Barotrauma in guinea pigs--stimulated tests of diving

For a systematic understanding of the effect of diving on hearing ability and middle and inner ear morphology, we have carried out simulated tests on 65 healthy guinea pigs, under water 60 meters deep, and then decompress rapidly. The tests proved that hearing ability changed most significantly 7 days after diving. After diving, all tympanogram curves, except those in 3 ears, changed to type B. Thirty-nine (37.85%) middle ears had been damaged, 4 (3.88%) had inner ears injured, as seen under light microscope. During decompression, three animals had nystagmus. Screen electronmicroscopy showed hair cell destruction and hair derangement. Transmission electronmicroscopy showed mitochondria damage. The results showed that damages in middle and inner ears were mainly mechanical, sometimes metabolic.     

Intrathecal morphine for post-thoracotomy pain

We wished to investigate possible differences in the duration of postoperative analgesia and the incidence of respiratory depression after the intrathecal injection in the lumbar area of 10 micrograms/kg morphine in hypobaric and hyperbaric solution for relief of post-thoracotomy pain. Twenty-nine patients received morphine plus dextrose (hyperbaric) and 21 received morphine in preservative-free normal saline. The duration of analgesia was longer with the morphine in the normal saline group than in the hyperbaric group (P less than 0.04). One patient developed delayed respiratory depression. Our data support the use of morphine in normal saline mixtures for greater duration of analgesia after thoracic operations.     

五倍南星膏外敷治疗颌下淋巴结炎26例

自1998年2月-2004年12月共应用五倍南星膏治疗颌下淋巴结炎病人26例，收到良好的临床效果，现报告如下：     

Kindergarten children's representation and understanding of written number symbols

Two samples of kindergarten children's representation and understanding of written number symbols were examined in two time points in one academic year. About 85% of Chinese five year olds (mean = 5 years 10 months) were able to use conventional number symbols to represent the quantity of 30 or larger. At the end of the kindergarten year, 94% of Chinese six year olds (mean = 6 years 4 months) were able to use conventional number symbols to represent the quantity of 100 or larger. Some Chinese six year olds had problems in representing written addition and subtraction tasks. Children's ability to represent written number symbols, ability to represent written addition and subtraction formula and their performance on written addition and subtraction were closely related. The performance of children in a university-affiliated childcare center was better than that of the center serving working-class families in Time 1, but the performance reversed at the end of the kindergarten year.     

Detection of glaucomatous damage using multifocal ERG

The first‐order kernel analysis in multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) using low contrast stimulation is suggested as a way to detect the inner retinal responses in animal studies. In this case report, this protocol is applied to human patients with glaucoma to demonstrate the possibility of using mfERG as a tool to detect glaucomatous damage. Two patients with glaucoma were recruited and had mfERG measurements with the 103‐scaled hexagonal stimulus pattern at low (50 per cent) contrast. Their responses were analysed and compared with those from normal subjects with the mfERG measured under the same condition. In the normal subjects, there were obvious oscillatory components on the ascending and descending limbs of the first‐order kernel response to 50 per cent contrast. In the glaucomatous patients, the oscillatory component on the descending limb was obviously diminished. In addition, this component was significantly diminished in the quadrant with a glaucomatous visual field defect. This suggests that the low‐contrast stimulation condition in mERG measurement may provide a good way to detect glaucomatous damage and this may help in clinical diagnosis of glaucoma.     

Acute pancreatitis combined with acute Budd-Chiari syndrome as the initial manifestation of small cell lung cancer.

Tumor metastasis to the pancreas is a rare but recognized cause of acute pancreatitis. Autopsy series have reported a 24-40% of pancreatic involvement in small cell lung cancer. However, only a very few cases of tumor-induced acute pancreatitis have been described. Budd-Chiari syndrome complicating lung cancer is a rarely reported condition. We report a 68-year-old woman with extensive small cell lung cancer with the unusual initial presentation of both acute pancreatitis and acute Budd-Chiari syndrome. This patient suffered from progressive epigastralgia for 3 weeks. Severe epigastralgia with radiation to back and progressive jaundice developed 2 days prior to admission. After admission, the liver enlarged rapidly and the ascites increased markedly. Chest roentgenogram showed a mass lesion over the left lower lung field. Poorly differentiated carcinoma cells were found in ascites and bone marrow. The patient died on the ninth day of hospitalization before chemotherapy was initiated. Prompt diagnosis of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer may allow early chemotherapy treatment which favorably influences recovery when the pancreatitis is mild. Although prolonged survival might have been expected had this patient recovered from pancreatitis and received chemotherapy, diagnosis was delayed due to difficulty in immunohistochemical diagnosis of the tumor and the unusual clinical presentation. The use of stains employing antibodies against neurofilament and neuron-specific enolase cell antigens is important for early diagnosis of poorly differentiated metastatic tumor cells.