9-1-1 Caller-Described Heart Attack Symptoms.

Introduction: Heart attacks (HAs) present clinically with varying symptoms, which are not always described by patients as chest pain (CP) or chest discomfort (CD). Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) select the CP/CD dispatch protocol for non-chest pain HA symptoms or classic HA complaint of CP/CD. Nevertheless, it is still unknown how often callers report HA symptoms other than CP/CD.

Properties of a new, long-lasting vaginal delivery system (LASRS) for contraceptive and antimicrobial agents.

In view of the need for improved vaginal formulations that are contraceptive, that may prevent transmission of sexually transmitted infections, or both, a new delivery system (base formulation; called Long Acting, Sustained Release of Spermicide, or LASRS) was developed that contains bioadhesive and other ingredients with a long history of safety, and was designed to provide long-lasting vaginal retention of the formulation and to minimize possible vaginal irritation caused by incorporated active ingredients. Nonoxynol-9 (N-9) was added as an active ingredient to study the vaginal irritating properties of the formulation and to assess its long-term effectiveness by postcoital spermicidal tests. In the first series of experiments, in vitro studies showed that the formulation spreads rapidly over a cellulose membrane, forming a bioadhesive layer that remained for at least 12 hours.

Confirmation of visual field abnormalities in the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study. Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study Group.

Objective: To determine the frequency with which visual field abnormalities observed on follow-up visual fields for patients in the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study were confirmed on retest.

Methods: Between April 1, 1994, and March 1, 1999, 21,603 visual fields were obtained from 1637 patients in the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study. When follow-up visual fields are outside the normal limits on the Glaucoma Hemifield Test, the Corrected Pattern Standard Deviation (P<.

Evaluation of CMC and HA solutions for adhesiolysis.

Aqueous hyaluronic acid (HA) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) solutions were tested as tissue-protective coatings during lysis of surgical adhesions by blunt dissection or electrocautery in a rat cecal abrasion model. Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was used as a tissue coating solution in 200 female Sprague-Dawley rats prior to controlled cecal abrasion with a surgical gauze-tipped rotary abrader (four 1.5-cm-diameter areas; 70 g weight/60 revolutions/130 rpm).