Morphological and histochemical study of human submucosal laryngeal glands.

Background: The respiratory submucosal glands are a major source of secretions in the airway. Human submucosal laryngeal glands have been scarcely studied, with no works existing about their ultrastructure and histochemistry.

Methods: Samples of epiglottis, ventricle, false vocal folds and true vocal folds were fixed in 10% buffered formalin for histochemical study with conventional and carbohydrate lectin histochemistry.

Calcium channels in excitable cells: divergent genotypic and phenotypic expression of alpha 1-subunits.

The Ba2+ currents and mRNA levels of four members of the rat brain family of alpha 1-subunit Ca2+ channel genes were examined and compared in the rat cell lines GH3 and PC-12 and in the mouse lines NIE-115 and AtT-20. The RNA was measured with ribonuclease protection assays using probes derived from rat brain (rb) Ca2+ channel cDNAs (rbA, rbB, rbC, and rbD), and the Ba2+ currents were studied by whole cell patch-clamp recording. L-, N-, P-, and T-type currents were discriminated by the voltage dependence and pharmacological properties of Ba2+ currents.

Functional expression and properties of the human skeletal muscle sodium channel.

Full-length deoxyribonucleic acid, complementary (cDNA) constructs encoding the alpha-subunit of the adult human skeletal muscle Na+ channel, hSkM1, were prepared. Functional expression was studied by electrophysiological recordings from cRNA-injected Xenopus oocytes and from transiently transfected tsA201 cells. The Na+ currents of hSkM1 had abnormally slow inactivation kinetics in oocytes, but relatively normal kinetics when expressed in the mammalian cell line.

Restraint reduction in a nursing home and its impact on employee attitudes.

Objective: To reduce physical restraint use in a nursing home and increase employee support for the restraint-reduction program.

Design: A one-group pretest-posttest design with repeated measures was used to determine changes in restraint use with participants over a 14-month interval. All individuals employed at the nursing home were surveyed at two time periods to determine their opinions on restraint use.

Sodium channel mutations in paramyotonia congenita uncouple inactivation from activation.

Mutations in the adult human skeletal muscle Na+ channel alpha subunit cause the disease paramyotonia congenita. Two paramyotonia congenita mutations, R1448H and R1448C, substitute histidine and cysteine for arginine in the S4 segment of domain 4. These mutations, expressed in a cell line, have only small effects on the activation of Na+ currents, but mutant channels inactivate more slowly with less voltage dependence than wild-type channels and exhibit an enhanced rate of recovery from inactivation.

Pulse amplitude and frequency modulation of parathyroid hormone in primary hyperparathyroidism.

Pulsatile secretion of PTH in human subjects has been described recently. However, the pattern of PTH secretion in primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) remains to be characterized. In this study intact PTH was measured in 9 female patients with pHPT.

Pulse amplitude and frequency modulation of parathyroid hormone in early postmenopausal women before and on hormone replacement therapy.

Although the pathophysiology of postmenopausal osteoporosis has been investigated extensively, it is still not established in what respect PTH is related to the events. Recently, consistent data on the pulsatile secretion of PTH in man have been published. In this study intact PTH was measured in six early postmenopausal women before and after 6 months of hormone replacement therapy (HRT; 0.

Managed care: implications for underrepresented physicians.

The advent of health care reform has brought uncertainty to the lives of underrepresented physicians and their patients. Managed care promises increased numbers of primary care physicians and fewer specialists; increased numbers of primary care physicians and fewer specialists; increased numbers of group practices and health maintenance organizations (HMOs); and combinations of health care plans and insurance plans. Solo practice fee-for-service physicians will find it more difficult to compete.

The validity of Australian ancestry statistics.

"This article examines the contrast between objective and subjective perceptions of ancestry hidden in the 1986 [Australian] Census definitions which vitiates the published results and points to the limitations of validating uncertain collections by relating them to cognate series. It looks at the collection of ancestry statistics as a bold attempt at an impossible task which has yielded results that are often inaccurate, sometimes misleading and liable to abuse in their interpretation. It is suggested that some of the features of cultural structure could be more reliably ascertained by small sample surveys of perceptions and aspirations.

Panning transfected cells for electrophysiological studies.

Panning was used to select co-transfected cells expressing plasmid-encoded ion channels. Adherent cells were cotransfected by the CaPO4 method with a plasmid encoding a cell surface marker (CD8) along with another plasmid encoding an ion channel. At 1-3 days post-transfection, the cells were suspended, treated with a biotinylated CD8-specific antibody and placed into streptavidin-coated bacterial petri dishes.

Morphologic and clinical features of fibrillary glomerulonephritis versus immunotactoid glomerulopathy.

Renal diseases characterized by Congo red-negative extracellular fibrillary deposits, either organized arrays of larger, microtubular fibrils (immunotactoid glomerulopathy [IT]) or smaller, randomly organized fibrils (fibrillary glomerulonephritis), have been recognized recently. The clinical significance, if any, of the distinction of these patterns has not been determined. On review of all renal biopsy specimens evaluated in a private referral renal pathology laboratory over the last 11 years, 26 cases with fibrillary glomerulonephritis pattern were identified and compared with our six most recent cases with the IT pattern.

