Persuading general practitioners to prescribe–good husbandry or a recipe for chaos?

Edinburgh's Community Drug Problem Service was set up three years ago in response to the high prevalence of HIV infection amongst local injecting drug users and the lack of existing statutory drug services in Lothian. From the outset, a policy of shared care and substitute prescribing by the druguser's general practitioner (GP) was adopted. Over 800 referrals later, this discussion paper looks at the methods used to persuade GPs to cooperate in longterm drug management, and examines the advantages, disadvantages and outcome of such a shared care approach.     

Chloroform Inhibition of 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine-Induced Gastrointestinal Tract Tumors in the Fisher 344 Rat

The effect of chloroform (CHCl₃), administered at 0, 900, and1800 mg/liter in the drinking water, on the carcinogenic potencyof 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) was investigated. Groups of 40male Fisher 344 rats were given one of the three drinking watersolutions for 39 weeks following the subcutaneous injectionof 200 mg/kg DMH, a known gastrointestinal (GI) tract carcinogenin this animal strain. When tumors from the GI tract were pooledthere was a highly significant (p < 0.001) decrease in totalnumber of tumors per group with increasing concentration ofdrinking water CHG3. In the control group (0 mg/liter CHCl₃),14/39 (36%) of the animals developed tumors of the GI tract,including the duodenum, jejunum, stomach, cecum, and colon.In contrast, the incidence of tumors in the two groups of ratsgiven CHCl₃ in the drinking water was significantly lower (p< 0.001; 900 mg/liter CHCl₃, 12.8%; 1800 mg/liter CHCl₃,12.5%). A similar relationship was obtained when colon tumorswere analyzed independently (p = 0.01). The incidence of totalcolon tumors obtained in the control group of this study (10/39,26%) agrees well with the previous study by B. S. Reddy, K.Watanabe, and J. H. Weisburger (1977, Cancer Res. 37, 4156–4159)conducted in the same rat strain (7/30, 23%). These resultsdemonstrate that CHCl₃ in the drinking water inhibits carcinogenesisin the rat GI tract.     

A Simple Freezing and Storage Method to Preserve the Stimulating Function of Leukocytes in the Mixed Leukocyte Reaction

Human peripheral blood leukocytes retain their capacity to function as stimulating cells in the one way MLR after freezing and storage at - 70 degrees C by a simple and inexpensive method. This storage method facilitates the use of a standard stimulating pool of cells from three donors which may provide a quantitative assay for testing the ability of cells to respond to allogeneic cells in culture.     

Fetal H-Y Typing Using Human Amniotic Fluid*

ABSTRACT: The H-Y (male) antigen is phylogenetically conserved among vertebrate species, including the species man. Previous studies have indicated the presence of a “soluble” H-Y antigen in male serum and culture fluids of male cells. We examined over 50 samples of amniotic fluid from male and female fetuses to determine if H-Y typing could be correlated with the sex of the fetus. Samples of amniotic fluid were tested to inhibit the reactivity of monoclonal antibodies in a standard H-Y assay with protein A sheep red blood cells. We found that amniotic fluids from male fetuses inhibited 40% of the reactivity and that amniotic fluids from female fetuses inhibited 0.5% of reactivity. We could also correctly identify the sex of 90% of male fetuses and 100% of female fetuses. We have not yet identified the exact nature of the inhibiting antigen(s) in the amniotic fluids, but our results clearly indicate the feasibility of fetal H-Y typing.