Beneficial effects of low-dose prostacyclin on cat intestinal perfusion during endotoxemia as evaluated with microdialysis and oxygen transport variables.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of low-dose prostacyclin on intestinal perfusion during endotoxemia.

Design: A randomized, blinded experimental study.

Setting: A university laboratory.

[Abciximab (ReoPro) in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes].

Platelet activation plays a major role in the pathophysiology of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Inhibition of platelet function is the basic pharmacological treatment of ACS. Platelet membrane glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, a new class of potent antiplatelet agents, have been used in the treatment of ACS and in the prevention of complications after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).

[Eptifibatide (Integrilin)].

Eptifibatide (Integrilin) is a specific blocker of the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor and an effective inhibitor of platelet aggregation. It reduces coronary events in patients with acute coronary syndromes and no elevation in the electrocardiographic ST segment. The present summary discusses the indications for the use of eptifibatide/Integrilin based on recent clinical trials and cost-benefit analyses.

Dextran, gelatin, and hydroxyethyl starch do not affect permeability for albumin in cat skeletal muscle.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of the three commercially available colloid solutions, 6% dextran 70, 6% hydroxyethyl starch (HES) 200/0.5, and 3.5% urea-linked gelatin on permeability for human albumin in a skeletal muscle in vivo model by evaluating their effects on the reflection coefficient for albumin.

Contrast echocardiography for detection of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations.

Background: Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) lead to stroke, brain abscess, and hemorrhage in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). The current screening approach for PAVMs in HHT patients with chest radiograph (CXR) and oxygen shunt study has not been validated and is thought to be insensitive. We hypothesized that agitated saline contrast echocardiography (ECHO) would be a useful screening test for PAVMs.

[DANAMI. A Danish study of invasive versus conservative treatment of patients with post-infarction ischemia who had received thrombolytic therapy].

Introduction: To compare an invasive strategy employing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or coronary artery by-pass grafting (CABG) with a medical strategy in patients who had received thrombolytic treatment for first acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and with signs of inducible ischaemia.

Methods: In a prospective study 1008 patients were randomized, 503 to invasive treatment, of whom 266 (52.9%) had PTCA, and 147 (29.

Pathophysiology of brain insult. Therapeutic implications with the Lund Concept.

This paper describes some major implications of brain insult following trauma or intracerebral haemorrhage for the development of brain oedema and compromised microcirculation. Secondary insults such as an increase in intracranial pressure and development of contusion and penumbra zone areas, as well as their bearing on outcome, are discussed. A therapeutic protocol is presented which aims at keeping intracranial volume within acceptable limits by counteraction of interstitial brain oedema, reduction in intracerebral blood volume, and improvement of microcirculation around contusions.

Health related quality of life after conservative or invasive treatment of inducible postinfarction ischaemia. DANAMI study group.

Objective: To assess health related quality of life in patients with inducible postinfarction ischaemia.

Design: A questionnaire based follow up study on patients randomised to conservative or invasive treatment because of postinfarction ischaemia.

Setting: Seven county hospitals in eastern Denmark and the Heart Centre, National University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Low-dose prostacyclin in treatment of severe brain trauma evaluated with microdialysis and jugular bulb oxygen measurements.

Background: The endogenous substance prostacyclin is a substance with the potential to improve microcirculation and oxygenation around contusions in the brain following a head trauma by its vasodilatory, antiaggregatory and antiadhesive effects. Microdialysis measurements of local concentrations of selected interstitial substances in the brain, and measurements of venous jugular bulb oxygenation reflecting overall brain oxygenation, might be useful to evaluate possible therapeutic effects of a specific therapy, such as treatment with prostacyclin.

Methods: This case report study on six patients, of whom five were given prostacyclin, includes cerebral microdialysis measurements of interstitial lactate (n=5), pyruvate (n=3), glycerol (n=5) and glucose (n=4), and is combined with measurements of venous jugular bulb oxygenation in three of the patients.

Reduced mortality after severe head injury will increase the demands for rehabilitation services.

Primary Objective: In 1989, a new therapy to reduce intracranial pressure in severely head-injured patients was introduced in Lund. The new treatment reduced mortality significantly. The present study describes the quality of life for the survivors.

Microdialysis-based long-term measurements of energy-related metabolites in the rat brain following a fluid percussion trauma.

The aim of the study was to evaluate an experimental approach based on a fluid percussion rat trauma model in combination with the microdialysis technique for the analysis of cerebral interstitial biochemical alterations following head trauma, and to test the hypothesis that the previously observed acute accumulation of lactate and increase in the lactate pyruvate ratio may persist for several days following trauma. We analyzed how lactate, pyruvate, and glucose were altered in the cortex adjacent to the contusion and in the contralateral side of the brain following a traumatic brain injury. The results were compared with those from sham-operated animals.

