Acute mountain sickness and retinal evaluation by optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: Acute mountain sickness (AMS), the commonest form of altitude illness, might represent early-stage high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to evaluate optic nerve head (ONH) consequences following a sojourn to extreme altitude.

Methods: This prospective study included 4 high-altitude expeditions in Himalayas.

Skin coverage in frostbite injuries: experimental study.

Objective: Dermal grafting after secondary wound healing constitutes the mainstay of management in cold injury tissue defects, displacing the use of local flaps. We present an experimental study in which the following treatments for frostbite defects are compared: guided wound healing, partial-thickness skin grafts and cutaneous flaps, which by definition posses an independent vascular supply.

Material And Methods: A dorsal defect in the rabbit leg was created using a cold injury model.

Acute mountain sickness: influence of fluid intake.

Objective: High altitude and exposure to cold are associated with significant levels of dehydration because of cold-altitude urine output, high energy expenditures, and poor access to water. The aims of the present study were to measure the fluid intake and urine output among military mountaineers during their stay at high altitude and to study the level of fluid intake and decrease in urine output in relation with acute mountain sickness (AMS).

Methods: This study used an analytic prospective follow-up design of hydration-dehydration conditions of a group of mountaineers with similar characteristics (military group).

[Frostbite of the upper and lower limbs in an expert mountain climber: the value of bone scan in the prediction of amputation level].

A 38 year old man was admitted to our hospital 10 days after suffering a frostbite injury in hands and feet while practicing mountain climbing, at 8,100 meters of altitude, while he was trying to reach the top of the K2 mountain. A 99mTc-MDP bone scan performed in aseptic conditions showed: in hands: absence of bone uptake in the 3rd phalanx and distal portion of 2nd phalanx of the 5th finger of the left hand, and multiple areas of increased uptake in the distal portion of both hands. In feet: uptake decreases in the 2nd phalanx of the first toe of the left foot, and absence of bone uptake in the 3rd phalanx of the 2nd toe of the left foot, and in 2nd phalanx of the 1st toe and 3rd phalanx of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th toes of the right foot.

A new model for the induction of tumours in the forestomach of rats by N-methyl-N-nitrosourea.

Background And Aim: Experimental carcinogenesis models provide a useful tool in the study of the aetiopathogenesis and treatment of gastric cancer. We developed a model based on the administration of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (NMU) in Wistar rats for the induction of maximal yield of gastric carcinomas with a short latency period, and being exclusively localized at the gastric level.

Methods: A gastric antiperistaltic fistula was performed in 90 Wistar rats classified into eight different groups.

Collagen secretion by human gastric and skin fibroblasts: implications for ulcer healing.

Fibroblasts (FIB) play an important role in the wound-healing process. It is not known whether human skin and gastric FIB show different responses to regulatory compounds. In this study, we have examined the collagen production by these FIB after different stimuli.

Increased gastric acid secretion after massive small bowel resection is related to a decrease in enterogastrones.

The reported increase of gastric secretion after small bowel (SB) resection is controversial. To determine the effect of SB resection on gastric acid secretion we studied basal and dose step pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion as well as basal serum gastrin, secretin, neurotensin and postprandial gastrin levels in 12 dogs, before and after resection of 60% of the intestine representing both proximal (n = 6) and distal (n = 6) SB. Rat bioassay was also performed to rule out the presence of unknown gastric secretagogues in the blood.

Epidural neurostimulation in the treatment of frostbite.

Epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and conventional treatment produced good therapeutic effects in four young patients with frostbite of the lower limbs. The mechanism of action is unknown but the treatment resulted in rapid recovery with reduced pain and a more peripheral level of amputation. These preliminary results warrant further studies of SCS in the treatment of frostbite.

Role of beta-adrenoreceptors in the inhibition of gastric acid secretion after duodenal acidification in dogs.

The role of the adrenergic system in the duodenal mechanisms that inhibit gastric acid secretion (GAS) after duodenal acidification (DA) was studied. In 12 mongrel dogs, with gastric and duodenal fistulas, six experiments were carried out evaluating pentagastrin-stimulated GAS and serum secretin levels: DA (HCl 2 ml/min) for 1 h (group A); DA (HCl 2 ml/min) for 1 h plus propranolol (group B); DA (HCl 2 ml/min) for 1 h plus phentolamine (group C); duodenal instillation of saline (2 ml/min) for 1 h (group D); (duodenal instillation of saline (2 ml/min) for 1 h plus propranolol (group E), and duodenal instillation of saline (2 ml/min) for 1 h plus phentolamine (group F). Significantly (p less than 0.

[Effect of vagotomy on the duodenal mechanisms regulating gastric secretion].

Gastric acid secretion, gastrin and secretin serum levels after duodenal acidification were studied in 6 dogs, before and after a troncular vagotomy was performed in each one. After duodenal acidification in normal dogs, a 45.2% inhibition of gastric acid secretion with parallel 55-84% increases in the serum secretin levels, without changes in the serum gastrin levels, was noted.

[Role of gastrin in duodenal mechanisms of inhibition of gastric secretion in the dog and man].

Gastrin serum levels after acidification of the second portion of the duodenum were studied, in dogs and humans, while simultaneously measuring secretin levels and gastric acid secretion. After duodenal acidification in dogs, a 50% inhibition of gastric acid secretion with parallel 100% increases in the serum secretin levels was noted whereas gastrin serum levels did not change (after duodenal acidification). In humans, a 25% inhibition of gastric acid secretion with parallel 50% (not significative) increases in the secretin serum levels was noted.