt and appropriate treatment can decrease mortality from this disease by about 25%. In recent years research on PE has been extensive, directed mainly at trying to determine and characterize its risk factors, establish new clinical probability algorithms, develop new diagnostic methods and put existing ones into perspective, seek new therapeutic approaches (pharmacological and non-pharmacological), and above all establish protocols that can guide the clinician from the stage of clinical suspicion to measures to prevent recurrence. It was the authors' aim to review the most significant literature on this subject, in order to produce a text that reflects the state of the art concerning PE and that can be used as a guide in the clinical approach to this pathology.     

Some sufficient conditions for global exponential stability of delayed Hopfield neural networks.

In this paper, we have derived some sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of equilibrium and global exponential stability in delayed Hopfield neural networks by using a different approach from the usually used one where the existence, uniqueness of equilibrium and stability are proved in two separate steps, rather we first prove global exponential convergence to 0 of the difference between any two solutions of the original neural networks, the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium is the direct results of this procedure. We obtain the conditions by suitable construction of Lyapunov functionals and estimation of derivates of the Lyapunov functionals by the well-known Young's inequality and Holder's inequality. The proposed conditions are related to p-norms of vector or matrix, p in [1, infinity] and thus unify and generalize some results in the literature.     

Innervation of the trapezius muscle: is cervical contribution important to its function?

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of the cervical plexus and the accessory nerve to the function of the trapezius muscle. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Eighteen adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups. The neurotomies were performed in the left sides and the right sides served as within-subject controls. In group A, the accessory nerve was transected. The C2-5 were transected in group B, and both of the accessory nerve and C2-5 were cut in group C. The electrophysiologic, myophysiologic, and histologic changes of the muscles were measured. RESULTS: There were significant differences (P < 0.05) between the three groups in the recovery rates of the transverse area of the muscles. The CMAP recorded from the experimental sides in group B were similar to the control sides. The values of the maximum tension of the tetanus contraction between the two sides showed no differences either (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The accessory nerve supplies the most important motor input to the trapezius. Motor innervations of the cervical plexus are not very significant.