Hirschsprung's disease in young adults

Hirschsprung's disease is rarely seen in the young adult, and presents unique problems in management because of the massive dilatation and hypertrophy that occur proximal to the aganglionic rectum or the rectosigmoid colon. The diagnosis, which may be suspected by barium enema, is confirmed by suction or full-thickness biopsy of the rectum that may be complemented by anal manometry. Based on our experience with eight patients, a two-stage surgical reconstruction is recommended, with a preliminary sigmoid colostomy through the normally innervated colon and an associated defunctionalized stoma constituting the initial operation. The distal colonic stoma permits cleansing of the caudal colon while the normally innervated proximal colon reverts to near normal caliber, usually within 2 to 6 months. This approach is in accord with the recommendation of Fairgrieve. Reconstruction using a Duhamel or Soave procedure has given good results. The Duhamel procedure seems preferable when a considerable discrepancy remains between the ganglionic and aganglionic segments of rectum.     

Caloric intake and weight gain according to the shift schedule of shift workers

Survey involved 84 workers matched for age, socio-occupational and families status and divided into 3 groups : A : 27 shift workers on 3 days rotating shift, B : 47 shift workers on 5 days rotating shift, C : 20 days workers. Each subject was submitted to dietary survey by means of 24 hours recall, realised 3 times for shift workers and once for control. All workers were interviewed about caloric intake of the preceding day off caloric intake. Annual weight gain was studied through the use of occupational health service records. There was no significant difference between the 3 groups for working day caloric intake. Day-off intake was lower (p less than 0.05) in group A (day-off any day of the week). Annual weight gain was not different between the 3 groups. Shift workers with faster weight gain had a higher caloric intake on day-off and after evening meal.     

Near-infrared spectrophotometric monitoring of oxygen distribution to intact brain and skeletal muscle tissues

During continuous near-infrared optical monitoring of brain cortex and hindlimb skeletal muscles, anesthetized, ventilated cats were exposed either to progressive alveolar hypoxia, or to acute hemorrhage followed in some cases by resuscitation. Hypoxia decreased cytochrome a,a3 oxidation state in muscle more than in brain, while tissue blood volume increased in brain and decreased in muscle. At a PaO2 of 25 torr, cytochrome a,a3 oxidation level in the brain was sufficient to support EEG activity, but the cytochrome a,a,3 oxidation state in resting, innervated hindlimb muscle was near zero. Hemorrhagic hypotension invariably decreased cytochrome a,a3 oxidation state and tissue blood volume more in muscle than in brain, and muscle cytochrome a,a3 was completely reduced at about a 25-ml/kg blood loss. These observations, supported by noninvasively measured changes in near-infrared absorption in the tissues during serial intravascular injections of indocyanine green dye, indicate that different cytochrome responses to hypoxia and oligemia in muscle vs. brain tissue are attributable to different regional circulatory adjustments.     

High power, low frequency components of cardiac, renal, splenic and vertebral sympathetic nerve activities are uniformly reduced by spinal cord transection

Others have reported that spinal cord transection non-uniformly affects the activities of the cardiac, renal and splenic nerves. We were unable to confirm this finding while recording the wide band (1-1000 Hz) discharges of these sympathetic nerves in baroreceptor-denervated, chloralose-anesthetized cats. Most of the power in nerve discharges was below 6 Hz. There was high coherence between the low frequency discharges of different nerves, and power below 15 Hz was essentially eliminated by spinal transection. Evidence is presented that the disparities between this and past studies are, in part, due to the use of a 30-Hz high-pass filter in the earlier studies.     

In vivo effect of prothymosin-alpha 1 on humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in the young rat.

There is a large body of evidence for the role of thymosin peptides in immunogenesis and immunity. In this paper we report on the influence of prothymosin alpha 1 (ProT-alpha 1), a hormone-like peptide derived from the calf thymus, on humoral and cellular immune reactions in the rat. Young adults received intraperitoneal injections of ProT-alpha 1 in the periods before and after immunization with cellular and soluble antigens. ProT-alpha-treatment produced a dose-dependent increase of both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. The thymus weight increased but not that of spleen. Treatment of nonimmunized rats with this polypeptide significantly elevated the number of CD4+ and decreased the number of CD8+ cells in the peripheral blood. The results suggest a potent immunostimulatory activity of ProT-alpha 1 and imply direct action of this polypeptide on T lymphocytes.