Acute toxicity of murdannia ioriformis.

Murdannia loriformis “Yaa Bei-jing” is widely used as remedy treatment in many kinds of cancers especially in breast cancer and carcinoma of bladder. According to WHO recommendation, four concentrations of fresh juice from “Yaa Bei-jing” (50, 100, 200, 300 times of therapeutic dose used in man) were given orally once to 4 groups of fasted rats aged 2-3 months. No abnormal symptoms were observed during 24 hours after feeding and through 14 days. Blood chemistry, CBC and histopathological findings of lungs, kidneys, spleens, livers and testis/ovaries were also within normal limits.

Efficacy of dosage schedule for rational dosage prescribing of gentamicin.

In our pilot study of 30 patients who were on gentamicin, the adequate peak level (5-10 mg/dl) was found in 27 per cent, trough level (less than 2 mg/dl) in 67 per cent and both peak and trough level in only 10 per cent. We have several reasons to believe that it is due to inappropriate dosage prescribing. The objective of the study is to test the efficacy of using a recommended dosage schedule for rational dosage prescribing of gentamicin. All medical residents were invited to attend a 2-hour session on gentamicin pharmacokinetics. The problems and the use of recommended dosage schedule were extensively discussed. Then serum gentamicin levels were re-monitored by Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay (TDx). Of 73 gentamicin recipients, 39 (53%, C gr.) were given at the correct dosage according to the schedule and 34 (47%, IC gr) were given incorrectly. The characteristics of the patients in both groups were not different. The appropriate peak, trough, peak and trough levels in C gr were 87, 80, 67 per cent respectively compared with 24, 80 and 9 per cent in the IC group, p less than 10(-4) for peak, peak and trough. The incidence of nephrotoxicity was not different between the two groups. The patients' outcomes were difficult to assess because most of the patients received antibiotic combinations. However, case fatality of documented gram-negative infection tended to be less in the C group. It is concluded that dosage schedule can improve rational dosage prescribing of gentamicin. Most of the patients given gentamicin may not need monitoring.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Effect of Allium ascalonicum on erythrocyte shape in induced hypercholesterolemia rabbits.

The effect of shallot extract on blood lipid levels and erythrocyte shape has been studied in rabbits. Hypercholesterolemia was induced by feeding egg yolk 12.5 g per day for 4 weeks. These rabbits were then divided into 3 groups and were fed with egg yolk alone as control group, egg yolk plus clofibrate 75 mg per day and egg yolk plus 50 g of fresh shallot extract per day respectively. Blood samples were collected from the ear artery every two weeks for evaluating lipid levels and studying morphology of erythrocytes. The abnormal erythrocyte shape (crenation) was strikingly observed in all groups after four weeks of egg yolk feeding with good correlation to lipid levels (r = 0.9, p less than 0.001). The number of crenated erythrocytes decreased continuously by shallot extract from the second week until the eighth week of treatment. This restoring effect could not be seen in the control and clofibrate groups. Lipids levels in all 3 groups did not decrease significantly. This leads to the assumption that there might be some factors other than the lipid-lowering-effect in shallot extract that protect the erythrocyte membrane from deterioration due to high plasma lipid levels.