Spatial learning affects immature granule cell survival in adult rat dentate gyrus.

Neurogenesis occurs throughout life in mammalian dentate gyrus. The effect of learning on newborn cell survival was studied in rat. Rats were trained on a hippocampus-dependent spatial learning task by using Morris water maze.

Effects on capillary fluid permeability and fluid exchange of albumin, dextran, gelatin, and hydroxyethyl starch in cat skeletal muscle.

Objective: To evaluate the peripheral hemodynamic effects in a skeletal muscle in vivo model of the four commercially available colloid solutions, 20% human albumin, 6% dextran-70, 6% hydroxyethyl starch 200/0.5 (HES), and 3.5% urea-linked gelatin.

Coronary angiographic findings and troponin T in patients with unstable angina pectoris.

This study sought to identify differences in coronary anatomic pathology in patients with unstable angina and elevated versus nonelevated serum troponin T values. Previous studies have shown a worse prognosis in unstable angina patients with elevated serum troponin T values. Consecutive patients (n = 117) with Braunwald class IIIB angina were included in the study.

The Angiotensin-converting Enzyme Inhibition Post Revascularization Study (APRES).

Objective: This study was performed to assess the effect of treatment with ramipril on the incidence of cardiac events after invasive revascularization in patients with asymptomatic moderate left ventricular dysfunction.

Background: In patients with angina pectoris and left ventricular dysfunction, both invasive revascularization and treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors reduce cardiac mortality and morbidity. Whether there is a benefit from combining the two treatment strategies has never been evaluated prospectively.

Cytochemical and immunocytochemical methods for electron microscopic detection of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in brain areas.

This paper reports on protocols for the cytochemical and immunocytochemical determination of the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in brain areas by electron microscopy (EM). The cytochemical assay consists of a pre-embedding staining of small and flat tissue blocks, which were first mildly fixed and then floated in a staining mixture based on the reduction of tetrazolium salts by NADPH. Tissue blocks were then washed, post-fixed in OsO(4), dehydrated through graded ethanol concentrations and embedded in resin.

Are there proliferating neuronal precursors in adult rat dorsal root ganglia?

The origin of new neurons in dorsal root ganglia of adult rat was investigated using an experimental model in which postnatal neurogenesis naturally occurring is enhanced and restricted in a brief period of life. Possible mitotic origin of new neurons was investigated by means of 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine, anti-NF 200 antibody was used to detect if proliferated cells showed a neuronal phenotype. The results suggest that postnatal neurogenesis in dorsal root ganglia could depend only in part on precursor proliferation and that normally new neurons derive from the late differentiation of postmitotic cells.

Very early diagnosis and risk stratification of patients admitted with suspected acute myocardial infarction by the combined evaluation of a single serum value of cardiac troponin-T, myoglobin, and creatine kinase MB(mass).

Aims: The diagnostic and prognostic capacity of biochemical markers of acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department were evaluated in consecutive patients (n=155) with suspected acute myocardial infarction.

Methods And Results: Serum myoglobin >/=110 microg. l(-1)and creatine kinase MB(mass)>/=5 microg.

Prostacyclin reduces microvascular fluid conductivity in cat skeletal muscle through opening of ATP-dependent potassium channels.

Prostacyclin is suggested to reduce microvascular permeability, but the cellular mechanisms mediating this response in the microvascular endothelial cells are still unknown. Considering that prostacyclin relaxes vascular smooth muscle cells via opening of ATP-dependent potassium channels, and opening of ATP-dependent potassium channels in the endothelial cells is suggested to influence microvascular permeability, this study was designed to test (1) if ATP-dependent potassium channels are involved in the regulation of microvascular hydraulic permeability, (2) if the permeability-reducing effect of prostacyclin is mediated through opening of ATP-dependent potassium channels, and (3) if cAMP is involved in this process. An autoperfused cat calf hindlimb was used as experimental model, and microvascular hydraulic permeability (conductivity) was estimated by a capillary filtration coefficient (CFC) technique.

Postnatal proliferation of DRG non-neuronal cells in vitamin E-deficient rats.

Changes in the number of satellite cells in neuron body sheaths in dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) were studied from 1 to 5 months of age in control and in vitamin E-deficient rats; furthermore, the satellite cell proliferation rate was detected in the same groups of animals with immunohistochemistry for 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU). The number of satellite cells in sheaths of DRG neurons increased in the period of life considered both in control and in vitamin E-deficient rats. Satellite cell proliferation was observed in both groups, but its rate was found to be higher in vitamin E-deficient rats.

Neurogenesis in the adult rat dentate gyrus is enhanced by vitamin E deficiency.

Neurogenesis occurs throughout adult life in rat dentate gyrus. Factors and mechanisms of adult neurogenesis regulation are not well known. Vitamin E deficiency has been found to deliver a neurogenetic potential in rat dorsal root ganglia.