Microbiological aspects of heat sterilization of drugs

International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy - In order to calculate the minimum sterilization process conditions to obtain the generally accepted sterility level (less than 1·10?6...     

Gallbladder Contents and Fasting Gallbladder Volumes during and after Pregnancy

Background: A high risk of developing sludge or gallstones has been associated with pregnancy. The aim of this study was to relate the prevalence of sludge and gallstones during and shortly after pregnancy to fasting gallbladder volume as an indicator of gallbladder motility. Methods: The population included 114 apparently healthy pregnant women from the Outpatient Clinic of Obstetrics of a large regional hospital and from the practices of regional midwives. Ultrasonography of the gallbladder was performed at weeks 15, 25, and 35 of gestation and at week 3 and month 6 postpartum. Results: At gestational week 15, 3 women had gallstones and 10 had sludge (mean volume, 33.8 ml), and 99 women had a normal gallbladder (mean volume, 30.5 ml). At week 25, 1 woman with a normal gallbladder formed gallstones and underwent cholecystectomy shortly after, and 22 women had sludge, of whom 13 had a normal gallbladder at first examination (mean volume, 33.2 ml). In 88 women with normal gallbladders (of whom 2 had sludge at week 15) mean volume was 31.9 ml. At week 35, 2 women had gallstones, and 21 had sludge (mean volume, 30.5 ml). In the remaining 79 women the gallbladders were clear (mean volume, 29.5 ml). Eight women developed sludge and two women gallstones in normal gallbladders at week 25. Seven women with sludge at week 25 had a normal gallbladder at week 35. Three weeks postpartum only 10 of 100 women had sludge (mean volume, 29.1 ml). Of these 10, 9 women had a normal gallbladder at week 35. Twenty of 21 women with sludge at week 35 had normal gallbladders week 3 postpartum. Gallstones found at week 35 had disappeared. In the women with a normal gallbladder the mean volume was decreased to 19.7 ml (P &;lt; 0.0001). Six months postpartum, sludge was found in 6 (mean volume, 18.4 ml) of 93 women (mean volume, 20.3 ml), of whom 5 had a normal gallbladder at week 3 postpartum. Only 61 women showed a normal gallbladder at each examination of the study. No differences in patient characteristics were found between women with normal gallbladders and those with sludge or gallstones. Conclusions: Fasting gallbladder volume was increased in all pregnant women. This could not explain the formation of sludge or gallstones during gestation. Decrement of gallbladder volumes after delivery was faster in normal, clear gallbladders. More than a prerequisite, increased fasting gallbladder volume seemed to be a permissive factor of pregnancy-associated gallstone formation.     

Strength, size and activation of knee extensors followed during 8 weeks of horizontal bed rest and the influence of a countermeasure

Changes in the quadriceps femoris muscle with respect to anatomical cross sectional area (CSA), neural activation level and muscle strength were determined in 18 healthy men subjected to 8 weeks of horizontal bed rest (BR) with (n = 9) and without (n = 9) resistive vibration exercise (RVE). CSA of the knee extensor muscle group was measured with magnetic resonance imaging every 2 weeks during bed rest. In the control subjects (Ctrl), quadriceps femoris CSA decreased linearly over the 8 weeks of bed rest to −14.1 ± 5.2% (P < 0.05). This reduction was significantly (P < 0.001) mitigated by the exercise paradigm (−3.5 ± 4.2%; P < 0.05). Prior to and seven times during bed rest, maximal unilateral voluntary torque (MVT) values of the right leg were measured together with neural activation levels by means of a superimposed stimulation technique. For Ctrl, MVT decreased also linearly over time to −16.8 ± 7.4% after 8 weeks of bed rest (P < 0.01), whereas the exercise paradigm fully maintained MVT during bed rest. In contrast to previous reports, the maximal voluntary activation remained unaltered for both groups throughout the study. For Ctrl, the absence of deterioration of the activation level might have been related to the repeated testing of muscle function during the bed rest. This notion was supported by the observation that for a subset of Ctrl subjects (n = 5) the MVT of the left leg, which was not tested during BR, was reduced by 20.5 ± 10.1%, (P < 0.01) which was for those five subjects significantly (P < 0.05) more than the 11.1 ± 9.2% (P < 0.01) reduction for the right, regularly tested leg.Grants The BBR study was supported by grant 14431/02/NL/SH2 from the European Space Agency. The study was further sponsored by Charité—University Medicine Berlin (Campus Benjamin Franklin), DLR (German AeroSpace), MSD Sharp & Dohme, Lilly Germany, Servier Germany, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Siemens, Novartis, and Seca.     

Wade RS. 1998. Medical mummies: The history of the Burns collection. Anat Rec (New Anat) 253:158–161.

Wade RS. 1998. Medical Mummies: The History of the Burns Collection. Anat Rec (New Anat) 253:158–161. In the Historical Note “Medical Mummies: The History of the Burns Collection” by Ronald S. Wade, which appeared in our December 1998 issue [Anatomical Record (New Anat) 253, 158–161, 1998], credit should have been attributed to Mark Teske, R.B.P. for his expert photographic work. The author and editors apologize for this unintended omission. Mark H. Paalman Managing Editor, The New Anatomist © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.