Skeletal muscle blood flow and venous capacitance in patients with severe sepsis and systemic hypoperfusion

Alterations in peripheral vascular tone are presumed to contribute to circulatory failure during severe sepsis. Decreased venous tone with venous pooling may decrease effective circulatory blood volume, while decreased arterial tone with redistribution of systemic blood may compromise tissue nutrient flow. We compared forearm arterial and venous tone and forearm blood flow in ten patients with and ten patients without sepsis. The FVT, MVC, and FBF were measured by air plethysmography. In the septic patients, MCV was 1.4 +/- 0.1 ml compared with 3.1 +/- 0.2 ml in nonseptic patients (p less than 0.01). The FVT was 13.4 +/- 1.0 mm Hg/ml in septic patients versus 7.0 +/- 0.5 mm Hg/ml in nonseptic patients (p less than 0.01). The ratio of FBF to cardiac output was 0.28 +/- 0.07 percent in septic patients and 0.31 +/- 0.07 percent in nonseptic patients. These data suggest that increased peripheral venous capacitance and redistribution of skeletal muscle blood flow are not present in patients with sepsis.     

Effect of a high affinity aluminosilicate sorbent on prevention of aflatoxicosis in growing pigs

Adding 0.5% hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate to diets formulated with aflatoxin-contaminated corn significantly reduced the detrimental effects of the mycotoxin on live weight gains and feed intake. Hepatocellular changes normally associated with aflatoxin consumption could not be detected histopathologically in liver sections from pigs fed contaminated diets plus the aluminosilicate sorbent.     

Quantitative study of the immunoglobulin-containing cells in trephine samples of bone marrow

Immunoglobulin (Ig) was demonstrated in paraffin sections of 12 trephine bone marrow biopsies by means of the unlabelled antibody peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) method. The Ig-containing cells, which were counted with the Reichert-Jung (Kontron) MOP-AMO₃ user-controlled image-analyser, were found to constitute approximately 4·2% of all the nucleated cells in the marrow, a figure significantly higher than those reported by previous workers.