Clues of incomplete reversal of heparin in cardiac surgery.

Objectives: In our center, an unusual rate of patients had abnormalities of hemostasis in immediate postoperative period of cardiac surgery. Our objectives were to identify the cause of these sudden hemostasis abnormalities and to evaluate the performances of point of care coagulation testing.

Methods: In this prospective and descriptive study, we included 33 consecutive patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery for 1 month.

Integrated assessment of heavy metal (Pb, Zn, Cd) highway pollution: bioaccumulation in soil, Graminaceae and land snails.

To assess the contamination induced by traffic at the vicinity of a highway (A31, France), several complementary studies were carried out on two sites, with different profiles and traffic intensity. Concentrations of zinc, lead and cadmium were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in deposits, roadside soil and autochthonous plants (Graminaceae) gathered at the vicinity of the highway (1-320 m), and in the viscera of snails Helix aspersa, transferred as sentinel in the sites. According to the results obtained for different compartments, the highway induces a contamination on the surrounding environment, up to 320 m, but with the maximum contamination observed between 5 and 20 m: the concentrations measured in plants at the vicinity of the highway were 2.

Methods for toxicity assessment of contaminated soil by oral or dermal uptake in land snails: metal bioavailability and bioaccumulation.

Using two biological characteristics of the land snail (subspecies Helix aspersa aspersa and Helix aspersa maxima), i.e., soil eating and crawling on wet surfaces, methods were developed to assess the bioavailability of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Pb, and Zn) from soil and aqueous leachates of soil.

The snail as a target organism for the evaluation of industrial waste dump contamination and the efficiency of its remediation.

The diagnosis of contamination and the efficiency of remediation of an industrial waste dump (IWD) were done before and after remediation. For this study, two species of snails were used for passive and active biomonitoring: a nonnative species, Helix pomatia and young garden snails (Helix aspersa aspersa) of standardized rearing (age, 2 months). Bioaccumulation analysis of pollutants (cadmium, nickel, iron, lead, chromium, manganese, copper, and zinc) in viscera of the snails gave data on the evolution of the biotop biodisponibility over time.

Growing snails used as sentinels to evaluate terrestrial environment contamination by trace elements.

Young garden snails (Helix aspersa) reared in standard conditions (aged two months, mean weight 4.6 +/- 0.5 g) set as sentinels in cages laid on the soil for four weeks, give data for biomonitoring the environmental impact of chemicals on soil ecosystems in the field.

Comparison of the bioaccumulation capacities of copper and zinc in two snail subspecies (Helix).

Bioaccumulation analyses of copper and zinc were carried out in two snail subspecies (Helix aspersa aspersa and Helix aspersa maxima) after 3 months of controlled farming (out of ground) with foods of different formulations. The results reveal some clear interspecific differences in affinity toward copper and zinc. For the two metals considered, H.