Clinical characteristics of patients with fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia, also known as fibrositis and muscle rheumatism, is a common, noninflammatory, painful musculoskeletal disorder. It is common between the ages of 30 and 60 years and has a female to male ratio of 5 to 1. Essential symptoms of fibrositis are pain, fatigue, disturbed sleep, morning stiffness and local tenderness.

Effects of drag reducing polymer on atherosclerosis.

In order to determine the effect of drag reducing polymers on the occurrence of atherosclerosis, the Guinea pigs were used as the experimental animals. The inhibitory effect of a drag reducing polymer (polyacrylamide) on atherosclerosis in the aortas of Guinea pigs on a high cholesterol diet (2%) was investigated over a period of 6 months. The aortas, livers, kidneys and lungs of the animals, which were separated into four experimental groups (control, polymer, cholesterol and cholesterol + polymer) were also investigated both macroscopically and light microscopically.