Health insurance and AIDS: the status of state regulatory activity.

Information collected by the National Gay Rights Advocates in 1986 and by the authors in the spring of 1987 was used to determine the extent to which the states currently regulate the practices of the health insurance industry specific to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Of the 10 states reporting the greatest number of AIDS cases, six prohibit insurers form denying coverage to group policy applicants because of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. These findings refer only to the status of state regulatory activity specific to AIDS.     

Adding Bupivacaine to High-potassium Cardioplegia Improves Function and Reduces Cellular Damage of Rat Isolated Hearts after Prolonged, Cold Storage

Background: Bupivacaine retards myocardial acidosis during ischemia. The authors measured function of rat isolated hearts after prolonged storage to determine whether bupivacaine improves cardiac protection compared with standard cardioplegia alone.

Methods: After measuring cardiac function on a Langendorff apparatus, hearts were perfused with cardioplegia alone (controls), cardioplegia containing 500 [mu]m bupivacaine, or cardioplegia containing 2 mm lidocaine; were stored at 4[degrees]C for 12 h; and were then reperfused. Heart rate and left ventricular developed pressures were measured for 60 min. Maximum positive rate of change in ventricular pressure, oxygen consumption, and lactate dehydrogenase release were also measured.

Results: All bupivacaine-treated, four of five lidocaine-treated, and no control hearts beat throughout the 60-min recovery period. Mean values of heart rate, left ventricular developed pressure, maximum positive rate of change in ventricular pressure, rate-pressure product, and efficiency in bupivacaine-treated hearts exceeded those of the control group (P < 0.001 at 60 min for all). Mean values of the lidocaine group were intermediate. Oxygen consumption of the control group exceeded the other groups early in recovery, but not at later times. Lactate dehydrogenase release from the bupivacaine group was less than that from the control group (P < 0.001) but did not differ from baseline.     

Structure-activity relationship of toxic-shock-syndrome toxin-1: derivation and characterization of immunologically and biologically active fragments

Toxic-shock-syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), a 22-kilodalton (kDa) polypeptide, was proteolyzed by papain, generating three distinct fragments, identified as 16, 12, and 10 kDa (based on molecular masses estimated from the predicted amino acid sequence). The NH2-terminal sequence analysis of the fragments indicated that the peptide bonds between Tyr-52 and Ser-53 and between Gly-87 and Val-88 were cleaved. Functional activity, evaluated through enzyme-linked immunosorbent and inhibition assays, was demonstrated only with the 16- and 12-kDa fragments. The presence of homologous and heterologous antigenic determinants on the fragments was demonstrated by immunoblotting. In in vitro stimulation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, the 12-kDa fragment was significantly (P = .003) more active than the 16-kDa fragment. The former composed 75% of the latter and occupied the COOH-terminal portion of the holotoxin. The functional domains were located on two-thirds of the TSST-1 molecule, toward the COOH-terminal end, and mitogenicity apparently was separable from serological activity.     

Pulmonary function following surgical repair of pectus excavatum: a meta-analysis.

The purpose of this study was to use a meta-analytical technique to examine the efficacy of surgical repair of pectus excavatum on pulmonary function. Studies were retrieved via computerized literature searches, cross-referencing from original and review articles. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) reporting quantitative measures of preoperative and postoperative pulmonary function; (2) published in the English language; (3) indexed between January 1960 and September 2005; (4) reporting the duration between which preoperative and postoperative assessments were conducted; and (5) describing the pulmonary assessment procedures. The titles and abstracts of potentially relevant articles were reviewed to determine whether they met the criteria for inclusion. Twelve studies representing 313 pectus excavatum patients met the inclusion criteria and were used for the meta-analysis. Random-effects modeling yielded a mean weighted effect size (ES) for pulmonary function which was statistically nonsignificant (ES=0.08, 95% CI=-0.20 to 0.35; P=0.58). The findings of the present study indicated that surgical repair of pectus excavatum does not significantly improve pulmonary function. These findings, however, may be a result of testing pulmonary function under conditions in which pectus excavatum does not manifest itself.     

Evaluation of contractile state by maximal ventricular power divided by the square of end-diastolic volume

BACKGROUND. Maximal ventricular power (PWRmax) reflects contractile state and has the potential to be noninvasively determined. However, its sensitivities to preload, afterload resistance, and inotropic state are incompletely defined. The present study determines these dependencies and proposes a novel power-based contractile index that is little altered by load. METHODS AND RESULTS. Seven open-chest, autonomically blocked dogs were instrumented with a proximal aortic flow probe, central aortic and ventricular micromanometers, and a conductance catheter for ventricular chamber volume. Preload was transiently reduced by left atrial hemorrhage, and afterload was increased by intra-aortic balloon inflation. Inotropic state was pharmacologically altered by lidocaine, dobutamine, propranolol, or verapamil. PWRmax was highly preload sensitive, altering 1.7 +/- 0.1-fold a given percent change in end-diastolic volume (EDV). This preload dependence was reduced by dividing PWRmax by EDV but was virtually eliminated when PWRmax was divided by EDV2. This latter index also displayed little change in response to as much as 60% increases in afterload resistance. PWRmax/EDV2 varied directly with inotropic state, correlating to both the slope (Ees) of the end-systolic pressure-volume relation (PWRmax x 1,000/EDV2 = 0.31 x Ees - 0.04, r = 0.82, p less than 0.001) and the slope (A) of the dP/dtmax-EDV relation (PWRmax x 1,000/EDV2 = 0.025 x A + 0.02, r = 0.86, p less than 0.001). PWRmax values determined from the product of ventricular pressure and flow versus central aortic pressure and flow were nearly identical over a broad loading range, indicating that PWRmax may be noninvasively assessed (i.e., without requiring left ventricular chamber pressure). CONCLUSIONS. PWRmax divided by EDV2 provides a measure of contractile function that is little influenced by loading conditions and has potential for noninvasive clinical use.     

Effect of linoleic and oleic acids on blood pressure, blood viscosity, and erythrocyte cation transport

It has been proposed that dietary linoleic acid lowers blood pressure (BP) by being converted to arachidonic acid and prostanoids of the two-ene series. We tested the effects of linoleic acid on plasma arachidonic acid, blood pressure, blood viscosity, and RBC cation transport. Oleic acid, the major dietary monounsaturated fat and which is not a prostanoid precursor, was used as a control. Seventeen adults consumed 23 g/d of linoleic acid or oleic acid provided by genetic variants of safflower seed, each for 4 weeks in a double-blind crossover design. Linoleic and oleic acids were enriched significantly in the plasma cholesteryl esters, phospholipids and triglycerides during the respective periods of supplementation but there was no increase in arachidonate. Mean BP was 116.1/76.8 during ingestion of oleic and 113.6/74.6 during ingestion of linoleic acid (p = 0.09 systolic, p = 0.12 diastolic). The power of the study was over 75% for detecting a significant (p less than 0.05) effect of 4 mm Hg in systolic BP or diastolic BP. Whole blood and plasma viscosity, and RBC Li/Na countertransport, Na/K cotransport, and Na pump systems (Vmax) were unchanged during the protocol. Therefore, variations in dietary linoleic or oleic acids are unlikely to have major effects on BP or on several membrane-dependent erythrocyte functions related to hypertension.