Role of emotional processing in depressive responses to sex-hormone manipulation: a pharmacological fMRI study.

Sex-hormone fluctuations may increase risk for developing depressive symptoms and alter emotional processing as supported by observations in menopausal and pre- to postpartum transition. In this double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, we used blood-oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate if sex-steroid hormone manipulation with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) influences emotional processing. Fifty-six healthy women were investigated twice: at baseline (follicular phase of menstrual cycle) and 16 ± 3 days post intervention.

Role of Serotonin Transporter Changes in Depressive Responses to Sex-Steroid Hormone Manipulation: A Positron Emission Tomography Study.

Background: An adverse response to acute and pronounced changes in sex-hormone levels during, for example, the perimenopausal or postpartum period appears to heighten risk for major depression in women. The underlying risk mechanisms remain elusive but may include transiently compromised serotonergic brain signaling. Here, we modeled a biphasic ovarian sex hormone fluctuation using a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) and evaluated if emergence of depressive symptoms was associated with change in cerebral serotonin transporter (SERT) binding following intervention.

What is the best hydration regimen to prevent contrast media-induced nephrotoxicity?

Background: Hydration is a commonly used method to prevent the decline in GFR after contrast media (CM) application. So far, there have been no controlled, randomized trials investigating the most effective route of fluid administration.

Methods: Thirty-nine patients with normal renal function (65 +/- 9 years, serum creatinine 0.

[Het gebruik van chemische oorlogsagentia: historiek en toxicologische aspecten].

The first wholesale use of chemical warfare agents took place in World War I. These agents can be classified either as "weapons", like choking agents, nose agents, vesicants and nerve agents, or as "expedients", like smoking agents and defoliants, depending on the fact if they are used with the purpose either to kill or to incapacitate the enemy or to interfere with his fighting performances, or if they are only applied in view of an easier enforcement of certain military operations. In this paper the history of chemical warfare will be expounded concisely, starting from the period of the "Great War" (1914-1918) up to the more recent conflicts like the first and the second Gulf War.

Postsynaptic neuromuscular dysfunction in organophosphate induced intermediate syndrome.

A 65-year-old Caucasian female developed an intermediate syndrome seven days after an acute cholinergic crisis, caused by the ingestion of fenthion. Cholinesterase activity in the blood, plasma and red cells was monitored daily by the method according to Nenner and serial serum fenthion levels were measured by capillary gas chromatography. Electromyographic studies showed fade on tetanic stimulation by means of surface electrodes at 20 Hz of the left M.

Saliva concentrations of disopyramide cannot substitute the drug's plasma concentrations.

For many drugs the salivary concentration corresponds to the free plasma drug concentration, which may be more closely related to drug activity or toxicity than the total plasma drug concentration. In this study a preliminary investigation was undertaken to determine the feasibility of monitoring saliva levels of disopyramide, an antiarrhythmic drug, for clinical and toxicological purposes. Single oral doses of this compound were administered to healthy volunteers.

Disposition of tilidine in a fatal poisoning in man.

A fatal intoxication due to the ingestion of tilidine, a narcotic analgesic, in conjunction with ethanol, is described. Tilidine and its two active metabolites, nortilidine and bisnortilidine, were identified and quantitated in the biological fluids and tissues by thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas-liquid chromatography with sensitive nitrogen-phosphorus detection (GLC/NPD) and gas-liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC/MS). The toxicological results are compared with previously reported 14C-tilidine tissue distributions in rats following oral administration and limited tissue data in a previously reported human fatality.

In vitro adsorption of tilidine HCl by activated charcoal.

In vitro studies were carried out in order to determine the adsorption of tilidine HCl, a narcotic analgesic, by activated charcoal (max. adsorption capacity 185.5 mg/g of charcoal).

Combined use of fused silica capillary columns and nitrogen-phosphorus detection for the toxicological analysis of illicit heroin samples.

Capillary GC is applied to the toxicological analysis of illicit heroin samples. The combined use of a permanently deactivated fused silica capillary column, and a nitrogen-phosphorus detector (NPD), allows the separation and determination of nanogram amounts of underivatised opiates, using a direct injection technique.

A double fatality with children due to fumigated wheat.

Two children, four and two years old, played on top of wheat, that had been fumigated with malathion, pyrethrum and phosphine. Both died within 18 hours. Because after the autopsy, death could not be attributed to any organic or violent cause, a toxicological analysis was carried out.