Skin blood flow and plasma catecholamine concentrations during removal of a phaeochromocytoma in a child.

A 9-yr-old boy with an adrenal phaeochromocytoma underwent removal of the tumour under general anaesthesia using sevoflurane and nitrous oxide combined with thoracic epidural anaesthesia. Skin blood flow in the first toe, as measured by laser Doppler flowmetry, markedly decreased during manipulation of the tumour and increased after removal of it. Skin blood flow correlated more significantly with plasma catecholamine concentrations than did mean arterial blood pressure. Skin blood flow may be used as a non-invasive measure of plasma catecholamine concentrations during removal of a phaeochromocytoma in paediatric patients.

Health economics of care for patients with cancer and intractable disease in Japan.

Concern about the economic aspect of cancer care is increasing. However, economic evaluations for cancer care are deficient in a number of areas, despite recent important contributions. To generate better evidence for economic evaluation of care for patients with cancer and intractable disease, the recent trends and problems with economic evaluations in these areas in Japan are examined. Several examples of economic evaluations, such as those concerned with bone marrow transplantation for leukemias, breast-conserving treatment for early breast cancer, and antiemetic treatment for patients receiving cancer chemotherapy, showed substantial possibilities for evaluating value for money in health care with a view to establishing an effective and efficient health care system.

Description and valuation of health-related quality of life among the general public in Japan by the EuroQol.

OBJECTIVE: Health-related quality of life plays an important role in assessing the effectiveness of health care. The EuroQol is a generic instrument for describing and valuing health-related quality of life. To elicit health state descriptions and their preferences among the general public in Japan and compare them with cross-national data, a feasibility study for applying the EuroQol to the general public in Japan was carried out. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The subjects were 120 people aged 40s-60s randomly selected in a suburban area at Aichi Prefecture in Japan. In assessing health states and their preferences, the EuroQol valuation instrument (version 12, 1991) translated into Japanese was used. The questionnaires were distributed and collected by public health nurses. The valid responses (rate) were 89 (74%). RESULTS: The mean scores (raw scores) using the visual analogue scale (VAS) for one's own health was 89.2. No statistically significant difference in VAS scores was observed for both sex and age. The contribution ratio of own health status, sex and age was 0.326 (p < 0.0001). The main independent variables were three dimensions of health status. Valuations for core health states varied from 96.3 (no problem in each health status) to 6.8 (dead). These VAS scores in Japan were correlated with those from other countries (p < 0.001). A multivariate analysis indicated that bias from own health status on preference valuations for core health states was not observed. CONCLUSION: The health states and their preferences among the general public in Japan were estimated by using the EuroQol. The results show the feasibility of evaluation for health states quantitatively. Moreover, this study suggested cross-national and cross-cultural applicability of the EuroQol.

Determination of 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine formation in rat organs: assessment of paraquat-evoked oxidative DNA damage.

Paraquat has previously been shown to cause the oxidative damage to DNA in variety of cells and tissues. However, although paraquat-evoked strand breaks has been extensively studied to assess the DNA damage, the effect of paraquat on base modifications, another marker for the oxidative damage, has not yet been investigated. To further characterize paraquat-evoked DNA damage, the effect of paraquat on 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) formation in various rat organs was examined. Paraquat markedly increased 8-OH-dG contents in various organs, particularly in brain, lung and heart, and this increase reached the maximum levels at 5 days after the drug administration. In contrast, the formation of 8-hydroxy-guanosine (8-OH-G), a marker for the oxidative damage to RNA, was not significantly affected by paraquat. These results indicate that paraquat causes base modifications as well as strand breaks as a consequence of the oxidative damage to DNA.

Radioactive cesium in dirt accumulations on the roof of buildings.

The concentrations of 137Cs and 134Cs in dirt deposits on the roofs of buildings are much higher than those in the surface of soil at ground level. Thus dirt on roofs concentrates radioactive cesium in fall-outs. The 137Cs concentration in dirt deposits on the roofs of older buildings is not consistently higher than that on the roofs of new ones, but the 137Cs/134Cs ratio is higher in deposits on older buildings constructed before the first half of the 1970s, and decreases exponentially with decrease in age of the buildings gradually reaching 1.9 +/- 0.2, the value in the air-borne dust at the time of the Chernobyl accident. From this relationship, the contribution of Chernobyl radioactivity to accumulated 137Cs was calculated as 32% on buildings constructed in 1962. The radioactive cesium concentrations in dirt deposits in gutters of private houses and on the roofs of university buildings in Japan were also determined.

