Does prophylactic sotalol and magnesium decrease the incidence of atrial fibrillation following coronary artery bypass surgery: a propensity-matched analysis

Background  

Atrial fibrillation can occur in up to 40% of patients undergoing coronary surgery.     

Randomized trial of Codetron for pain control in osteoarthritis of the hip/knee

Patients suffering from pain due to osteoarthritis of the hip and knee participated in a double-blind placebo controlled trial using daily Codetron home care units for 6 weeks over the tibial, saphenous, popliteal and sciatic nerves, and tender points. Seventy-four percent of patients in the real Codetron (Group A) and 28% of the patients in sham Codetron (Group B) improved their pain level more than 25% as measured by visual analogue scale. The difference in pain improvement in the two groups was statistically significant (p less than 0.02 using Fisher's exact probability ratio). Other functional parameters proved to be insensitive to change in this study. This is highly suggestive of beneficial effect of nonhabituating Codetron as a complementary modality in the therapy of chronic pain conditions such as osteoarthritis.     

Curcumin Reduces Burn Progression in Rats

Objectives Cutaneous burns are dynamic injuries with a central zone of necrosis surrounded by a zone of ischemia. Conversion of this ischemic zone to full necrosis over the days following injury is due in part to highly reactive oxygen radicals. Curcumin is a component of the Oriental spice turmeric that has been shown to have antioxidant and antiapoptotic properties. The authors hypothesized that treatment of burns with curcumin would reduce the conversion of the ischemic zone to full necrosis. Methods This was a randomized controlled experiment. Twenty Sprague‐Dawley rats were used. Two burns were created on each animal's dorsum using a brass comb with four rectangular prongs preheated in boiling water and applied for 30 seconds, resulting in four rectangular 10 × 20–mm full‐thickness burns separated by three 5 × 20–mm unburned interspaces (zone of ischemia). Animals were randomized to curcumin or vehicle by oral gavage 30 minutes before injury and at 24, 48, and 72 hours after injury. Wounds were observed at one, two, and three days after injury for visual evidence of necrosis in the unburned interspaces. Full‐thickness biopsy specimens from the interspaces were evaluated with hematoxylin and eosin staining seven days after injury for evidence of necrosis. The percentage of interspaces that progressed to necrosis was compared with chi‐square tests. Results Forty comb burns with 120 unburned interspaces were created, evenly distributed between curcumin and vehicle alone. The percentage of interspaces that progressed to full‐thickness necrosis at one, two, three, and seven days after injury in the curcumin and vehicle groups were 30% versus 63% (p = 0.003), 30% versus 70% (p < 0.001), 63% versus 95% (p = 0.02), and 63% versus 95% (p = 0.02), respectively. Conclusions Pretreatment of rats with oral curcumin followed by once‐daily oral treatment for three days reduced the percentage of unburned skin interspaces that progressed to full necrosis.     

Body composition of patients with spinal cord injury

Body composition of 10 control subjects and 37 spinal cord injured (SCI) patients was measured by dilution of 3H2O and Na2 35SO4. SCI patients were classified into four groups by ascending level of lesion, low and high paraplegics and low and high quadriplegics. The studies show diminishing total body water, intracellular water, lean body mass and body cell mass and increasing fat mass with higher spinal lesions. No differences in body weight or extracellular water were observed so that the ratio of extracellular water/total body water was increased as the level of injury increased.     

