Diaphragm myosin heavy chain composition shifts in aging chronically-undernourished Fischer 344 male rats.

The effects of chronic undernutrition (UN) on respiratory muscle were investigated during UN producing a 50% decrease in body weight over a prolonged period (45 weeks) in Fischer 344 male rats. This model focused on progressive, aging-related changes in myosin heavy chain (MHC) profile over time, in which the confounding effects of early development and late senescence were avoided. With aging toward late adulthood (68 weeks), MHC composition of control diaphragms was shifted, with decreased type I (slow) and IIA MHC, and increased type IIB and IIX (fast) MHC.

Evolutionary sperm morphology and morphometry in armadillos.

Little is known about the evolution of vertebrate spermatozoa. In most eutherian taxa a high degree of uniformity in sperm shapes and dimensions among species was observed. The aim of this work is to trace a possible evolutionary change in sperm morphology and morphometry in dasypodids.

Survival analysis of 306 European Spanish patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: To describe survival of lupus in South European Spanish patients.

Patients And Methods: Observational study of all SLE Spanish patients seen at three University Hospitals between 1975 and 1993. The charts of all patients were retrospectively reviewed.

Comparison of manual and automated cell counts in EDTA preserved synovial fluids. Storage has little influence on the results.

Objective: To determine the precision and agreement of synovial fluid (SF) cell counts done manually and with automated counters, and to determine the degree of variability of the counts in SF samples, kept in the tubes used for routine white blood cell (WBC) counts--which use liquid EDTA as anticoagulant--at 24 and 48 hours at 4 degrees C, and at room temperature.

Methods: To determine precision, cell counts were repeated 10 times--both manually and by an automated counter--in a SF sample of low, medium, and high cellularity. The variances were calculated to determine the interobserver variation in two manual (M1,M2) and two automated cell counts (C1,C2).

Additivity of the effects of retention interval and context change on latent inhibition: toward resolution of the context forgetting paradox.

Three experiments with rats examined retention interval and context switch effects factorially in the latent inhibition paradigm. In Experiment 1, a 28-day retention interval abolished a context switch effect on latent inhibition. In Experiment 2, re-exposure to the contexts before conditioning re-established the context switch effect at the 28-day interval.

The effect of context change upon long-term memory of CS duration.

An experiment with rats investigated forgetting of inhibition of delay in the conditioned suppression paradigm. The combined effects of contextual change and retention interval were tested. After a reliable temporal discrimination was reached, half of the rats received a test in the training context after a retention interval of 3 or 20 days.

Evaluation of SPf66 malaria vaccine during a 22-month follow-up field trial in the Pacific coast of Colombia.

A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled field trial with the SPf66 malaria vaccine was carried out in an endemic area consisting of 14 small villages with exclusive fluvial access, in a rain forest area along the Rosario River, Colombia. A total of 1257 subjects completed the full three dose vaccination schedule on days 0, 30 and 180 (643 vaccinated group/623 placebo group) and were followed-up by passive and active surveillance over a period of 22 months. One hundred and thirty-four Plasmodium falciparum malaria episodes were detected (53 in vaccinated group/81 in placebo group), yielding an attack rate of 5.

[Tropisetron for the prevention of nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy: multicenter clinical study].

The antiemetic effect of tropisetron was studied in 97 cancer patients (67 men, 30 women) receiving cisplatin in doses of 75 mg/m2 or higher. On 279 chemotherapy cycles studied (max 6 per patient) 5 mg of tropisetron was administered once a day i.v on day 1 and p.

[Clinical and serological manifestations of 307 Spanish patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Comparison with other ethnic groups].

There is evidence suggesting that clinical manifestations and severity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are associated with age, sex and ethnicity. The influence of genetic factors, particularly HLA antigens, on disease expression is revealed by the diversity of clinical conditions in patients from different ethnic groups. The aim of this work was to analyze the impact of demographic factors on SLE expression in the Spanish population.

Response time and reliability of three neonatal patient-triggered ventilators.

We studied the response time (RT) and reliability of three neonatal patient-triggered ventilator (PTV) systems: the Draeger Babylog 8000, the Bear Cub enhancement module (CEM), and the Infrasonics Star Sync. In 10 adult rabbits, airway flow and pressure recordings showed the RT of the Star Sync to be shorter than that of the Bear CEM (53 +/- 13 versus 65 +/- 15 ms, p < 0.05), and both were shorter than that of the Babylog (95 +/- 24 ms, p < 0.

Pleural effusion as manifestation of temporal arteritis.

Two patients with temporal arteritis who presented with pleural effusion are reported. Both had an exudate that responded to prednisolone treatment.

Interactions between rat epididymal epithelium and spermatozoa.

We studied in the rat epididymis the presence of membrane-bounded vesicles in the stereociliar areas of the epithelial cells. The intimate contact between principal cell stereocilia and luminal spermatozoa was also explored. The epididymidis of adult male albino rats were fixed with Mollenhauer's fixative via the thoracic aorta; they were removed and the caput and the cauda were separated and fixed for 4 additional hours at 4 degrees C.

Cyclic voltammetric study of lorazepam.

A Cyclic voltammetric study was made of lorazepam. The best defined cyclic voltammograms were found to be those obtained at pH = 7 with a sweep rate of 600 mv/s. A method is proposed for the determination of lorazepam and was applied to such determination in pharmaceutical preparations; relative errors of less than 3% and relative standard deviation less than 2% were obtained.

The zona-free hamster oocyte penetration test: a simple procedure using a DNA fluorescent stain to detect the male pronucleus formation.

In order to increase the value of the zona-free hamster oocyte penetration test, a comparatively simple and fast method using the fluorochrome Hoechst 33342 was developed. Human spermatozoa were washed and incubated 1 hr medium BWW for capacitation. Hamster oocytes were stripped of cumulus oophorus and zona pellucida with hyaluronidase and trypsin, washed and used immediately.

Changes in the rat sperm head during epididymal transit.

Morphological changes in sperm are one aspect of a maturation process during epididymal transit in mammals. The literature mentions only, for different strains of rats, a remodeling and decrease in size of the acrosome. In the present work, the sperm were obtained from caput, corpus, and cauda epididymis of the albino rat.

[Evaluation and identification of the extension of acute myocardial infarct and its complications by bidimensional echocardiography].

Fifty three consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction underwent two-dimensional echocardiography 1-3 days after admission. In order to (1) determine if this procedure can detect regional ventricular asynergy in an unselected series of patients. (2) to determine whether the procedure can identify patients at high risk for cardiogenic shock, before the onset of hemodynamic deterioration and (3) to identify the inmmediate complications of acute myocardial infarction.