The Treatment of Philadelphia Inebriates

Preventive education in the United States about the dangers of alcohol had failed to create a temperate society by 1840. But in that year, interest in medical treatment of the “habitual drunkard” rekindled in Philadelphia. It was the year an organization of reformed drunkards revitalized American temperance societies by emphasizing practical concern for the inebriate. The author describes Philadelphia's treatment of alcoholics from 1840 through the beginning of the 20th century, when entrepreneurs were marketing secret cures.     

Serum markers of bone formation in parenteral nutrition patients

Summary Bone gamma-carboxyglutamic acid containing protein (BGP) has been utilized effectively as a serum marker of bone turnover in healthy normals and in individuals with a variety of metabolic bone disorders including postmenopausal osteoporosis and Paget's disease. The utility of this serum marker in other bone disorders, including that associated with the maintenance of patients on long-term parenteral nutrition, still requires definition. Because of our interest in this clinical syndrome and the availability of serum and of bone formation rates (BFR) measured directly from double tetracycline labeling in 11 long-term parenteral nutrition patients, we measured BGP levels in these patients and attempted to correlate this measure with BFR. Serum vitamin D metabolites, immunoreactive parathyroid hormone (PTH), and alkaline phosphatase (alk phos) were also measured. Serum BGP was only weakly and not significantly correlated (r=0.24, p=NS) with bone formation rate for the group as a whole. However, in a subgroup of 10 patients without hyperparathyroidism, there was strong and significant correlation (r=0.81,P<0.01) between BGP and BFR. There was also a strong correlation between bone formation rate and serum 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D] levels (r=0.89,P<0.01, n=11). The mechanism of this association could not be established. A correlation of borderline significance was observed between bone formation rate and serum alk phos (r=0.60,P=0.05, n=11). The current data suggest that additional studies may help to more fully define the utility of serum measurements in quantifying bone dynamics in parenteral nutrition patients, and that measures of vitamin D metabolites, BGP, and alk phos may prove useful.     

The Characterization of Oxotremorine-Induced Hypothermic Response in the Rat

Abstract: Oxotremorine is a muscarinic receptor agonist that induces a variety of physiological and behavioural effects including hypothermia in mice. These effects are antagonized dose-dependently by classical anticholinergic compounds such as atropine. Although the oxotremorine-induced hypothermic response has been demonstrated in mice, few studies of the effects of this muscarinic agonist have been made in the rat. The following studies were made in male Sprague Dawley rats: 1. an investigation of the dose-response relationship between oxotremorine and hypothermia; 2. an examination of the effect of housing on the oxotremorine-induced hypothermic response, and 3. an investigation of the acute administration of various doses of atropine sulphate on the hypothermia caused by oxotremorine. The results indicate that the dose-response relationship between oxotremorine and the antagonism of hypothermia is similar in rat as it is in mice. The results also showed that this effect did not occur in group-housed animals.     

An Accurate Prediction of the pH Change Due to Degradation: Correction for a “Produced” Secondary Buffering System

Esmolol hydrochloride degrades in aqueous solutions by the hydrolysis of a labile aliphatic carboxy-ester group. The products are methanol and ASL-8123. The resulting aliphatic carboxylic acid moiety (ASL-8123) has a pK of 4.80, which is within 1 pH unit of the pH of the formulation. ASL-8123 therefore acts as a secondary buffer and minimizes the change in pH due to degradation. Equations are presented to calculate the change in the pH when the primary degradation product acts as a secondary buffer. This information can be used in the development of a parenteral product to predict, a priori, the concentration of buffer necessary for optimal pH maintenance. This knowledge can reduce the number of formulation screens required to determine the necessary buffer capacity for optimal drug stability.     

Surgery in Jehovah’s Witnesses

This is a retrospective study of the outcome of surgical procedures in patients who were Jehovah's Witnesses. Over a 75-month period, 58 Jehovah's Witness patients had 78 surgical procedures at the Vancouver General Hospital. Three patients had preexisting anaemia of less than 100 g.L-1 haemoglobin. Postoperative haemoglobin concentration decreased below 50 g.L-1 in three patients. One patient had a postoperative haemoglobin of 34 g.L-1 (haematocrit 10.1 per cent) and survived. One patient died from uncontrollable postoperative haemorrhage. Perioperative morbidity was not uncommon, including significant hypotension (eight cases), cardiac arrhythmias (six), myocardial ischaemia (three), excessive bleeding (four), postoperative nausea or syncope (four), and wound or urinary tract infection (four).     

Relationship between numbers of beta adrenergic receptors in lymphocytes and disease severity in asthma

In order to assess the status of beta adrenergic receptors in bronchial asthma, binding studies using (−) [³H] dihydroalprenolol (DHA) were performed on lymphocytes of 10 control subjects and 11 stable asthmatic patients. Specific DHA binding was generally lower at all DHA concentrations in asthmatics. At 12 nM DHA concentration, specific DHA binding was 391 ± 40 fM/mg protein in controls and 263 ± 35 fM/mg protein for asthmatic subjects (p < 0.05). A highly statistically significant positive correlation between specific DHA binding (at 12 nM DHA) and FEV₁/FVC% was observed (r = 0.93, p < 0.01), with those asthmatic subjects with the more severe airway obstruction and disease severity showing lower DHA binding. The results of the study suggest that a lymphocyte beta adrenergic receptor defect may be present among some patients with asthma. The magnitude of the receptor abnormality appears to be related to disease severity and degree of airway obstruction as measured by FEV₁/FVC%. Documentation of drug consumption was made, and restriction of beta adrenergic agonists was attempted; theophylline and corticosteroids were the predominant drugs used in the study. Even with these precautions, it is possible that the differences in DHA binding observed among subjects are the results of greater drug (e.g., theophylline and corticosteroids) consumption by the clinically more severe patients. On the other hand, the lymphocyte receptor alteration noted may reflect a more general beta adrenergic receptor abnormality in bronchial asthma.     

Quantitative Characterization of Epicardial Wave Fronts During Regional Ischemia and Elevated Extracellular Potassium Ion Concentration

This study applied zero-delay wave number spectral estimation as a means of quantifying the changes in activation and recovery sequences of propagating plane waves on the epicardial surface of in situ porcine hearts during regional hyperkalemia and ischemia. Unipolar electrograms (104) were recorded from the left ventricular surface of nine hearts using a plaque electrode array with 1 mm spatial sampling intervals. The objectives were (1) to define a set of parameters capable of quantifying the spatial and temporal changes in measured extracellular potentials associated with localized ischemia prior to the onset of conduction block; (2) to elevate regional levels of extracellular potassium ion concentration and quantify potential changes due to this known physiologic manipulation; and (3) to use quantitative parameters to make statistical comparisons in order to distinguish wave fronts during normal, ischemic and hyperkalemic conditions. Results showed that the parameters of wave number and average temporal frequency and the associated power, as determined from the wave number spectrum, provided statistically significant (p < 0.05) quantification of changes in wave front features during normal and ischemic or hyperkalemic conditions. The results were consistent with results obtained from conventional time–space domain methods like isochronal mapping and electrograms, with the advantage of a quantitative result enabling simple comparisons and trend analysis for large numbers of heart beats. © 1998 Biomedical Engineering Society. PAC98: 8759Wc, 8722Fy, 8780+s     

Electroreceptor neuron dynamics shape information transmission

The gymnotiform weakly electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus can capture prey using electrosensory cues that are dominated by low temporal frequencies. However, conventional tuning curves predict poor electroreceptor afferent responses to low-frequency stimuli. We compared conventional tuning curves with information tuning curves and found that the latter predicted substantially improved responses to these behaviorally relevant stimuli. Analysis of receptor afferent baseline activity showed that negative correlations reduced low-frequency noise levels, thereby increasing information transmission. Multiunit recordings from receptor afferents showed that this increased information transmission could persist at the population level. Finally, we verified that this increased low-frequency information is preserved in the spike trains of central neurons that receive receptor afferent input. Our results demonstrate that conventional tuning curves can be misleading when certain noise reduction strategies are used by the nervous system.