Effects of pharmacologically manipulated amplitude and starting point on edinger-westphal-stimulated accommodative dynamics in rhesus monkeys

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine whether pharmacologically manipulated resting refraction, amplitude, and starting point affect accommodative and disaccommodative dynamics in anesthetized adolescent rhesus monkeys. METHODS: Pilocarpine and atropine were applied topically to manipulate resting refraction, accommodative amplitude, starting point, and end point in two monkeys with permanent electrodes in the Edinger-Westphal nucleus. Accommodation was centrally stimulated with submaximal and maximal current amplitudes. Dynamic accommodative responses were measured with infrared photorefraction before and during the course of action of the drugs. Accommodative and disaccommodative dynamics were analyzed in terms of peak velocity as a function of amplitude, starting point, and end point. RESULTS: Pilocarpine caused a myopic shift in resting refraction of 11.62 +/- 1.17 D. Centrally stimulated accommodative amplitude was 10.08 +/- 1.15 D before pilocarpine and 0.68 +/- 0.29 D after pilocarpine. Changes were found in accommodative dynamics as a function of starting point and in disaccommodative dynamics as a function of amplitude and end point. Accommodative amplitude was 11.25 +/- 0.18 D before atropine administration and 0.52 +/- 0.11 D after atropine administration. Accommodative dynamics as a function of amplitude were not substantially altered during the course of pilocarpine-induced accommodation or atropine-induced cycloplegia. CONCLUSIONS: Accommodative response amplitude is reduced with pilocarpine by shifting the eye to a more myopic state and with atropine by cycloplegia. Pharmacologic manipulations showed that accommodative and disaccommodative dynamics in anesthetized monkeys depend on amplitude, starting point, and end point of the response and on the contributions of neural and receptor activity.     

Complications of spinal cord arteriography: prospective assessment of risk for diagnostic procedures

A prospective study was done of complications associated with 134 consecutive diagnostic spinal cord arteriograms in 96 patients (63 men and 33 women aged 17-78 years). Patients were examined for either arteriovenous malformation (n = 88) or tumor (n = 8), as indicated by myelography. Among the complications, 11 (8.2%) were local, five (3.7%) were systemic nonneurologic, and three (2.2%) were neurologic (two were associated with full recovery in less than 24 hours, and one was associated with full recovery in less than 1 week). No specific clinical or technical factors were significantly associated with the development of neurologic complications. Details of the clinical profile, angiographic technique, and pathologic findings for each patient were recorded and analyzed with respect to the potential risk for arteriographic complications. Diagnostic spinal cord arteriography had an acceptable risk within the range of other neuroangiographic diagnostic procedures.     

Disaster Training in 24 Hours: Evaluation of a Novel Medical Student Curriculum in Disaster Medicine

Background

Over a decade ago, the Association of American Medical Colleges called for incorporation of disaster medicine training into the education of medical students in the United States. Despite this recommendation, similar suggestions by other professional organizations, and significant interest from medical students and educators, few medical schools explicitly include robust disaster training in their curricula.

Functional differentiation of normal human neutrophils

In the past differentiation of human neutrophils has been defined by morphology, cytochemistry, or surface markers. In our experiments we have sequenced the various events that occur during the functional differentiation of the normal human neutrophil and have also examined some of the functional properties in relationship to surface markers and biochemical events. Granulocytes were obtained from the bone marrow and blood of hematologically normal individuals. Cells were separated into different stages of maturation by their physical properties using counterflow centrifugal elutriation and density gradient separation. Three cell fractions were obtained that were enriched for either immature myeloid cells, band neutrophils, or segmented neutrophils. Since the enriched fractions were not entirely pure, methodologies for functional assays were chosen that allowed cytologic evaluation of the functional capacity of each cell type. The criteria used to classify the stages of differentiation included both morphology by light microscopy and DNA labeling with tritiated thymidine. Various neutrophilic properties were studied: Fc receptors, complement receptors (CR1, CR3), phagocytosis of both live and dead opsonized Staphylococcus aureus, microbial killing of S aureus, NBT dye reduction after cellular stimulation with endotoxin, and chemotaxis. Our results indicate that the functional properties of the neutrophil appear in a distinct order. The sequence for the functional differentiation of the human neutrophil appears to be the following: Fc receptors----immune phagocytosis----complement receptors----oxygen-independent microbial killing----oxygen-dependent microbial killing----chemotaxis.     

A familial lymphoproliferative disorder presenting with primary pulmonary manifestations.

A familial lymphoproliferative disorder presented in three male siblings with primary pulmonary involvement manifested as either lymphoid interstitial pneumonia or an angiodestructive polymorphous infiltrate morphologically resembling lymphomatoid granulomatosis. The polymorphous infiltrate consisted chiefly of mature T-cells with a few B-cells and plasma cells, and gene rearrangement studies failed to show clonality. Epstein-Barr virus, frequently associated with proliferative lesions in males in the X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome, was not demonstrated in any of the pulmonary lesions. An HLA haplotype shared among the affected siblings was A1, B8, DR4. The unusual clinical presentation plus the lack of involvement by EBV in the pulmonary lesions suggests that this is a previously undescribed familial lymphoproliferative disorder.     

Effects of ultrasound on ultrastructure of human testes

Studies to detect ultrastructural changes in testicular tissues after a fifteen-minute exposure to ultrasonic waves were done in 10 men undergoing bilateral orchiectomies for prostatic carcinoma. Examination of Sertoli cells and germ cells in different stages of differentiation failed to reveal significant differences between exposed and control testes.     

Sulfonylurea-induced decrease of muscle capillary basement membrane thickness in diabetes

Three muscle biopsies were performed in 53 overt type 2 diabetics over a period of approximately 2 years. At baseline, 21 (40%) had an increased capillary basement membrane width in muscle. Thirty-five patients received glipizide and 18 received placebo. In the patients receiving placebo, the mean of the muscle capillary basement membrane width increased from 158.7 +/- 11.5 nm (SEM) to 170.9 +/- 14.7 nm (P = NS), but in those receiving glipizide the value decreased from 192.9 +/- 13.2 nm to 161.0 +/- 10.2 nm (P = 0.02). Plasma glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin A1 decreased significantly (P less than 0.001) after 2 years in patients receiving glipizide. In 15, mean glycosylated hemoglobin A1 reached a normal range, and mean basement membrane width decreased to a level close to that found in subjects without diabetes (P = NS). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that effective response to oral medication can decrease the basement membrane thickening, suggesting that diabetic microangiopathy is not necessarily progressive.