[HMPAO-SPECT in Alzheimer-type dementia and major depression with memory disorders].

The aim of the present study was to see whether HMPAO-SPECT may contribute to the differentiation between dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and major depression (MD). The results in 77 patients with memory impairment were evaluated. 48 patients suffered from DAT and 29 from MD.

[The "anxiety" ambulatory clinic: development and outlook].

The study herewith represents the conception of the Bonn "anxiety"-ambulance, which was established in the University of Bonn, Department of Psychiatry, in January 1991. Besides we report our experiences from the first four months after opening of our ambulance and present first results.

Health and the welfare of U.S. business.

Business leaders continue to blame the skyrocketing cost of health care for jeopardizing the global competitiveness of U.S. industries, and they continue to turn to Washington for the solution.

Differentiation of multi-infarct and Alzheimer dementia by intracranial hemodynamic parameters.

Background And Purpose: The differentiation between the Alzheimer and multi-infarct types of dementia may still be equivocal considering clinical criteria, neuropsychological tests, and imaging techniques. Cerebral microangiopathic alterations underlying multi-infarct dementia should allow the characterization of dementia subgroups.

Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of multi-infarct dementia (n = 17; mean age, 69.

Clinical pathologic profiles of dogs and turkeys with congestive heart failure, either noninduced or induced by rapid ventricular pacing, and turkeys with furazolidone toxicosis.

Characteristic alterations in the serum and urine biochemical profiles of Doberman Pinschers with congestive heart failure (CHF) resulting from idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy were determined. We compared these alterations with those observed in 2 other models of CHF: rate overload induced by rapid ventricular pacing in dogs, and biventricular hypertrophy and dilatation induced in turkey poults by furazolidone toxicosis. Serum and urine biochemical changes in both models of CHF in dogs were mild to moderate in degree, and were moderately consistent.

Lidocaine block of human heart sodium channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes.

The tertiary amine lidocaine is used clinically for preventing cardiac arrhythmias, and has been widely studied on mammalian tissue. Xenopus oocytes were used as an expression system to study the effect of lidocaine on a sodium (Na) channel, derived from a full-length human heart (hH1) cDNA clone. The concentration dependence of the lidocaine block of hH1 Na current was consistent with a binding stoichiometry of 1:1.

Chimeric study of sodium channels from rat skeletal and cardiac muscle.

Two isoforms of voltage-dependent Na channels, cloned from rat skeletal muscle, were expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The currents of rSkM1 and rSkM2 differ functionally in 4 properties: (i) tetrodotoxin (TTX) sensitivity, (ii) mu-conotoxin (mu-CTX) sensitivity, (iii) amplitude of single channel currents, and (iv) rate of inactivation. rSkM1 is sensitive to both TTX and mu-CTX.

Susceptibilities of members of the Bacteroides fragilis group to 11 antimicrobial agents.

The susceptibilities of 200 clinical isolates of the Bacteroides fragilis group to 11 antimicrobial agents were determined by the broth microdilution method of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. All isolates were susceptible to imipenem and ticarcillin-clavulanic acid. The rates of resistance to cefoxitin and clindamycin were low (4 and 6%, respectively), while those to ceftizoxime and cefotetan were higher (10.

Intraoperative prediction of ischaemic injury of the bowel: a comparison of laser Doppler flowmetry and tissue oximetry to histological analysis.

Intraoperative diagnosis of inadequate colonic perfusion would contribute to prevention of ischaemic colitis after abdominal aortic reconstructions. The aim of this study was to evaluate laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and tissue oximetry (TpO2) as predictors of the development of bowel necrosis. Devascularised loops of colon and ileum in anaesthetised pigs were divided into 10-20 mm segments and measurements of laser Doppler flux and TpO2 were performed in each segment.

[Anterior knee laxity in a healthy patient sample].

A prospective study investigates anterior knee laxity in 100 healthy subjects (mean age 24.5 years). Testing was performed by two examiners either clinically by Lachman test or by means of KT-1000 arthrometer.

[Recurrent inguinal hernias: surgery with transversalis fascia repair].

Some authors recommend different prosthetic repairs for treatment of recurrent groin hernia. In our institution groin hernias are treated by a modified Shouldice-repair, which considers the transversalis fascia layer only. In this prospective study 240 consecutive patients with 298 groin hernias were operated on.

Contact electrification and adhesion between dissimilar materials.

Simultaneous measurements of surface force and surface charge demonstrate strong attraction due to the spontaneous transfer of electrical charge from one smooth insulator (mica) to another (silica) as a result of simple, nonsliding contact in dry nitrogen. The measured surface charge densities are 5 to 20 millicoulombs per square meter after contact. The work required to separate the charged surfaces is typically 6 to 9 joules per square meter, comparable to the fracture energies of ionic-covalent materials.