Ethanol consumption by C57BL/6 mice: influence of gender and procedural variables.

Both sexes of C57BL/6 (C57) mice consumed substantial quantities of ethanol without food or water deprivation whether access was continuous or limited. Food deprivation increased the amount of ethanol consumed, and the amount consumed depended upon when the animals were tested with reference to their daily food allotment. Ethanol consumption was greater if the mice were tested postprandially, high thirst motivation, rather than preprandially (approximately 10 vs. approximately 4.5 g/kg/30 min). Preference for ethanol over water, however, was greater when mice were under low thirst motivation (i.e., tested preprandially or with water available during the test). Compared to males, female mice consumed more of a high-ethanol concentration solution (10%) when access was continuous or limited to the first hour of the dark (active) phase of the circadian cycle. Also, in contrast to males, female mice exhibited increased ethanol consumption across days of drinking experience. Finally, although ethanol consumption under the food deprivation conditions of this experiment did not differ according to sex, females had higher blood ethanol concentrations than male C57 mice, a finding not previously reported for rodents but common to humans.     

The asthma accession standard: a survival analysis of military recruits, 1995 to 1997

Asthma has a significant impact on U.S. military expenditures and readiness. Every year approximately 1,000 recruits are discharged for asthma during their first 6 months of service. This study was done to evaluate the practice of allowing some individuals with a history of asthma to enter military service (waiving). A survival analysis was performed to compare length of time until discharge and asthma-related failure for individuals waived for asthma (cases) and individuals not disqualified for asthma (controls). Cases were 587 recruit applicants initially disqualified who received waivers for asthma and accessed in the years 1995 to 1997. Controls were 1,761 matched enlisted recruits starting basic training in those years. No significant differences were found with respect to general attrition. The statistical differences for asthma-related hospitalization or discharge did not translate into practical differences. Waiving for asthma was not a significant occupational liability in terms of asthma-related hospitalization or early military attrition.     

Blood-brain barrier and blood volume imaging of cerebral glioma using functional CT: A pictorial review

Five cases of cerebral glioma are presented here that illustrate the benefit of functional CT imaging of blood-brain barrier permeability and cerebral blood volume. Functional CT uses Patlak analysis of a single location dynamic sequence to extract physiological information that is useful clinically in the assessment of cerebral gliomas. Functional CT offers distinct advantages over other functional modalities including clearer delineation of tumour, tumour grading, measurement of tumour activity and monitoring response to therapy.     

Fuel selection in human skeletal muscle in insulin resistance: a reexamination

For many years, the Randle glucose fatty acid cycle has been invoked to explain insulin resistance in skeletal muscle of patients with type 2 diabetes or obesity. Increased fat oxidation was hypothesized to reduce glucose metabolism. The results of a number of investigations have shown that artificially increasing fat oxidation by provision of excess lipid does decrease glucose oxidation in the whole body. However, results obtained with rodent or human systems that more directly examined muscle fuel selection have found that skeletal muscle in insulin resistance is accompanied by increased, rather than decreased, muscle glucose oxidation under basal conditions and decreased glucose oxidation under insulin-stimulated circumstances, producing a state of "metabolic inflexibility." Such a situation could contribute to the accumulation of triglyceride within the myocyte, as has been observed in insulin resistance. Recent knowledge of insulin receptor signaling indicates that the accumulation of lipid products in muscle can interfere with insulin signaling and produce insulin resistance. Therefore, although the Randle cycle is a valid physiological principle, it may not explain insulin resistance in skeletal muscle.     

Possible relationship between degenerative cardiac valvular pathology and lyme disease

We report an unusual clinical presentation of Lyme carditis in a previously healthy 20-year-old black woman without any epidemiologic history of Lyme disease, fulminant in nature, involving a heart valve necessitating emergent mitral valve replacement, and requiring further surgical intervention because of the development of pericardial effusion and tamponade. A dilated right ventricle with normal contractility and severe tricuspid regurgitation with increase in the right atrial size diagnosed later remains under close surveillance.     

Electrocardiographic ST-segment changes during acute, severe isovolemic hemodilution in humans

BACKGROUND: Controversy exists regarding the lowest blood hemoglobin concentration that can be safely tolerated. The authors studied healthy resting humans to test the hypothesis that acute isovolemic reduction of blood hemoglobin concentration to 5 g/dl would produce an imbalance in myocardial oxygen supply and demand, resulting in myocardial ischemia. METHODS: Fifty-five conscious healthy human volunteers were studied. Isovolemic removal of aliquots of blood reduced blood hemoglobin concentration from 12.8 +/- 1.2 to 5.2 +/- 0.5 g/dl (mean +/- SD). Removed blood was replaced simultaneously with intravenous fluids to maintain constant isovolemia. Hemodynamics and arterial oxygen content (Cao2) were measured before and after removal of each aliquot of blood. Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes were monitored continuously using a Holter ECG recorder for detection of myocardial ischemia. RESULTS: During hemodilution, transient, reversible ST-segment depression developed in three subjects as seen on the electrocardiogram during hemodilution. These changes occurred at hemoglobin concentrations of 5-7 g/dl while the subjects were asymptomatic. Two of three subjects with ECG changes had significantly higher heart rates than those without ECG changes at the same hemoglobin concentrations. When evaluating the entire study period, the subjects who had ECG ST-segment changes had significantly higher maximum heart rates than those without ECG changes, despite having similar baseline values. CONCLUSION: With acute reduction of hemoglobin concentration to 5 g/dl, ECG ST-segment changes developed in 3 of 55 healthy conscious adults and were suggestive of, but not conclusive for, myocardial ischemia. The higher heart rates that developed during hemodilution may have contributed to the development of an imbalance between myocardial supply and demand resulting in ECG evidence of myocardial ischemia. However, these ECG changes appear to be benign because they were reversible and not accompanied by symptoms.     

HYDROGEN ION CONCENTRATION IN EXUDATES OF PNEUMOCOCCUS INFECTION

The hydrogen ion concentration in the lesions of experimental pneumococcus infection has been estimated directly by pH determinations on exudates from living animals. For indirect evidence of an increase in hydrogen ion concentration within the lesions, the difference in sugar content between exudate and blood from animals with pneumococcus infection has been measured. With sanguinous exudate from the consolidated lungs of dogs with experimental pneumococcus pneumonia, the findings were not always consistent, but usually there was either direct or indirect evidence of increased hydrogen ion concentration. The physicochemical changes in exudate from animals treated with artificial pneumothorax showed no important differences from those in other specimens. In concurrence with Lord''s (1, 2) observation of increased acidity in pneumonia exudate obtained at autopsy, sugar concentrations, which are low in the blood, were markedly reduced in exudates from animals which had died of the infection. Serous exudates from dermal pneumococcus infection in rabbits uniformly showed definite acidity by both direct and indirect methods of estimation. The hydrogen ion concentrations in exudate from dermal pneumococcus infection in rabbits varied between pH 6.87 and 6.66 but were not always proportional to the difference in sugar concentrations between the exudate and blood. While these hydrogen ion concentrations are similar to those attained in the pneumonic exudate from dogs, they are of lesser magnitude than those which Takahashi (3) has described in the pus of secondary empyema due to the pneumococcus.