Olfactory sensitivity of rats with transection of the lateral olfactory tract.

Rats with discrete transection of the lateral olfactory tract (LOT) were tested using operant conditioning and psychophysical methods for their amyl acetate intensity difference threshold and absolute detection threshold. Experimental rats performed as well as controls on the easiest problems of both threshold series but their intensity difference threshold was approximately 2.5 times as high as controls and their absolute detection threshold was approximately 2.

Olfactory pathways and the sense of smell.

Rats were trained using operant conditioning to detect isoamyl acetate vapor generated by an olfactometer. They received lesions of olfactory pathways and were tested for retention of the odor detection task and trained on two-odor tasks. Deficits in odor detection and two-odor discrimination were related to the extent to which lesions disconnected the olfactory bulb from the forebrain.

Suspected pulmonary embolism and lung scan interpretation: trial of a Bayesian reporting method.

Objective: To determine whether a Bayesian method of lung scan (LS) reporting could influence the management of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE).

Design: 1) A descriptive study of the diagnostic process for suspected PE using the new reporting method; 2) a non-experimental evaluation of the reporting method comparing prospective patients and historical controls; and 3) a survey of physicians' reactions to the reporting innovation.

Setting: University of Virginia Hospital.

Plasma DNA. A simple, rapid test for aiding the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

Previously, we reported that the sensitivity of plasma DNA for patients with pulmonary emboli was 83 to 88 percent. To confirm these findings in a more comprehensive study, we collected plasma samples from 137 consecutive patients undergoing 148 ventilation-perfusion lung scans for pulmonary embolism. DNA was measured using a counter-immunoelectrophoresis technique that used high titer precipitating double-stranded DNA antibody from a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Incidence of 24-hour faculty coverage in teaching EDs.

There is growing concern in academic emergency medicine as to the appropriateness of 24-hour faculty coverage in the teaching emergency department. We surveyed 170 teaching emergency departments, 49 of which had approved emergency medicine residencies, asking for information regarding 24-hour faculty coverage. We were able to separate each department into one of 15 profiles based on the two variables of average ED yearly census and hospital type.