Journal of UOEH
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To identify the origin of short latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) to posterior tibial nerve stimulation, direct recordings were made from the cervical cord, the ventricular system and the frontal subcortex during 8 neurosurgical operations. The origin of each component of SSEPs was also studied in 7 selected patients with various lesions in the central nervous system. In addition, SSEPs to median nerve stimulation were investigated in 4 of 8 surgical cases and all 7 cases of the lesion study group. ⋯ Clinical lesion studies showed that changes in P30 and P14, and in N33 and N18 correlated with one another: that is, 1) prolongation of latency of N33 was also observed for N18; 2) absence of P30 was paralleled by the absence of P14. These data suggest that spinal N28 originates from ascending activity such as a dorsal column volley, and scalp P30 comes from activity near the dorsal column nucleus, which is similar to the P14 component of median nerve stimulation. The origin of N33 is thought to be similar to N18 from median nerve stimulation, which originates from brainstem activity below the thalamus.
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Radiation therapy combined with radiofrequency (RF) hyperthermia was performed on 5 advanced cancer patients. Included were one each with urinary bladder cancer, hepatoma with left axillary node metastasis, breast cancer, tongue cancer with left cervical metastasis, and mandibular cancer. ⋯ Partial response was obtained in the urinary bladder cancer patient. Surface overheating around the margin of electrodes occurred in all but no severe complications were observed.
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Current topics for occupational and environmental medicine and physiology in the U. S. A., especially in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the University of California, San Francisco, are reviewed. ⋯ S. A., and NIOSH has rated it as the top disease of ten-leading work-related diseases and injuries. Current topics for occupational lung diseases--asbestosis, byssinosis, silicosis, coal worker's pneumoconiosis, lung cancer, and occupational asthma & hyperreactivity, and for pathophysiology of airway hyperreactiveness and pulmonary edema are discussed.
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Alphadione, a steroidal anesthetic formulation containing alphaxalone (3 alpha-hydroxy-5 alpha-pregnane-11, 20-dione) and alphadolone acetate (21-acetoxy-3 alpha-hydoroxy-5 alpha-pregnane-11, 20-dione) in polyoxyethylated castor oil (Cremophor EL) owes its short duration of action to rapid metabolic transformation rather than the redistribution into the body fat. Treatment of rats with alphadione (1 ml/kg; intraperitoneal route) induced an increase in the cytochrome P-450 content of the liver. The difference spectra were obtained only when alphadione or alphaxalone was added to the liver microsomal suspension while neither alphadolone acetate nor Cremophor EL induced any spectral changes. The spectral dissociation constant (Ks) for alphaxalone was 2.5 X 10(-3) mM suggesting that hydroxylation of alphaxalone is a cytochrome P-450 dependent reaction.