Sodium lactate infusions and panic attacks: a review and critique.

Response to sodium lactate infusions has been proposed as an experimental model and a biologic marker for panic attacks. Several authors have claimed that patients suffering from panic attacks, but not normal controls, "panic" in response to lactate. A careful review of methods and results of 13 studies, however, reveals serious methodologic problems, lack of specificity and sensitivity, and a failure to consider cognitive variables.

A tubal plug and clip method for female sterilization.

Animal studies using rabbits, stumptailed macaques monkeys, and baboons demonstrate that the tubal plug and clip device is an effective and safe method for female sterilization in these animal models. The devices were placed in 18 baboons that were bred regularly for six to 18 months without conception. Ten of these 18 animals conceived within 12 months after removal of the devices and carried normal pregnancies without any other surgical procedure.

Restoration of cell volume and the reversal of carbohydrate transport and growth inhibition of osmotically upshocked Escherichia coli.

Resumption of growth in osmotically upshocked Escherichia coli was effected only by an external stimulus (betaine treatment) in severe upshock, but was spontaneous in less severe upshock. In either case, growth resumption was preceded by a reversal of glucose transport inhibition, and that reversal was preceded by a recovery of cell volume. We hypothesize that deformation of the membrane by osmotic stress results in conversion of a membrane component of the transport system to a less functional conformation, which results in the inhibition of transport and the consequent inhibition of growth.

Osmotic stress drastically inhibits active transport of carbohydrates by Escherichia coli.

In intact Escherichia coli cells, severe osmotic stress almost totally inhibited active transport of carbohydrate by all of the systems known to transport carbohydrates in E. coli: group translocation (glucose), binding-protein mediated transport (maltose), proton symport (lactose), and sodium cotransport (melibiose). Detailed study of glucose transport showed that this inhibition of transport was not secondary to the inhibition of growth by osmotic stress, but rather that the inhibition of transport of a source of carbon and energy was sufficient to cause the complete inhibition of growth observed during severe osmotic upshock.

Independence of cyclic AMP and relA gene stimulation of glycogen synthesis in intact Escherichia coli cells.

Previous studies from our laboratory established that in Escherichia coli, glycogen synthesis is regulated by both the relA gene, which mediates the stringent response, and by cyclic AMP. However, those studies raised the question of whether this dual regulatory system functions in an independent or a dependent manner. We show here that this regulation is independent, i.

Evidence that cyclic AMP stimulates bacterial glycogen synthesis by relieving AMP inhibition of and by increasing the cellular level of ADP-glucose synthetase.

Using Escherichia coli mutants that possess an ADP-glucose synthetase (EC 2.7.7.

Identification of GTP as a physiologically relevant inhibitor of Escherichia coli ADP-glucose synthetase.

We show that physiological concentrations of GTP can significantly inhibit wild-type Escherichia coli ADP-glucose synthetase (the rate-limiting enzyme of bacterial glycogen synthesis) and that mutant-strain enzymes known to show less inhibition by physiological AMP levels also show less inhibition by physiological levels of GTP. This decreased inhibition by both AMP and GTP can almost totally account for the higher cellular rates of glycogen synthesis observed in the mutant strains. In addition, in metabolic conditions where we have shown that cellular glycogen synthesis increases, cellular GTP levels are known to decrease.

Isoelectric focusing--polynucleotide/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. A technique to separate and characterize nuclease activities.

Individual native nuclease activities from human leucocytes are separated by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in an apparatus that allows the simultaneous running of 28 gels. Proteins are separated by isoelectric focusing in a disc gel, followed by electrophoresis into a slab gel containing DNA. Protein denaturants are avoided in the second dimension by the use of a running pH well above the optimal pH for DNAase (deoxyribonuclease) activity.

Clinical application of the P3 component of event-related potentials. I. Normal aging.

Normal adult volunteer subjects ranging in age from 18 to 90 years participated in a study in which analogous auditory and visual paradigms, with infrequently occurring target and non-target events, were used to elicit event-related potentials (ERPs) with a prominent P3 component. Of the 135 subjects participating, 66 completed both auditory and visual paradigms. The amplitude and latency of P3 were analyzed using average ERPs, single trials (adaptive filter) and principal components analysis (PCA).

Clinical application of the P3 component of event-related potentials. II. Dementia, depression and schizophrenia.

Patients with dementia, schizophrenia and depression were tested with analogous auditory and visual event-related potential (ERP) paradigms designed to elicit a large P3. The patient groups were compared to age normative predictions derived from a large control sample for a number of ERP and behavioral variables. The results were similar for the auditory and visual paradigms.

Fully-automated assay by liquid chromatography for routine drug monitoring in body fluids--method development with biological samples.

A fully-automated liquid chromatograph based on alternated pre-column enrichment technique has been developed for routine drug monitoring of body fluids using a column switching technique. Advantages of the method include the facility of direct injection of the body fluid onto the chromatograph and the simultaneous detection of both polar and non-polar metabolites under isocratic or gradient elution conditions.

ERPs and Psychopathology. I. Behavioral process issues.

The clinical study of ERPs has an inherent defect--a self-selection of clinical populations that hampers equating of clinically defined groups on factors extraneous to the independent variables. Such ex post facto studies increase the likelihood of confounding variables in the interpretation of findings. Hence, the development of lawful relationships between clinical variables and ERPs is impeded and the fulfillment of description, explanation, prediction, and control in brain science is thwarted.

Rapid, sensitive and fully automated high-performance liquid chromatographic assay with fluorescence detection for sulmazole and metabolites.

Sulmazole (2-[(2-methoxy-4-methylsulfinyl)phenyl]-3H-imidazo [4,5-b] pyridine; AR-L 115 BS) and two metabolites (sulfide, sulfone) were quantified from directly injected body fluids (plasma, urine, bile) after high-performance liquid chromatographic separation. No internal standard is needed, which is particularly advantageous when fluorescence detection is established. After automated pre-column enrichment on Corasil C18 (37-50 microns), the parent compound and biotransformation products could be backflushed and chromatographed on ODS-Hypersil (5 microns) with a mixture of 0.

Marijuana-induced primary process content in the TAT.

Seventy-two normal adult male subjects wrote TAT stories under baseline and either placebo- or marijuana-ingestion conditions. Marijuana subjects received 20 mg. doses of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol.

A comparative trial of three treatment schedules for the eradication of scabies.

A trial of three treatment schedules, consisting of 1% gamma benzene hexachloride (GBH) lotion applied head to toe and left on the body for 2, 6, or 12 to 24 hours was conducted on an island of 2,076 persons, approximately 70% of whom had clinical evidence of scabies. The island is situated off the north coast of the Republic of Panama. Examination at 1 month after therapy showed that both the 6-hour and 12- to 24-hour cure rate was high (96% and 98%).