Evaluation of selective actions of dopamine D-1 and D-2 receptor agonists and antagonists on opioid antinociception

The effect of the selective dopamine receptor agonists SKF 38393 (D-1) and quinpirole (D-2) on nociception was studied in the mouse tail immersion test. The D-1 receptor agonist induced mild hyperalgesia whereas the D-2 agonist produced antinociception. Pretreatment with either the selective D-1 receptor antagonist SCH 23390 or the D-2 receptor antagonist (-)-sulpiride converted the hyperalgesia produced by the D-1 agonist into an antinociceptive response whereas the effect of the D-2 receptor agonist was significantly antagonised. The antinociceptive response of selective opioid agonists was also studied in combination with selective dopamine receptor agonists and antagonists. Sufentanil (mu-opioid) antinociception was enhanced in animals pretreated with (-)-sulpiride but not SCH 23390. In animals co-administered sufentanil with SKF 38393 there was a reduced antinociceptive effect whilst quinpirole enhanced the action of sufentanil. Likewise, antinociception induced by the kappa-opioid agonist U50,488H was unaltered in animals pretreated with SCH 23390, increased by (-)-sulpiride, and reduced by SKF 38393. delta-Opioid antinociception induced by [D-Ala2,D-Leu5]enkephaline remained unmodified following pretreatment with either (-)-sulpiride or SCH 23390 but was potentiated in animals which received both the delta-agonist and the D-2 receptor agonist. It is concluded that D-2 receptor agonists not only have intrinsic antinociceptive activity, but can also potentiate opioid-induced antinociception. Similarly, dopamine D-2 receptor antagonists appear to potentiate opioid-induced antinociception in this nociceptive model.     

颈内动脉接近完全闭塞时的处理

目的由于卒中风险随着狭窄严重程度的增加而升高，因此认为颈内动脉（ICA）接近闭塞患者的卒中风险很高。在现有的随机试验中，还没有专门针对这种情况进行探讨，因此其处理尚存在争汶。方法：对相关文献进行系统评价。结果：对ICA接近闭塞患者的处理还存在争议：一些学者支持进行干预，而另一些学者则认为存在风险或没有益处而反对进行干预。在ICA接近闭塞的有症状患者中进行一项比较外科治疗与最佳内科治疗的多中心前瞻性随机试验似乎非常困难，因为这类研究需要大量的患者。尽管如此，基于目前的证据，似乎很难拒绝手术治疗。结论：由于目前对ICA接近闭塞患者的最佳处理方案仍存在着争议，因此需要前瞻性观察性研究以证实其在有症状和无症状人群中的患病率以及相关的卒中风险。基于目前的证据，大多数医疗中心选择手术治疗，但它相对干内科治疗的特粱尚右待证章．     

“维生素AD、铁营养强化奶的研制”研究报告

目的:研制维生素AD、铁营养强化奶,用于群体有效防治维生素AD、铁缺乏.方法:应用微胶囊技术科学配方成维生素AD、铁营养粉,添加到鲜牛奶中.结果:工业化生产维生素AD、铁营养强化奶.结论:该产品取得了很好的社会效益和经济效益.     

Post-traumatic squamous-cell carcinoma

Between January 1, 1976, and January 1, 1986, we treated sixty-three patients who had histologically proved squamous-cell carcinoma that originated in a pre-existing scar or sinus of an extremity. In 49 per cent of the patients, metastases to regional lymph nodes either were present when the patient was first seen or subsequently developed. The age and sex of the patient, the etiology of the original scar, and the duration of illness bore no relationship to the result. The most significant factor in predicting the outcome was the grade of the tumor: for grade-I (low-grade) lesions, the incidence of metastasis was 10 per cent; for grade-II (moderately well differentiated) lesions, 59 per cent; and for grade-III (poorly differentiated) lesions, 86 per cent. Eleven patients had wide local excision of the lesion, which resulted in local recurrence in four patients and metastasis in three. Thirty patients had therapeutic amputation: one patient had recurrent disease and five patients had metastasis. Radical resection of lymph nodes after metastasis was uniformly unsuccessful in preventing additional metastasis. Ten patients who had a grade-II or grade-III tumor had prophylactic irradiation of the regional lymph nodes after the definitive operative treatment. At an average of thirty-seven months of follow-up, only one of them had metastasis. We recommend that well differentiated squamous-cell carcinoma be considered a low-grade tumor, according to the staging system for musculoskeletal neoplasms, and that more poorly differentiated squamous-cell carcinoma (grades II and III) be considered a high-grade lesion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)