Does Body Mass Index Reduction by Bariatric Surgery Affect Laryngoscopy Difficulty During Subsequent Anesthesia?

Background: The effect of body mass index (BMI) reduction following bariatric surgery on subsequent airway management has not been investigated. This study aimed to investigate the association between BMI reduction and airway assessment and management measured by Mallampati class (MC) and laryngoscopy grade (LG).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study over 6 years to compare the BMI changes, MC and LG in patients having weight reduction bariatric surgery followed by subsequent surgery.

Effects of nanocrystalline silver (NPI 32101) in a rat model of ulcerative colitis.

Nanocrystalline silver (NPI 32101) has been demonstrated to have antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of NPI 32101 in a rat model of ulcerative colitis and the possible mechanisms of action of the effects observed. NPI 32101, 4 mg/kg intracolonically or 40 mg/kg orally, significantly reduced colonic inflammation compared to the placebo and no-treatment groups.

The importance of blood sampling site for determination of hemoglobin and biochemistry values in major abdominal and orthopedic surgery.

Study Objective: To determine whether sampling of blood from different sites influences laboratory results.

Design: Prospective, double-blind study.

Setting: University-affiliated hospital in Israel.

Topical nanocrystalline silver cream suppresses inflammatory cytokines and induces apoptosis of inflammatory cells in a murine model of allergic contact dermatitis.

Background: Nanocrystalline silver has both antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the exact mechanisms underlying these activities are not known.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the anti-inflammatory effects of nanocrystalline silver using a murine model of allergic contact dermatitis, compare the effects with those of tacrolimus and a high potency steroid, and to relate the effects to modulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis of inflammatory cells.

Anti-inflammatory effect of topical nanocrystalline silver cream on allergic contact dermatitis in a guinea pig model.

The anti-inflammatory activity of topical nanocrystalline silver cream was assessed and compared with the effects of topical steroids and currently available immunosuppressants using a guinea pig model of allergic contact dermatitis. Dermatitis was induced with dinitrochlorobenzene and treated with different concentrations of nanocrystalline silver, medium and high potency steroids, tacrolimus and pimecrolimus, or appropriate vehicles once daily for 5 days. Erythema was evaluated daily (on a score of 0 to 4, from absent to very severe) and histopathology of the skin biopsies was evaluated after 5 days of treatment.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled, efficacy and safety study of topical gel formulation of 1% alprostadil (Topiglan) for the in-office treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Objectives: To asses the efficacy and safety of Topiglan (1% alprostadil in a formulation with 5% SEPA [soft enhancer of percutaneous absorption]) or placebo gel (0.25 mL) applied to the glans penis only in 60 patients with moderate to severe erectile dysfunction in a two-visit, in-office clinical trial.

Methods: During the first visit, open-label placebo gel was applied.

Pharmacokinetics and tolerability of intravenous trecovirsen (GEM 91), an antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotide, in HIV-positive subjects.

Trecovirsen, a 25-mer antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotide targeted at the gag site of the HIV gene, was administered to HIV-positive volunteers as an i.v. infusion.

Pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus in liver transplant patients.

Objective: To characterize the pharmacokinetics of the immunosuppressive agent tacrolimus (FK 506) in liver transplant patients.

Methods: Patients (n = 16) were assessed during and after 1- to 3-day intravenous infusions followed by a 2-week course of oral dose therapy. Plasma and whole blood data were fitted simultaneously with equations accounting for nonlinear drug binding by red blood cells to generate clearance (CL) and volume of distribution (V).

Cardiovascular effects of nisoldipine in essential hypertension.

The acute hemodynamic effects of nisoldipine (Bay K552) in patients with essential hypertension were studied using nuclear ventriculography. In a cohort of 16 essential hypertension patients, an oral dose of 15 mg nisoldipine significantly lowered blood pressure within 20 min. The effect lasted at least 3 h.

Complement activation and hemodynamic changes following intravenous administration of phosphorothioate oligonucleotides in the monkey.

Rapid intravenous infusion of GEM 91, a 25-mer phosphorothioate oligonucleotide complementary to the gag site of HIV, in the monkey produces transient decreases in peripheral total WBC and neutrophil counts, hemoconcentration, and a brief increase followed by a prolonged decrease in arterial blood pressure. These changes are preceded by and are likely mediated by activation of C5 complement. These effects are dose and infusion rate dependent and can be avoided by administering GEM 91 by slow intravenous infusion.

