Use of sonography to evaluate carotid atherosclerosis in the elderly. The Cardiovascular Health Study. CHS Collaborative Research Group

Carotid sonography is being performed on more than 5,000 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective, multicenter study of cardiovascular disease in men and women aged 65 years and older. The sonographic methods used to examine and measure the extracranial carotid arteries are described. Initial validation studies were performed on 61 subjects with a mean age of 68.6 years. Analysis of within- and between-sonographer differences and between-reader differences were performed for selected variables. In general, the mean absolute differences for within- and between-sonographer comparisons were small, with even less variability between readers. Variability was less for the common carotid artery than for the internal carotid artery. These data suggest that carotid sonography is a reliable and reproducible method for use in the study of carotid atherosclerosis in population studies.     

FEASIBILITY OF CONDUCTING CARDIOVASCULAR OUTCOME RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIAN GENERAL PRACTICE: RESULTS FROM THE ANBP2 PILOT STUDY

1. The present study aimed to determine the feasibility of conducting a 5 year cardiovascular outcome trial of the treatment of 6000 elderly hypertensive patients in Australian general practices. 2. General practitioners (GPs) were invited to participate by mail and personal follow-up. Patient records were reviewed to identify subjects for a blood pressure (BP) screening programme. Blood pressure was measured on three occasions and eligible subjects were included if the average BP was 160 mmHg systolic or 90 mmHg diastolic if systolic BP was 140 mmHg. 3. Seven hundred and forty-one GPs were approached and 89 were enrolled in the study (12% of mail invites and 75% of those receiving a personal contact). In 16 practices where screening was completed, 82 000 records were reviewed to identify 4% patients eligible for screening. Twenty-two per cent of eligible subjects attended screening. Of 1938 subjects screened, 180 (9%) had BP 5=160/90 mmHg. Forty-seven percent of subjects (n = 916) were receiving antihypertensive therapy and 184 (20%) were withdrawn from therapy. One hundred and sixteen (63%) of these subjects had BP return to study entry levels within 6 weeks. Fifty-seven newly diagnosed and 81 previously treated subjects were randomized (7% of the screened population). 4. Based on the high participation rate of GPs, the response rate of patients to attend a BP screening programme and the 7% randomization to screening ratio for entry into the study, the ANBP2 pilot study has demonstrated that it is feasible to recruit subjects from Australian general practices to a cardiovascular outcome trial.     

Control of interfragmentary micromotion in Ilizarov distractional osteogenesis.

Growth of the regenerate is affected by various factors during the course of Ilizarov distractional osteogenesis. One of the chief biomechanical factors that influences the quality and rate of bone formation is fixator stiffness. A four-ring Ilizarov apparatus was configured around a synthetic tibia. In a series of trials involving a uniform axial load, different transfixing wire tensions, and the separation of paired proximal and distal rings, fragment displacement was measured. Preliminary results suggest that the effect produced by the distraction of ring pairs on interfragmentary micromotion is as significant as pretensioning of the wires.     

Use of Water-Soluble Vitamins in Patients with Chronic Renal. Failure

Little is actually known about the minimum daily requirement for most vitamins in the patient with end-stage renal disease. Many of the studies reviewed suffer from lack of adequate control populations and differing methodologies, making comparisons between these studies difficult. However, patients with renal failure have many restrictions on their dietary intake, frequently suffer from intercurrent illness, and would seem to be at risk for vitamin deficiency. Also, metabolic abnormalities associated with the loss of kidney function may increase the daily requirements for certain vitamins. It is unlikely that dialysis losses of the water-soluble vitamins alone could account for vitamin depletion, and these other factors are likely to play a much more important role. It is of interest to note that the studies which demonstrate little or no vitamin deficiencies are those studies which have been carried out more recently (8, 9, 17). The patients were usually given some vitamin supplementation prior to or during the period of study and thus it is not surprising that most patients failed to demonstrate vitamin deficiency. It is also likely that heightened awareness regarding the propensity for patients with renal failure to develop deficiencies of the water-soluble vitamins has resulted in better dietary instruction and earlier intervention with vitamin supplementation. More efficient dialytic methods have also reduced the restrictions on many foods, and patients are no longer instructed to boil all their fresh vegetables. Although there may be the risk of toxicity when vitamin supplementation is overzealously administered to patients with reduced renal excretory function, it seems prudent to administer some of these water-soluble vitamins to patients with end-stage renal disease who are treated with intermittent dialysis therapy (Table 1). Certainly, this is not a very costly approach. Further studies should be carried out to better evaluate vitamin nutriture in chronically uremic and maintenance dialysis patients and to more rigorously define the minimum dose that would prevent deficiency and avoid toxicity.     

Urea rebound and delivered Kt/V determination with a continuous urea sensor

BACKGROUND: The recent introduction of urea sensors for dialysis monitoring has made possible new approaches to urea kinetic modelling. In this study we show how the equilibrated postdialysis urea concentration (Ceq) and Kt/V corrected for double-pool urea kinetics (Kt/Vdp) can be accurately determined using an on-line sensor providing a continuous measure of blood water urea. A modification of the Smye constant volume double-pool theory led to the following equations for Ceq and Kt/Vdp [formula: see text] where Cpre is the blood concentration measured at the start of dialysis, t is the length of the dialysis session (in min) and S(ex) is the constant slope of the blood urea logarithm concentration decline following development of the intercompartmental urea concentration gradient in the first 30-60 min of dialysis. METHODS: These equations were tested in 11 patients undergoing 165-240 min of paired filtration dialysis with continuous monitoring of blood urea concentration. Cpre was determined as the plateau concentration during a preliminary period of 15-20 min of slow isolated ultrafiltration. S(ex) was accurately determined from linear regression applied to the urea sensor data from the 80-min point to the end of dialysis. RESULTS: Ceq and Kt/Vdp determined from the above equations compared closely to values determined from 25-40 min of urea rebound monitoring with the urea sensor: 10.6 +/- 3.0 versus 10.8 +/- 2.7 mmol/l (mean +/- SD) for Ceq and 1.21 +/- 0.24 versus 1.18 +/- 0.20 for Kt/Vdp, compared to single-pool values of Kt/V = 1.34 +/- 0.23. CONCLUSION: This technique may be readily programmed into on-line urea monitors to provide current and extrapolated values of Ceq and Kt/Vdp from about the first hour of dialysis.