Blood pressure and muscle sympathetic nerve activity during cold pressor stress: fitness and gender

We examined putative autonomic and hemodynamic mechanisms that might explain our prior finding that cardiorespiratory fitness mitigates blood pressure responses by normotensive women during the hand cold pressor test. We report that fitness level was inversely related to increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressures and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during the cold pressor among women but not men. The pattern of responses among fitter women was consistent with decreased central sympathetic outflow resulting in reduced stroke volume or dampened peripheral resistance in vascular beds other than calf skeletal muscle. Fitter men and women had slightly larger increases in blood pressure during mental arithmetic, but otherwise fitness was not directly related to stress responses. The results further encourage consideration of cardiorespiratory fitness as a modifying covariate when the hand cold pressor test is used as a predictor of future hypertension among women.     

Behaviour of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sinapis alba</Emphasis> chromosomes in a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica napus</Emphasis> background revealed by genomic <Emphasis Type="Italic">in-situ</Emphasis> hybridization

Genomic in-situ hybridization (GISH) was applied to study the behaviour of addition chromosomes in first and second backcross (BC) progenies of hybrids between Brassica napus ssp. napus L. (AACC, 2n = 38) and Sinapis alba L. (SS, 2n = 24) produced by electrofusion. With GISH using genomic DNA of S. alba was used as probe it was possible to clearly distinguish both of the parental genomes and effectively monitor the fate of S. alba chromosomes in the BC₁ and BC₂ progenies. GISH analysis confirmed the sesquidiploid genome composition (AACCS) of the BC₁ progenies, which contained 38 chromosomes from B. napus and 12 chromosomes from S. alba. Genome painting in the pollen mother cells (PMCs) of the BC₁ plants revealed intergenomic association between B. napus and S. alba chromosomes, whereby a maximum of 4 trivalents between AC and S chromosomes were identified at metaphase I. In the BC₂ progenies, aneuploids with different numbers of additional chromosomes from S. alba, ranging from 1 to 7, were confirmed. Three putative monosomic alien addition lines were characterized, and the results are discussed with respect to the potential for intergenomic chromosome recombination.     

Investigation of Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptors genes and migraine susceptibility

Background  

Migraine is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of severe headache, affecting around 12% of Caucasian populations. It is well known that migraine has a strong genetic component, although the number and type of genes involved is still unclear. Prior linkage studies have reported mapping of a migraine gene to chromosome Xq 24–28, a region containing a cluster of genes for GABA A receptors (GABRE, GABRA3, GABRQ), which are potential candidate genes for migraine. The GABA neurotransmitter has been implicated in migraine pathophysiology previously; however its exact role has not yet been established, although GABA receptors agonists have been the target of therapeutic developments. The aim of the present research is to investigate the role of the potential candidate genes reported on chromosome Xq 24–28 region in migraine susceptibility. In this study, we have focused on the subunit GABA A receptors type ε (GABRE) and type θ (GABRQ) genes and their involvement in migraine.     

Mutualism between the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria and its gut microbiota

The desert locust Schistocerca gregaria contains a relatively simple but abundant gut microbiota which originated from the insect's diet. The gut bacterial population is dominated by Enterobacteriaceae with a major component of enterococci. Microbial metabolism of secondary plant chemicals in the locust gut produces phenolics useful to the locust host. Some products are antimicrobial and contribute to host defense against pathogens, others are employed by the host as components of the aggregation pheromone. This dual benefit suggests a closer degree of integration between the locust and its microbial community than was previously suspected.     

Monitoring exercise stress by changes in metabolic and hormonal responses over a 24-h period

Summary Metabolic and endocrine responses of 14 subjects of varying levels of fitness to an intensive anaerobic interval training session were assessed before exercise and at 2 h, 4 h, 8 h and 24 h postexercise. The endocrine response of the same subjects to a control day, where they were required not to exercise, was also assessed and compared with the values obtained on the interval training day. Uric acid, urea, and creatine phosphokinase concentrations still remained elevated above pre-exercise values 24 h postexercise. Lactate, creatinine, testosterone and cortisol concentrations were significantly elevated above pre-exercise values immediately postexercise but these had reversed by 2 h postexercise. Over the remainder of the recovery period testosterone concentrations remained significantly lower than values measured at similar times on the control day. This was shown to be due directly to a change in testosterone as sex hormone binding globulin concentration remained constant throughout the recovery period. The data indicate that when comparisons of data were made to control (rest) days, imbalances in homeostasis, due to intensive training, are not totally reversed within the next 24-h. The data also demonstrate that the parameters measured undergo the same variations in subjects with a wide range of physical fitness, indicating that these parameters could be used to monitor exercise stress and recovery in athletes of a wide range of abilities. The more acute responses to exercise could be mistaken for overtraining if insufficient recovery time were not permitted between the final exercise session and taking blood samples, further emphasising the need to be able to recognise the difference between the fatigue associated with acute exercise and a state of chronic fatigue that may result from too little regeneration time within the training programme.     

