High intensity focused ultrasound for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: early United States clinical experience.

High intensity focused ultrasound via a transrectal approach was used to treat 15 patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia. The first 10 of these 15 patients underwent continuous temperature monitoring of the periprostatic region throughout the treatment. Patients undergoing transperineal thermocouple placement for the purpose of thermometry were treated while under general or spinal anesthesia, whereas 4 of the 5 remaining patients were successfully treated using intravenous sedation alone.

Changes in plasma bile acids, plasma amino acids, and hepatic enzyme pools as indices of functional impairment in liver-damaged sheep.

Plasma bile acids, plasma amino acids, and the total hepatic pools of aspartate aminotransferase, gamma glutamyltransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase, and sorbitol dehydrogenase were compared in control sheep (Group 1), sheep with subclinical pyrrolizidine alkaloid toxicosis (Group 2), and in sheep with acute hepatocellular necrosis associated with the hemolytic phase of chronic copper poisoning (Group 3). Subclinical pyrrolizidine alkaloid toxicosis was not associated with any changes in bile acid or amino acid status but was associated with a significant decline in the hepatic pools of sorbitol dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase. This observation could not be explained in terms of enzyme leakage from damaged hepatocytes and suggested that pyrrolizidine alkaloids might specifically inhibit hepatocellular enzyme synthesis.

Assessment of the potential toxicity of a poison for rabbits, pindone (2-pivalyl 1, 3 indandione), to domestic animals.

The toxicity of pindone, a rabbit poison, to horses, cattle, goats, chickens, dogs and cats was investigated, using extension of prothrombin time (PT) as an index of poisoning. The daily dose of pindone, administered for 5 days, ranged from 0.3 mg/kg for dogs to 2.