The earliest domestic cat on the Silk Road.

We present the earliest evidence for domestic cat (Felis catus L., 1758) from Kazakhstan, found as a well preserved skeleton with extensive osteological pathologies dating to 775-940 cal CE from the early medieval city of Dzhankent, Kazakhstan. This urban settlement was located on the intersection of the northern Silk Road route which linked the cities of Khorezm in the south to the trading settlements in the Volga region to the north and was known in the tenth century CE as the capital of the nomad Oghuz. The presence of this domestic cat, presented here as an osteobiography using a combination of zooarchaeological, genetic, and isotopic data, provides proxy evidence for a fundamental shift in the nature of human-animal relationships within a previously pastoral region. This illustrates the broader social, cultural, and economic changes occurring within the context of rapid urbanisation during the early medieval period along the Silk Road.

[Epidural spinal cord stimulation for therapy of chronic pain. Summary of the S3 guidelines]. / Epidurale Rückenmarkstimulation zur Therapie chronischer Schmerzen. Zusammenfassung der S3-Leitlinie.

Epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a reversible but invasive procedure which should be used for neuropathic pain, e.g. complex regional pain syndrome I (CRPS) and for mostly chronic radiculopathy in connection with failed back surgery syndrome following unsuccessful conservative therapy. Epidural SCS can also successfully be used after exclusion of curative procedures and conservative therapy attempts for vascular-linked pain, such as in peripheral arterial occlusive disease stages II and III according to Fontaine and refractory angina pectoris. Clinical practice has shown which clinical symptoms cannot be successfully treated by epidural SCS, e.g. pain in complete paraplegia syndrome or atrophy/injury of the sensory pathways of the spinal cord or cancer pain. A decisive factor is a critical patient selection as well as the diagnosis. Epidural SCS should always be used within an interdisciplinary multimodal therapy concept. Implementation should only be carried out in experienced therapy centers which are in a position to deal with potential complications.

The response of neuropathic pain and pain in complex regional pain syndrome I to carbamazepine and sustained-release morphine in patients pretreated with spinal cord stimulation: a double-blinded randomized study.

Forty-three patients with peripheral neuropathic pain, exclusively pain reduced by spinal cord stimulation (SCS), were switched into a painful state after SCS inactivation. This mode was used to assess the pain-relieving effect of carbamazepine (CMZ) and opioids in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. In Phase 1, the patients were randomly allocated to receive either CMZ (600 mg/d) or placebo during an SCS-free period of 8 days. In Phase 2, after a CMZ elimination interval of 7 days, 38 patients received either sustained-release morphine (90 mg/d) or placebo for 8 days. In cases of intolerable pain, the patients were authorized to reactivate their SCS. The pain intensity was rated on a numeric analog scale. In 38 patients who completed Phase 1, significant delay in pain increase was observed in the CMZ group as compared with placebo (P = 0.038). In Phase 2, the trend observed with morphine was insignificant (P = 0.41). Two CMZ patients and one morphine patient showed complete pain relief and preferred to continue the medication. Thirty-five patients returned to SCS. We conclude that CMZ is effective in peripheral neuropathic pain. Morphine obviously requires larger individually titrated dosages than those used in this study for results to be adequately interpreted.

[Epidural spinal cord stimulation in therapy-resistant angina pectoris]. / Epidurale Rückenmarkstimulation bei therapieresistenter Angina pectoris.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has routinely been used since the beginning of the 1970s. The initial indications for stimulation were the so-called deafferentation or neurogenic pain. Further work has confirmed that neurostimulation is useful in severe peripheral vascular disease in relieving pain and increasing capillary blood flow and oxygen tension. The effects are similar to those of sympathectomy. In 1964 Apthorp et al. discovered that sympathectomy relieved angina in about 75% of patients. The use of SCS to treat angina follows logically from its use in peripheral vascular disease. METHODS. The pain-relieving effect of SCS was investigated in two patients, 54 and 69 years old, who were hospitalised for 8 and 28 days. Both patients had severe angina pectoris (duration 2 and 15 years, New York Heart Association class III and II), related to three-vessel disease, and one of them had previously undergone his third bypass operation. The other patient was not considered suitable for surgery. The antianginal treatment (long-acting nitrates, beta-blockers, calcium antagonists) was regarded as optimal and was not changed during the observation period (Table 1). SURGICAL TECHNIQUE AND STIMULATION EQUIPMENT. We used the commercially available Medtronic SCS system. The operation was performed under local anaesthesia to allow the patient to answer questions during the intraoperative stimulation. The epidural space was punctured at the level of T7-T8 in one case and T11-T12 in the other. The electrode tip was positioned in the midline or a few millimetres to the left at the T1-T2 level (Figs. 1, 2), so that the patient felt a prickling sensation in the precordial area and into the arms. The distal end of the electrode was sutured to the fascia and connected via a tunnelled extension lead to the external pulse generator. The pulse width was 200 microseconds, frequency 80 Hz. An appropriate amplitude (usually 8-10 V) was used for comfortable paraesthesia. The study consisted of two parts: a run-in period (1 week) to standardise the stimulation when mobilisation was performed. A treatment period (18 months) to determine the patient's working capacity after continuous stimulation (Table 2). After a successful run-in period a Medtronic receiver was implanted, connected to the electrode and stimulated by external pulse generator. Different variables were used to assess the effect: pulse rate, blood pressure, the product of pulse rate and systolic blood pressure, estimated anginal pain, and ST changes in the electrocardiogram (ECG) before, during and after mobilisation. RESULTS. The stimulation was carried out for 30 min 10-12 times a day during the run-in period and five to six times a day during the treatment period. Altogether there was slight lowering of heart rate and systolic blood pressure. Consequently the product of heart rate and systolic blood pressure was diminished. In one case (NYHA II) the distinct disorder of repolarisation reverted to the normal condition as shown on ECG. In the other case (NYHA III) the ECG remained unchanged because of a severe aneurysm of the cardiac wall. Both patients experienced nearly complete pain relief after a few days for 6 and 12 months respectively. However, an increasing effort tolerance could be demonstrated in both patients by reducing the extent of the heart failure (NYHA II/III to NYHA I/II) (Table 2). DISCUSSION. Our two hospitalised patients had clinically intractable angina pectoris and severe manifestations of heart disease corresponding to at least NYHA functional class II-III. Both were unsuitable for operation and showed no improvement on individually titrated maximal oral antianginal drug treatment. During SCS treatment significant improvement was obvious: chest pain, ST-segment depression, and the extent of heart failure could be reduced. Both patients reached a better NYHA functional class, exhibited increased working capacity and reported reductions in anginal attacks and pain. Th

[The treatment of haemorrhagic complications due to disturbance of platelet function after operations with extracorporal circulation (author's transl)]. / Therapie thrombozytärer Blutungen nach Eingriffen mit extrakorporaler Zirkulation.

The preoperative selective blood cell separation followed by the postoperative platelet autoransfusion could prevent the exhaustion of platelet function by operations with extracorporal circulation. The postoperative blood loss could be reduced by about 57%. This method can be recommended specially in cases of increased platelet traumatization after long time perfusion. Partial disturbances of platelet function after operations with ECC can also be favourably influenced by infusion of homologous phospholipid (Fibraccel). The postoperative blood loss could be reduced by about one third. This method is beneficial in open heart surgery with short perfusion times due to its little technical expenses.