Secobarbital in humans discriminating triazolam under two-response and novel-response procedures

The percentage of long-term survivors after intensive chemotherapy and the outcome of MDS patients who achieve partial remission (PR) with intensive chemotherapy (IC) are not known. Between 1981 and 1996 we treated 99 patients with de novo MDS who had high-risk MDS or progression to AML, with IC. 41 (41%) achieved CR, 16 (16%) achieved partial remission (PR), 26 (26%) had failure, and 16 (16%) died in aplasia. Eight of the patients who achieved CR were autografted, three were allografted and the remaining cases received moderate consolidation chemotherapy. After IC, the 16 PR patients fulfilled the criteria for RA in 15 cases and CMML in one case. Median PR duration was 17 months, and three PR were > 3 years (39, 50+, 82+ months). Median actuarial survival of patients who achieved PR and CR was 18 months and 20 months from the onset of IC, respectively (difference not significant). Of the 71 patients treated before 1993, with sufficient follow-up, 10 (14%) had survived > 4 years (long-term survivors). Four of them were alive in first CR after 49+ to 110+ months and probably cured, two were alive in PR after 50+ and 82+ months and four had died after 49-78 months. Long-term survivors were characterized by a significantly higher incidence of RAEB-T at diagnosis, and with normal or favourable cytogenetic findings. In patients with RAEB-T at diagnosis included before 1993, 8/23 (35%) cases who had no unfavourable karyotype had survived > 4 years. Our findings suggest that MDS patients who achieve PR with IC, and not only those who achieve CR, can benefit from this type of treatment. The percentage of long-term survivors remains low, however, and is almost restricted to patients with RAEB-T at diagnosis and no unfavourable karyotype.     

Duration of spinal anaesthesia is determined by the partition coefficient of local anaesthetic

We have compared the duration of motor block produced by four local anaesthetics administered into a chronically implanted subarachnoid catheter in rabbits. Each group (n = 6) received four different doses of amethocaine, bupivacaine, lignocaine or procaine, and the duration of the resulting motor block was assessed. Dose-response curves were plotted for each drug. As a measure of activity of the anaesthetics, we used the dose of each drug required to produce block of 60-min duration (D60 min) and the correlation between D60 min and different drug properties was examined. An inverse linear correlation (r = 0.995; P < 0.01) was observed between log D60 min and the log of the partition coefficient of the local anaesthetics. No correlation was found between the effect and degree of protein binding, pKa or molecular weight. These results suggest that, in spinal anaesthesia, the partition coefficient could be used as a predictor of the duration of anaesthetic action.     

Synthesis and thermal stability of ball-milled and melt-quenched amorphous and nanostructured Al-Ni-Nd-Co alloys

In this work the Al₈₅Ni₉Nd₄Co₂ alloy was used as a starting point for examining the possibility of forming bulk glassy Al-based materials by combining rapid quenching and ball milling techniques. Fine glassy powders were obtained by ball milling melt-spun amorphous ribbons using a severe cryogenic processing regime. The thermal stability data of the powders as obtained by constant-rate heating and isothermal DSC experiments together with viscosity measurements are discussed with respect to feasible consolidation conditions. The powder compaction was done by two methods (uni-axial hot pressing and extrusion) at 513 K for up to 15 min. Only the uni-axial hot pressing led to bulk Al₈₅Ni₉Nd₄Co₂ samples with similar glassy structure and Vickers microhardness values comparable to those of the initial melt-spun ribbons.     

Agenesis of the corpus callosum in a mother and son

Most reported familial cases of agenesis of the corpus callosum have followed either an autosomal recessive or an X-linked recessive pattern of inheritance. To the best of our knowledge, there is only one previous report of a family showing clear-cut autosomal dominant inheritance. We present the second such family, among whom a mother and her son had moderately severe coordination problems and low-normal intelligence. We suggest that agenesis of the corpus callosum, when transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait, is clinically characterized by a relatively milder phenotype than that occurring when inheritance is either autosomal or X-linked recessive and may be more common than has been thought.     

Linear B-cell epitopes in the N-terminus of L2 of bovine papillomavirus type 4

In vivo dosimetry performed with semiconductor detectors is a reliable method for patient dose control. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perturbations introduced in the patient's absorbed dose distribution by three types of commercially available diodes (Isorad, Sun Nuclear Corp.; model 114200, 114300 and 114400) from the same company and to present possible solutions for minimizing this side-effect.     

Inefficiency of lactation in primiparous rats: the costs of first reproduction

To investigate the energetic costs of lactation in a female mammal in relation to previous reproductive history, we compared the performance of adult female Long-Evans rats that had previously bred (multiparous) with young females that had not previously given birth (primiparous). All litters were standardized to 10 +/- 1 young. We compared maternal production (growth of pups), body mass, and energy intake (food consumption) of mothers, as well as their energy expenditure (resting oxygen consumption). The mass of litters at birth and the growth of pups during lactation did not differ according to reproductive history of the mothers. The body mass of primiparous mothers was less than that of multiparous mothers, and primiparous mothers showed an increase in mass during early lactation. To accomplish the essentially identical production of offspring under these circumstances, the primiparous mothers consumed and expended more energy than the multiparous mothers. This remarkable performance of first-time mothers results in an overall efficiency of energy allocation to reproduction amounting to only 25%, compared with 38% in multiparous mothers. The energetic inefficiency of primiparous female lactation results largely from the excessive expenditures associated with physiological and behavioral performances of first-time reproduction, together with a small component of additional expenditure due to further growth by the primiparous mothers. We suggest that this inefficiency probably contributes to the observed low reproductive success of novice breeders; furthermore, active restraint of fecundity may be an evolutionary response to the constraints of the energetic inefficiency of primiparous breeding by female mammals.