What kind of healthcare ‘internal market’? A cross-europe view of the options

Many governments are trying to invent new types of 'internal' healthcare market that will expose health services to competitive pressures to innovate, contain costs, raise service quality, and respond better to consumer demands; but not expose them to 'market failures' which prejudice universal access to 'basic' health services. Policy debates in this area are muddled and constricted by a failure to differentiate the variants of internal market that are available. This article outlines a taxonomy of the main types of internal market: primary doctor purchasing; managed competition; competitive bidding; social insurance; and compulsory private insurance. It notes their main structural characteristics and differences. Although internal market reforms have been intended to support the commercialization of healthcare, the idea of designing new types of economic structure to avoid market failure in healthcare has wider and more radical implications than most policy-makers intend.     

Who contracts for primary care?

The implications of the 1997 NHS (Primary Care) Act have been largely overlooked in the rush to establish Primary Care Groups. Allowing health authorities to develop local contracts for primary care has far-reaching implications and is an important departure from the national system of negotiation that has characterized general practice to date. This paper describes a content analysis of a sample of Personal Medical Services (PMS) pilot contracts. In the first year little attention has been given to achieving cost savings or greater efficiency and few contracts promote clinical guidelines. The difficulties of specifying services sensitive to local health needs are highlighted and the national Statement of Fees and Allowances (the 'Red Book') may not be swiftly supplanted. However, the pilots have introduced innovations such as salaried general practitioners, nurse-led services and NHS trust-managed care. The development of local contracts provides a valuable learning experience for general practitioners and health authorities in advance of the establishment of Primary Care Trusts.     

Temporal relationship between the decrease in arterial pressure and sodium retention in conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats with carbon tetrachloride-induced cirrhosis

It has been proposed that the initial event of sodium retention in cirrhosis is a peripheral arteriolar vasodilation causing underfilling of the arterial vascular compartment and stimulation of the renin-aldosterone and sympathetic nervous systems. To test this hypothesis, systolic blood pressure, sodium balance and urinary excretion of sodium and aldosterone were sequentially measured in 13 conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats submitted to a cirrhosis induction program with carbon tetrachloride and phenobarbital and in 14 control hypertensive animals. No significant differences were found between control and cirrhotic rats in any of the measured parameters during the first 7 wk of the study. The eighth week sodium retention developed in cirrhotic rats as indicated by a positive sodium balance and a marked decrease of sodium excretion. At the same time a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure and a great increase in urinary excretion of aldosterone were detected. These changes were more marked the ninth week of the study. In cirrhotic rats there was a highly significant direct correlation between systolic blood pressure and urinary sodium excretion. Postmortem examination showed a histological picture of cirrhosis in all animals given carbon tetrachloride and ascites in six of them. These results indicate that the onset of hyperaldosteronism and sodium retention in conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats with carbon tetrachloride-induced cirrhosis is chronologically related to a significant decrease in arterial pressure, thus supporting the "peripheral arterial vasodilation hypothesis" of ascites.     

Treatment of proximal hypospadias with a tubularized island flap urethroplasty and the onlay technique: a comparative study

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The onlay island flap urethroplasty was first described in the repair of mid and distal penile hypospadias. Since then, this technique has been increasingly used in more severe cases of hypospadias, because of the complications of tubularized flaps, mainly megaurethra and proximal anastomotic strictures. The aim of this study was to compare the morbidity of these 2 techniques. METHODS: Between April 1994 and December 1998, 80 patients underwent surgical treatment for hypospadias. A tubularized island flap (Ducketttechnique) was performed in 42 cases, and the onlay island flap technique was used in 38 patients. The authors retrospectively compared the complication rate and type of these 2 procedures. RESULTS: Altogether, fistula was the most frequent complication without any significant difference between the 2 groups (21.4% for Duckett technique and 18.4% for onlay repair; P > .05). However, the anastomotic stricture was much more common in the tubularized flap group (7.14% v 2.63%; P < .05). Moreover, a megaurethra was found only in the Duckett technique group (4.7%). There was no case of chordee recurrence, but 6 patients (15.7%) treated with the onlay technique required urethrolysis including dissection of the chord behind the urethral plate, and in the other 3 patients of the same group (7.9%), a dorsal Nesbit plication also was necessary. In all these cases, the urethroplasty included an island cutaneous flap to provide ventral coverage to the neourethra. CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude that both techniques present similar complications. However, proximal strictures and megaurethra are more common after the Duckett technique. This procedure is of choice in patients with scrotal hypospadias. Conversely, the onlay repair should be completed with other procedures (urethrolysis, dorsal Nesbit plication) to obtain good results in patients with severe degree of chordee.