Chemical hazards analysis of resilient flooring for healthcare.

This article addresses resilient flooring, evaluating the potential health effects of vinyl flooring and the leading alternatives-synthetic rubber, polyolefin, and linoleum-currently used in the healthcare marketplace. The study inventories chemicals incorporated as components of each of the four material types or involved in their life cycle as feedstocks, intermediary chemicals, or emissions. It then characterizes those chemicals using a chemical hazard-based framework that addresses persistence and bioaccumulation, human toxicity, and human exposures.

Effect of an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist on the hemodynamic manifestations of group B streptococcal sepsis.

IL-1 is purported to be a proximal mediator in the cascade leading to septic shock. To characterize its hemodynamic effects and to ascertain whether its blockade would ameliorate the deleterious consequences of sepsis, an IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) was administered to 16 anesthetized, mechanically ventilated piglets that received a continuous infusion of group B streptococci (GBS) (7.5 x 10(7) colony-forming units/kg/min).

[Attempt at a standardized interpretation of testicular histopathology in male sterility].

The authors present a standard for interpreting the histopathology of testicular biopsies carried out during the framework of investigation of male sterility. The standard is based on a study of the alterations in the seminiferous tubes (T), the peritubular membranes (M) and the interstitial tissue (I). This method of histological assessment has been used to study 35 subjects on whom bilateral bipolar biopsies were carried out (130 specimens).