Adsorption and elution of metals on hair.

The adsorption of zinc and lead on hair was dependent on the acidity of the hair and/or the medium in which the hair sample was immersed, suggesting that hair is an ion exchanger. The pKa was estimated to be between 4.5 and 5.0. The coexistence of mercuric ion or PCMB reduced zinc adsorption by only a few percent, whereas zinc inhibited mercuric ion adsorption to a greater extent. These facts suggest that the binding sites in hair for metals are located on functional groups like carboxyl groups rather than sulfhydryl groups. The removal and/or elution of metals from hair were observed for 18 elements by various washing procedures. By treating hair with a water solution of detergent, alkaline metals were eluted to a great extent, whereas alkaline earth metals were eluted to some extent. The other metals did not vary with any procedures tested.

Fluorometric determination of nitrite in natural waters with 3-aminonaphthalene-1,5-disulphonic acid by flow-injection analysis.

Nitrite in river and sea-water was determined fluorometrically by flow-injection analysis. In acidic medium, nitrite was reacted with 3-aminonaphthalene-1,5-disulphonic acid (C-acid) to form the diazonium salt, which was converted into the fluorescent azoic acid salt in an alkaline medium. The carrier stream, into which the sample solution was injected, was distilled water. The reagent solution stream, which contained C-acid, EDTA and hydrochloric acid, was mixed with the carrier stream in a 13-m length of Teflon tubing (bore 0.5 mm) maintained at 90 degrees in a thermostatic bath. After passing through the mixing coil, the stream was mixed with an alkaline solution. The fluorescence intensity (excited at 365 nm) was measured at 470 nm. The detection limit (S N = 3) was 1 x 10(-9)M (14 ng 1 . nitrite-nitrogen) and the RSD of 10 injections of 10(-6)M nitrite was 0.4%. Analyses can be done at a rate of up to 45 hr .

Improvement of the anoxia-induced mitochondrial dysfunction by membrane modulation.

The mitochondrial dysfunction induced by anoxia in vitro was improved with chlorpromazine, cepharanthine, bromophenacyl bromide, and mepacrine without affecting phospholipid or adenine nucleotide metabolisms. The drugs inhibited lipid peroxidation by Fe2+, mitochondrial disruption by Ca2+, and membrane perturbation by lysolecithin, and retained the activity to control H+ permeability across mitochondrial membranes. The drugs appeared to preserve the functions by acting to suppress the development of membrane deterioration which may have resided in the deenergization of mitochondria in the absence of oxygen.

Determination of cystathionine in rat tissues using isotachophoresis.

A method for measurement of cystathionine in biological samples has been developed by using an isotachophoretic analyzer. The determination of the amount of cystathionine was carried out by measuring a zone length of cystathionine in isotachophoresis. The amount of cystathionine in brains of normal rats determined by using this method was 0.084 +/- 0.023 mumol/g. This value agreed well with earlier reports. The amount of cystathionine in rats with experimental cystathioninuria was determined in several tissues. The results determined by using this method for the determination of cystathionine in the rat tissues agreed well with the results obtained by using an amino acid analyzer.

Unusual metabolism of sulfur-containing amino acids in rats treated with DL-propargylglycine.

S-(2-Hydroxy-2-carboxyethyl)homocysteine, S-(3-hydroxy-3-carboxy-n-propyl)-cysteine, N-acylated S-(beta-carboxyethyl)cysteine, and N-acylated S-(3-hydroxy-3-carboxy-n-propyl) cysteine were excreted in the urine after DL-propargylglycine treatment. Cystathionine was also accumulated in several tissues of DL-propargylglycine-treated rats. N-Monoacetylcystathione was found in the liver of rats and was also detected in the kidney and serum. Cystathionine gamma-lyase activity in liver decreased to about 4% of that of control rats 24 h after the DL-propargylglycine injection, and alanine aminotransferase activity decreased to about 35% of that of control rats. On the other hand, aspartate aminotransferase and cystathionine beta-synthese activity did not show significant changes from those of control rats. The ability of normal tissues to synthesize cystathionine utilizing cystathionine beta-synthase was 1.98 +/- 0.40 mumol/min/g in liver, 0.61 +/- 0.13 in kidney, and 0.18 +/- 0.015 in brain. The maximal contents of cystathionine in rat tissues and the administered amounts of DL-propargylglycine agreed well with the ability to synthesize cystathionine in each tissue.