Fluoride excretion in children after sevoflurane anaesthesia.

Background: Defluorination of sevoflurane is catalysed by the hepatic enzyme cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1). Data about the ontogenesis (developmental variations in activity) of this enzyme suggest a low metabolism of sevoflurane during the first months of life.

Methods: To test this hypothesis, 45 children less than 48 months of age undergoing sevoflurane anaesthesia were enrolled in a prospective open clinical trial.

Serum selenium in melanoma and epidermotropic cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

As several studies have demonstrated a relationship between decreased serum selenium concentrations and the frequency of certain cancers, we studied these concentrations in two kinds of cutaneous tumour cancer: melanoma and epidermotropic cutaneous lymphoma. We first determined the predictive value of the selenium assay for the frequency of recurrences in stage I and II melanomas and then considered the relationship between serum selenium concentrations before treatment and therapeutic response. Two hundred melanomas (81 stage I, 63 stage II, 56 stage III) and 51 epidermotropic cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) (8 stage I, 24 stage II, 10 stage III, 9 stage IV) were included in the study.

An evaluation of the biological significance of aluminium in plasma and hair of patients on long-term hemodialysis.

In hemodialyzed patients, the risk of toxicity attributed to the body accumulation of aluminium (Al) justifies the need for monitoring Al in various human media. In this study, Al concentrations in the hair and plasma of 78 hemodialyzed patients with chronic renal failure and of 351 healthy volunteers were measured by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman effect. Plasma Al concentrations in patients were significantly higher than in the controls and positively correlated with time on dialysis.

["Medicolegal" bone fluorosis. Apropos of 2 cases of possible criminal poisoning].

We report two cases of skeletal fluorosis in two men, 55 and 69 year-old. The physical findings and the roentgenograms were typical and chemical analysis confirmed the diagnosis. Surprisingly, fluoride concentrations in blood and urine were increased at the beginning of the hospitalizations and lower during the hospitalizations.