Accuracy of investigations for asymptomatic colorectal liver metastases.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the accuracy of the most promising imaging and tumor marker tests in liver metastasis diagnosis on follow-up of asymptomatic colorectal cancer patients during a median of 57 months after primary tumor resection.

Methods: One hundred patients, who were considered free of liver metastases after primary colorectal cancer resection and conventional follow-up, were screened for liver metastases by computerized tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound scans, ultrasound Doppler and isotope assessment of changes in hepatic arterial and portal venous flow, and serum estimation of carcinoembryonic antigen. Patients were followed up during a median of 41 months to identify those who developed liver metastases.

Improved diagnosis of extraheptic biliary atresia by high frequency ultrasound of the gall bladder.

Ultrasound scanning using a 13 MHz probe was performed on 158 infants, aged 12 weeks or less, presenting with conjugated hyperbilirubinaemia. The gall bladder was identified in 156 infants, 35 of whom had biliary atresia. The two patients in whom no gall bladder was seen both had biliary atresia.

Ultrasound features of the gall bladder in infants presenting with conjugated hyperbilirubinaemia.

An initial investigation of 313 patients suggested that the ultrasound appearances of gall bladder shape and wall structure might be abnormal in infants with biliary atresia. These observations were then tested in a prospective study. In this study, 346 infants, aged 12 weeks or less, presenting with conjugated hyperbilirubinaemia underwent ultrasound scanning.

Effect of a 30-minute infusion of dobutamine hydrochloride on hind limb blood flow and hemodynamics in halothane-anesthetized horses.

Objective: To evaluate the hemodynamic effects of dobutamine hydrochloride (0.5 microg/kg of body weight/min) in halothane-anesthetized horses.

Animals: 6 adult Thoroughbred horses.

A comparison of the haemodynamic effects of isoflurane and halothane anaesthesia in horses.

The purpose of this study was to compare the haemodynamic effects of equipotent isoflurane and halothane anaesthesia. Six adult horses were investigated on two separate occasions at least 4 weeks apart. On both occasions anaesthesia was induced by ketamine 2.