Methadone-induced rigid-chest syndrome after substantial overdose.

We report here the case of an infant who developed life-threatening rigid-chest syndrome after receiving an accidental overdose of methadone. The child responded to narcotic reversal. Pediatric physicians should be aware of this possible complication.

Association of nursing workload and unplanned extubations in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Objective: To estimate nursing workload from the patient acuity level (PAL) assigned to patients in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and to determine its influence on unplanned extubations.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: The 19-bed PICU of an urban, university-affiliated, tertiary children's hospital.

Interrelationship of phytoalexin production and disease resistance in selected peanut genotypes.

In peanuts, a mechanism of resistance to fungal infection is reportedly due to the synthesis of stilbene phytoalexins, which are antibiotic, low molecular weight metabolites. The phytoalexin-associated response of different peanut genotypes to exogenous invasion in the field has not been investigated and may be useful for breeding resistant peanut cultivars. Five peanut genotypes, Georgia Green, Tifton 8, C-99R, GK-7 High Oleic, and MARC I, which differ in resistance to major peanut diseases, were investigated for their ability to produce phytoalexins under field conditions in South Georgia in 2001 and 2002.

Assessment of experimental Bt events against fall armyworm and corn earworm in field corn.

Performance of experimental Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) MON events alone and pyramided with MON810 were evaluated over 3 yr in Georgia and Alabama. Ability of events to prevent whorl defoliation by the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E.

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service research on improving host-plant resistance to pests.

Host-plant resistance is an efficient, economical and environmentally benign approach used to manage many pests and diseases of agricultural crops. After nearly a century of research, the resources and tools have become more refined, but the basic tasks in breeding for resistance have not changed. Resistance must be identified, incorporated into elite germplasm, and deployed in a form useful to growers.

A procedure for placing pediatric femoral venous catheter tips near the right atrium.

Objective: To find a body measurement that would serve as an index for determining the length of femoral venous catheter to be inserted to achieve a position near the right atrium.

Methods: A candidate index measurement was chosen, and radiographic measurements of routine femoral venous catheter placements were compared with the placement that may have resulted from use of the index in a group of patients. In a subsequent group, the candidate index was used to choose catheter insertion length, the accuracy of which was again evaluated from routine placement radiographs.

Gastric emptying after gastric interposition for cancer of the esophagus or hypopharynx.

Transhiatal esophagectomy with primary anastomosis to the stomach (gastric pull-up) is an attractive surgical alternative to colic interposition in patients with cancer of the esophagus and hypopharynx. However, the lack of intrinsic gastric peristalsis and complaints by patients ol postprandial regurgitation prompted us to measure the effect of body posture on the rates of gastric emptying in these patients. The rates of solid and liquid gastric emptying were measured in 14 patients who had undergone gastric interposition for esophageal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma.