Anesthetic pretreatment confers thermotolerance on Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, when pretreated with elevated temperatures, undergo adaptive changes that promote survival after an otherwise lethal heat stress. The heat shock response, a cellular stress response variant, mediates these adaptive changes. Ethanol, a low-potency anesthetic, promotes thermotolerance possibly through heat shock response activation.

Parenteral amino acids v. dextrose infusion: an anabolic strategy to minimise the catabolic response to surgery while maintaining normoglycaemia in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients.

Loss of body protein and hyperglycaemia represent typical features of the stress response to surgery and anaesthesia. This appears to be particularly pronounced in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. The aim of the present study was to highlight the greater benefit of amino acids (AA) as represented by positive protein balance and maintenance of blood glucose homoeostasis compared with dextrose (DEX) in diabetic patients after colorectal surgery.

Postoperative patient complaints: a prospective interview study of 12,276 patients.

Study Objective: To evaluate the incidence of perioperative minor adverse events and to analyze patient satisfaction based on potential explanatory variables.

Design: Structured, face-to-face interview of 25% of all patients undergoing surgery during the period from January 2003 through June 2006.

Setting: Academic university medical center.

B-type natriuretic peptide in patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery: a prospective cohort study.

Background And Objective: Postoperative cardiac complications pose a substantial risk to patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery.

Methods: B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) was determined preoperatively in 270 patients undergoing scheduled orthopaedic surgery. The accuracy of BNP to predict the occurrence of in-hospital cardiac events was evaluated as the primary endpoint.

[The preoperative anaesthetic visit].

Anaesthetists often visit their patients in exceptional situations characterised by preoperative anxiety or distress. Therefore, even brief contact with the patient can be considered intense and meaningful. The initial preoperative anaesthetic visit is the beginning of the relationship between patient and anaesthetist, and should help to explain the planned anaesthetic technique.

Anaesthetic mechanisms: update on the challenge of unravelling the mystery of anaesthesia.

General anaesthesia is administered each day to thousands of patients worldwide. Although more than 160 years have passed since the first successful public demonstration of anaesthesia, a detailed understanding of the anaesthetic mechanism of action of these drugs is still lacking. An important early observation was the Meyer-Overton correlation, which associated the potency of an anaesthetic with its lipid solubility.

Active research fields in anesthesia: a document co-citation analysis of the anesthetic literature.

Background: The expansion of science has resulted in an increased information flow and in an exponentially growing number of connections between knowledge in different research fields. In this study, we used methods of scientometric analysis to obtain a conceptual network that forms the structure of active scientific research fields in anesthesia.

Methods: We extracted from the Web of Science (Institute for Scientific Information) all original articles (n = 3275) including their references (n = 79,972) that appeared in 2003 in all 23 journals listed in the Institute for Scientific Information Journal Citation Reports under the subject heading "Anesthesiology.

Patient satisfaction with continued versus divided anesthetic care.

Study Objective: To evaluate patient acceptability of continued versus divided anesthetic care.

Design: Patient satisfaction ratings with continuous and divided anesthetic care were assessed by patient questionnaire. In addition, the effect of training anesthesia personnel in communication regarding divided anesthesia care was examined.

Species-specific differences in response to anesthetics and other modulators by the K2P channel TRESK.

Unlabelled: TRESK (TWIK-related spinal cord K+ channel) is the most recently characterized member of the tandem-pore domain potassium channel (K2P) family. Human TRESK is potently activated by halothane, isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane, making it the most sensitive volatile anesthetic-activated K2P channel yet described. Herein, we compare the anesthetic sensitivity and pharmacologic modulation of rodent versions of TRESK to their human orthologue.

Antiemetics of the 5-hydroxytryptamine 3A antagonist class inhibit muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

Antagonists of the serotonergic 5-hydroxytryptamine 3A receptor (5-HT(3A)R) and muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) are widely used in anesthesia practice. Both 5-HT(3A)R and nAChR are ligand-gated ion channels with known pharmacological overlap between some of their agonists and antagonists. We studied the actions of clinically used 5-HT(3A)R antagonist antiemetics and nondepolarizing muscle blockers on ionic currents elicited by the activation of mammalian 5-HT(3A)R and muscle nAChR, expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes.

Two-pore domain potassium channels: new sites of local anesthetic action and toxicity.

Potassium (K+) channels form the largest family of ion channels with more than 70 such genes identified in the human genome. They are organized in 3 superfamilies according to their predicted membrane topology: (1) subunits with 6 membrane-spanning segments and 1-pore domain, (2) subunits with 2 membrane-spanning segments and 1-pore domain, and (3) subunits with 4 membrane-spanning segments and 2-pore domains arrayed in a tandem position. The last family has most recently been identified and comprises the so-called 2-pore domain potassium (K2P) channels, believed responsible for background or leak K+ currents.

