In vivo studies on evaluation of potential toxicity of unspent tannins using albino rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The present study emphasizes the effect of unspent tannins on liver, kidney and heart of albino rats. Oral administration of unspent tannins at three different concentrations was made for a period of seven days. Carbon tetrachloride served as positive control. Tissues were removed carefully followed by sacrifice and were subjected to sectioning and H&E staining. Histopathological examination of the sections showed, major tissue damage with the highest concentration of tannins (1500 mg/kg body weight) irrespective of their nature and source, followed by moderate damage with the 1000 mg/kg bw and zero damage with 500 mg/kg bw. However, complete damage was observed with the tissues of positive control group. Lipid peroxidase assay using post-mitochondrial supernatant of liver, kidney and heart showed appreciable levels of malondialdehyde release at higher concentrations of tannins.     

Cryopreservation of cardiac homografts

A homograft valve bank for cryopreservation of cardiac homografts was established at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in July 1995. From July 1995 to February 1999, 169 donor hearts were processed. All except four hearts were procured post mortem. Aortic valves (149) and pulmonary valves (139) were the common homografts dissected out for use. The valves were immersed in a cocktail of five broad spectrum antibiotics and antifungals for an average of 48 to 72 hours before cryopreservation. Fifty-three (35.57%) aortic and 42 (30.21%) pulmonary valves had to be discarded for various reasons like fungal contamination, failure to sterilise, HBsAg positivity etc.; 153 homografts have been released for use so far. Analysing the usual methods of procurement, sterilisation protocol, culture and cryopreservation used for cardiac homografts at this centre, this paper recommends observance of timeliness, use of appropriate media for preservation of heart parts, administration of specific drugs and safeguards necessary for cryopreservation procedure.     

Current Patterns of Prehospital Trauma Care in Kampala,Uganda and the Feasibility of a Lay-First-Responder Training Program

Background  

Uganda currently has no organized prehospital emergency system. We sought to measure the current burden of injury seen by lay people in Kampala, Uganda and to determine the feasibility of a lay first-responder training program.     

Local RF capacitive hyperthermia: thermal profiles and tumour response

At the Cancer Institute we are using RF capacitive hyperthermia as an adjuvant to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in the local control of soft tissue sarcomas. We have studied the influence of bolus conductivity, electrode and phantom sizes on the rate of heating of agar phantoms. We have varied the bolus conductivity by varying the saline concentration in the bolus bags from zero to 2.0 per cent, during heating. We found that the rate of heating of phantoms increases and that of the bolus decreases with the increase in the saline concentration of bolus up to 1 per cent, irrespective of phantom and electrode sizes. However, for a given size of electrodes the rate of heating decreased with the increase in the phantom size. When the diameter and height of the phantom were equal to the diameters of electrodes the rate of heating of the phantom was nearly uniform. However, when the diameter of the phantom was larger than that of electrodes the rate of heating in the radial axis decreased with the increase in the radial distance. On the basis of this data we suggest the use of electrodes larger in size by 1.0-3.0 cm than the size of the tumour, where the size of the anatomical site to be heated is larger than the electrode size to be used. Phantom and clinical data have indicated that the presence of bone in the field of heating can lead to hot spots. Preliminary clinical results have shown that the response of sarcomas to thermo-chemo-radiotherapy was superior to that of either thermo-radiotherapy or radiotherapy alone.     

Cystic fibrosis epithelial cells are primed for apoptosis as a result of increased Fas (CD95)

Background

Previous work suggests that apoptosis is dysfunctional in cystic fibrosis (CF) airways with conflicting results. We evaluated the relationship between dysfunctional cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and apoptosis in CF airway epithelial cells.