Smoking habits, its forms and impact on pulmonary health in planes of Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 611 rural and 164 urban subjects were studied. Smoking was found more prevalent in urban areas as compared to rural areas. In relation to sex it was more prevalent among urban males and rural females. Bidi was the commonest mode of smoking among rurals, and cigarette in urban population. Pulmonary function test (PFT) analysis proved that smoking causes definite pulmonary functional impairments among smokers. Though its aetiology in producing restrictive impairment remains doubtful and may be additive only but its role in precipitating obstructive impairment is definite in urban smokers. On the contrary rural non-smokers suffer more from the obstructive impairment. Environmental pollution, exposure to toxic fumes and industrial gases in urban areas and organic and inorganic dust exposure in rural areas may be responsible for precipitation of pulmonary function impairments among non-smokers.

Acute renal failure due to rifampicin.

A 23-year-old male patient with bacteriologically proven pulmonary tuberculosis was treated with the various regimens of antituberculosis drugs for nearly 15 months. Rifampicin was administered thrice as one of the 3-4 drug regimen and each time he developed untoward side effects like nausea, vomiting and fever with chills and rigors. The last such episode was of acute renal failure at which stage the patient was seen by the authors of this report. The patient, however, made a full recovery.

Cardiovascular responses elicited by microinjection of monoamines into mesencephalic nucleus dorsalis raphe in cats.

The effect of monoaminergic agonists and antagonists microinjected into mesencephalic nucleus dorsalis raphe has been studied on blood pressure and heart rate to elucidate the nature and role of these monoaminergic receptors in cardiovascular regulation. Microinjection of monoamines, noradrenaline, phenylephrine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) into nucleus dorsalis raphe elicited hypertension and tachycardia which could be blocked by local pretreatment with piperoxan (an alpha-adrenoceptor blocker) and methysergide (a 5-HT receptor blocker) respectively. However, isoprenaline microinjections failed to evoke any response. Bilateral vagotomy did not prevent these cardiovascular responses evoked by monoamines microinjection, while cervical spinal cord (C1) transection with bilateral vagotomy prevented these responses. These monoaminergic receptors seem to be localized in nucleus dorsalis raphe since microinjection of monoamines into neural structures adjoining nucleus dorsalis raphe, failed to induce any cardiovascular response. Monoaminergic receptors are present in nucleus dorsalis raphe which modulate cardiovascular activity by influencing sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the intermediolateral columns of the spinal cord.