Sevoflurane decreases bispectral index values more than does halothane at equal MAC multiples.

At the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of inhaled anesthetics, 50% of subjects move in response to noxious stimulation. Similarly, at MAC-awake, 50% of subjects respond appropriately to command. The bispectral index (BIS) nominally measures the effect of anesthetics on wakefulness or consciousness.

Small-dose intrathecal clonidine and isobaric bupivacaine for orthopedic surgery: a dose-response study.

We examined the dose-response relationship of intrathecal clonidine at small doses ( View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Citation classics in critical care medicine.

Objective: The number of citations an article receives after its publication reflects its impact on the scientific community. Our purpose was to identify and examine the characteristics of the most frequently cited articles in the field of critical care medicine.

Design: The 74 top-cited articles in critical care journals were identified by a computer search using the database of the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED, 1945 to present) and the Web of SCIENCE.

Citation classics in anesthetic journals.

Unlabelled: The number of citations an article receives after its publication reflects its recognition in the scientific community. In the present study, therefore, we identified and examined the characteristics of the top 100 most frequently cited articles published in anesthetic journals. These articles were identified using the database of the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED, 1945 to present) and the Web of SCIENCE(R).

Genomic structure, cochlear expression, and mutation screening of KCNK6, a candidate gene for DFNA4.

KCNK6 encodes a tandem pore domain potassium channel, TWIK-2, that maps to chromosome 19. Both STS and linkage maps established KCNK6 as a positional candidate gene for DFNA4, a form of autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hereditary hearing loss. Identification and characterization of Kcnk6 expression within the mammalian cochlea established the gene as a functional candidate for DFNA4.

Amide local anesthetics potently inhibit the human tandem pore domain background K+ channel TASK-2 (KCNK5).

Blockade of voltage-gated sodium (Na+) channels by local anesthetics represents the main mechanism for inhibition of impulse propagation. Local anesthetic-induced potassium (K+) channel inhibition is also known to influence transmission of sensory impulses and to potentiate inhibition. K+ channels involved in this mechanism may belong to the emerging family of background tandem pore domain K+ channels (2P K+ channels).

Characterization of the interactions between volatile anesthetics and neuromuscular blockers at the muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.

Unlabelled: Volatile anesthetics enhance the neuromuscular blockade produced by nondepolarizing muscle relaxants (NDMRs). The neuromuscular junction is a postulated site of this interaction. We tested the hypothesis that volatile anesthetic enhancement of muscle relaxation is the result of combined drug effects on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.

The differential effect of halothane and 1,2-dichlorohexafluorocyclobutane on in vitro muscle contractures of patients susceptible to malignant hyperthermia.

Unlabelled: Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is an autosomal dominant, potentially fatal pharmacogenetic disorder of skeletal muscle. Approximately half of all known MH families show a linkage to the ryanodine receptor type 1 (RY1) gene. Although our knowledge of the diagnosis, genetics, and therapy of MH has improved, the exact pathogenesis and the role of volatile anesthetics as trigger substances for an MH crisis remain unknown.

Isobolographic analysis of non-depolarising muscle relaxant interactions at their receptor site.

Administration of certain combinations of non-depolarising muscle relaxants produces greater than expected neuromuscular blockade. Synergistic effects may be explained by drug interactions with the postsynaptic muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. To investigate this hypothesis, the adult mouse muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha(2)beta delta epsilon) was heterologously expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes and activated by the application of acetylcholine (10 microM).

The potency of new muscle relaxants on recombinant muscle-type acetylcholine receptors.

Unlabelled: We studied the inhibition of fetal (gamma-nAChR) and adult (epsilon-nAChR) muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by the two new nondepolarizing muscle relaxants (NDMRs) rocuronium and rapacuronium, the metabolite 3-desacetyl rapacuronium (Org 9488), and five other, longer-used NDMRs (pancuronium, vecuronium, mivacurium, d-tubocurarine, and gallamine). Receptors were expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes by cytoplasmic injection of subunit complementary RNAs. Functional channels were activated with 10 microM acetylcholine, alone or in combination with various concentrations of the NDMRs.

Localization of the tandem pore domain K+ channel KCNK5 (TASK-2) in the rat central nervous system.

Tandem pore domain K+ channels (2P K+ channels) are responsible for background K+ currents. 2P K+ channels are the most numerous encoded K+ channels in the Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster genomes and to date 14 human 2P K+ channels have been identified. The 2P K+ channel TASK-2 (also named KCNK5) is sensitive to changes in extracellular pH, inhibited by local anesthetics and activated by volatile anesthetics.