ASSESSMENT OF VAGOTOMY BY POST-PRANDIAL ALKALINE TIDE

The effect of vagotomy on the post-prandial alkaline tide was assessed by measuring the fasting and postprandial urinary pH before and after vagotomy in 50 cases of chronic duodenal ulcer treated by posterior truncal vagotomy or gastrojejunostomy or pyloroplasty. Results showed that post-prandial urinary pH fell after vagotomy confirming the completeness of vagotomy. This test is safe, reliable, noninvasive and a simpler bedside procedure as compared to the conventional Hollander''s insulin test.KEY WORDS: Vagotomy, Alkaline tide     

Amalgam. III. Mercury release from amalgam restorations

Patients are exposed to mercury during dental treatment. The major source of exposure to mercury is, however the release of mercury both as vapour and as dissolved mercury, from amalgam restorations. With regard to the dissolution in saliva, corrosion of the restorations appears to be of importance. The modern amalgams have a lower corrosion rate than older ones but emit probably more mercury vapour. Different measurement methods show a rather varying amount of mercury release. The amount of mercury in the tracheal air is of more significance than that in the mouth air. It has been stated that from restorations made of old brands of amalgam 73% of the mercury is disappeared, but according to our estimation utmost 2% will disappear from a large restoration of modern brands.     

Cottage hospitals: a place in the country that is not entirely countrified

They built a monument to the venerable Dr William Irvine, and they called it Irvine Memorial Hospital. Eighty years on, it lives up to his good name. There is no call to rusticate at this haven of healing in Scotland's tourist belt. Life is not all a summer idyll, as Nick Davidson discovered.     

Complete hamster CAD protein and the carbamylphosphate synthetase domain of CAD complement mammalian cell mutants defective in de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis

The mammalianCAD gene codes for a 240-kDa multifunctional protein that catalyzes the first three steps of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis. Previously, the longest cDNA construct available was missing approximately 500 bp of coding sequence at the 5 end, thereby lacking the sequence to encode the entire carbamylphosphate synthetase (CPSase) domain. Here, a completeCAD hamster cDNA is constructed, placed into a mammalian expression vector, and transfected into hamster cells deficient in CAD. Transfectants show coordinately restored levels of all three enzyme activities and the presence of full-length CAD protein. A derivative construct of theCAD cDNA was generated that should encode only the CPSase domain. When transfected into mammalian cells, a protein was synthesized that had significant CPSase activity both in vivo and in vitro. The two constructs generated in this study will facilitate the study of CAD structure, function, and allosteric regulation.     

Peripheral pulse pressure patterns in pregnancy hypertension

Maternal heart rate and pulse pressure patterns were examined in 30 hypertensive pregnant women using noninvasive methodology described previously. "Narrow" and "wide" pulse patterns were identified. Narrow cutaneous pulse pressure patterns, which are thought to be caused by vasoconstriction, were associated with lower birth weight infants (1870 +/- 983 versus 3225 +/- 838 g; P less than .001) and earlier deliveries (34.2 +/- 5.2 versus 37.9 +/- 2.8 weeks; P less than .05). The data suggest that these adjunctive maternal cardiovascular-system evaluation techniques may be useful in identifying patients at risk of adverse perinatal outcome by detecting vasospasm of the peripheral microcirculation.     

Visceral leishmaniasis in Africa

2 large epidemics of visceral leishmaniasis are presently occurring in Bihar State, India and in southern Sudan where it had not previously been a problem. Civil war which in turn led to sizable malnutrition and migration of many people and animals contributed greatly to the present epidemic. In southern Sudan, 30,000-40,000 people have already died. Villages have lost 30=65% of their population to visceral leishmaniasis, 4-40% carry the parasites, and 30-40% are immune to it. The epidemic is extending to the north. Other endemic areas in Africa include Kenya, many western and central African countries, and all the countries in northern Africa. Animal hosts include rats, genets, several cats, jackals, and dogs. The protozoan parasites Leishmania species are becoming more and more resistant to drugs which exacerbates these epidemics. The treatments include pentavalent antimonials, aminosidine, pentamidine, amphotericin B, liposomal amphotericin B, and sodium stibogluconate. The sandfly vector in India is beginning to exhibit resistance to DDT, but this is not yet a problem in Africa, however. The sandfly transmits promastigotes into the skin where an inflammatory factor in the sandfly saliva strengthens infectivity. They then infect phagocytic cells, especially macrophages, which essentially suppresses immunity. There they transform into amastigotes. Even though the body has very high levels of antileishmanial antibodies, the macrophages cannot eliminate the intracellular amastigotes. The parasites invade the spleen, liver, bone marrow, and lymph nodes--the macrophage-rich organs--which causes clinical symptoms. Some of these clinical symptoms include fever, wasting, splenomegaly, bone marrow failure, and lower than normal amounts of all cellular elements of blood. In HIV-positive Europeans who have lived in or visited endemic areas, visceral leishmaniasis has become an opportunistic infection. Their atypical features make it important to look for the parasites in tissues to diagnose it.