Clinical relevance of measuring GABA concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid.

Determination of GABA concentrations in human cerebrospinal fluid can be used to assess GABAergic activity in the central nervous system. As CSF free GABA concentrations may vary with age, sex, CSF fraction, and collection and storage conditions, careful attention to these factors are necessary to allow interpretation of results. Longitudinal studies to investigate the influence of pharmacological agents on CSF GABA have proven especially useful to define clinical biochemical activity and have been utilized to attribute the anti-epileptic action of vigabatrin, a selective inhibitor of GABA-transaminase, to its effects on brain GABA metabolism.

Review: Normal and abnormal central nervous system GABA metabolism in childhood.

The metabolism and function of central nervous system GABA is briefly reviewed. Hereditary disorders of the GABA metabolism presenting in childhood are discussed with particular emphasis on the recently identified succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency and GABA-transaminase deficiency, and on diseases associated with low CSF GABA which await further unravelling. Low CSF GABA concentrations are not always associated with convulsions.

[African trypanosomiasis in children treated with eflornithine. A case].

We report the case of a 14-year old African girl presenting with late-stage African T. gambiense trypanosomiasis. She was treated with eflornithine, an ornithine decarboxylase inhibitor which is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of polyamine.

[A trial treatment with eflornithine of trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in the Peoples Republic of the Congo].

In a multiclinic trial in Brazzaville, Congo, 14 patients with late-stage Trypanosoma brucei gambiense trypanosomiasis were treated with eflornithine. All cases had previously been treated with one or several courses of melarsoprol. Eflornithine treatment consisted of 400 mg/kg/day intravenously for 14 days followed by 300 mg/kg/day orally for 21 days.

Cerebrospinal fluid parameters in healthy volunteers during serial lumbar punctures.

Lumbar punctures were performed on four occasions over a 5-day period (8:30 a.m. on days 1, 3, and 5; 2:30 p.

Clinical pharmacology of vigabatrin.

1. Upon oral administration vigabatrin is rapidly absorbed. Plasma elimination half-life ranges between 5 and 7 h in normal volunteers.

[The use of difluoromethylornithine in congenital trypanosomiasis due to Trypanosoma brucei-gambiense].

The authors describe their experience with two cases of congenital Trypanosoma brucei-gambiense trypanosomiasis treated with orally administered difluoromethylornithine. The first case tolerated well his treatment (35 days of DFMO) and has probably been definitively cured. The second case, already in a desperate condition upon admission, died after only 4 days of difluoromethylornithine (DFMO).

The effect of different vigabatrin treatment regimens on CSF biochemistry and seizure control in epileptic patients.

1. Vigabatrin, 50 mg kg-1, was administered orally as add-on therapy to 11 patients with drug-resistant complex partial epilepsy as a single dose, then once every third day for 2 months, every other day for 2 months and daily for 1 month. 2.

Pharmacokinetics of vigabatrin: implications of creatinine clearance.

The pharmacokinetics of both enantiomers of vigabatrin after a single oral dose in healthy young subjects (mean creatinine clearance 120 ml/min) were compared with kinetics in two groups of elderly subjects, one group aged 60 to 75 years (mean creatinine clearance 86 ml/min) and one group aged 76 to 97 years (mean creatinine clearance 30 ml/min). At a dose of 1500 mg, the group with the eldest subjects and the lowest creatinine clearance values showed mean increases of 3.3-fold in the time to reach the maximum concentration, 2.

Effects of single doses of vigabatrin on CSF concentrations of GABA, homocarnosine, homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in patients with complex partial epilepsy.

Vigabatrin, as a single oral dose of 50 mg/kg, was administered to 11 patients with drug-refractory complex partial epilepsy. Serial lumbar punctures were performed prior to and 5 times within the first week following treatment. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of total GABA, free GABA, homocarnosine, homovanillic acid (HVA), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and vigabatrin were determined as well as blood vigabatrin levels.

Metabolic studies in a patient with idiopathic hypophosphatemic osteomalacia.

Studies were conducted in a patient with idiopathic hypophosphatemic osteomalacia to delineate the roles of parathyroid hormone (PTH), vitamin D and renal tubular function. A 43-year-old woman presented with progressive skeletal pains resulting in severe incapacity. Workup revealed: hypophosphatemia with a low tubular maximal phosphate reabsorption per glomerular filtrate (TmP/GFR) of 1.