Single- and multiple-dose pharmacokinetics of sotalol hydrochloride in healthy cats.

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to describe the single- and multiple-dose pharmacokinetics and urinary elimination of sotalol in healthy cats. ANIMALS: Six adult purpose-bred cats MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cats were administered 2 mg sotalol/kg body weight as a single intravenous bolus and as a single oral dose in a randomized crossover study with a two-week washout period. The same cats then received 3 mg sotalol/kg orally every 12 h for two weeks. Blood samples were collected at predetermined time points for 48 h postdose for quantification of sotalol using ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. Non-compartmental analysis was used to obtain pharmacokinetic parameters. Data are presented as median (min-max). RESULTS: Following intravenous administration, plasma clearance and volume of distribution were 9.22 mL/min/kg (5.69-10.89 mL/min/kg) and 2175.56 mL/kg (1961-2341.57 mL/kg), respectively. Bioavailability was 88.41% (62.75-130.29) following a single oral dose. Peak plasma concentration (Cmax) and time to Cmax were 0.94 µg/mL (0.45-1.17 µg/mL) and 1.5 h (0.5-4 h) after a single oral dose (2 mg/kg), and 2.29 µg/mL (1.91-2.48 µg/mL) and 1.0 h (0.5-1.5 h) with chronic oral dosing (3 mg/kg), respectively. Elimination half-life was 2.75 h (2.52-4.10 h) and 4.29 h (3.33-5.53 h) for single and chronic oral dosing, respectively. Accumulation index was 1.17 (1.09-1.29) after chronic dosing. Urinary sotalol recovery was 81-108% of the intravenous dose. CONCLUSIONS: Oral sotalol administration resulted in plasma concentrations reportedly efficacious in other species, with good to excellent oral bioavailability. Urinary excretion appears to be a major route of elimination. Following repeated oral dosing, minimal drug accumulation was estimated. Additional studies in cats are recommended due to the possibility of nonlinear kinetics.

The relationship between adience-abience scale scores and judged communication proficiency of alaryngeal speakers.

Fifteen esophageal speakers and 15 artificial larynx speakers were administered the Hutt Adaptation of the Bender-Gestalt Test (HABGT): Adience-Abience Scale. Adience was defined as the individual's tendency to be motivated to adapt to new experiences that effect his physical functioning. Conversely, abience was defined as the individual's tendency to avoid or be inhibited from adapting to new experiences that effect his physical functioning. Audio-tape recordings were made of each speaker and used to determine verbal communication proficiency by six speech pathologists. Results indicated that the HABGT: Adience-Abience Scale was able to differentiate between the two groups of alaryngeal speakers, as well as relate to their verbal communication proficiency.

Changing the vocal characteristics of a postoperative transsexual patient: a longitudinal study.

The vocal characteristics of a 63-year-old individual who underwent male-to-female sex reassignment surgery were evaluated. Treatment was designed to alter inappropriate male voice characteristics. Speech goals were to (1) encourage use of successively higher pitch levels, and (2) modify tongue carriage to change resonance. After 11 months of therapy, average fundamental frequency for /i, a, u/ vowels changed from 110 to 205 Hz. Also, second formant frequency values changed remarkably for each of these vowels, with the greatest frequency change being 291 Hz for /i/. These acoustic differences could account for the perception of femininity in her posttreatment voice. Maintenance of these acoustic features was found five years posttreatment.

Judgments by children and adults regarding communication skills of esophageal speakers.

The intelligibility and acceptability of esophageal speech were judged by a group of children and a group of adults. Eight esophageal speakers demonstrating a range of speech proficiency and differing vocal characteristics were videotaped reading a children's story. These recordings were played to child and adult judges. Data were analyzed to provide information about within-group and between-group comparisons. Findings indicated that children achieved higher intelligibility scores and employed different values than did adults when listening to esophageal speech.

An experimental analysis of auxiliary and copula verb generalization in aphasia.

Two subjects with chronic Broca's aphasia were taught to produce third person singular auxiliary is in sentence contexts to determine if is production would generalize to untrained auxiliary is items and to copula is contexts. A single subject (ABAB) reversal design was employed. Results revealed that training a few exemplars of the present tense auxiliary is resulted in generalized responding to untrained auxiliary is and copula is plus predicate adjective items. Generalized responding to untrained copula is plus predicate nominative and locative items was marked by individual variability. Although auxiliary and copula is verb production was maintained on 2- and 6-week follow-up probes, transfer to spontaneous speech was negligible. The results were interpreted as providing partial support for the existence of a functional or generative response class between verbal auxiliary and the copula is verbs.

Cognitive loci of impairments in picture naming by aphasic subjects.

In order to identify the process or processes responsible for impaired naming by aphasic patients, ten aphasic adults and ten normal adults performed three independent tasks--picture naming, modified Sternberg picture recognition, and modified Sternberg random shape recognition (Sternberg, 1966). Response times and error percentages were the dependent variables. Independent variables in naming were stimulus codability measured in bits of uncertainty (two levels) and number of naming trials (three trials). Independent variables in the recognition tasks were uncertainty (two levels), number of stimuli to be remembered (two or four stimuli) and response type ("yes" or "no"). The results showed that uncertainty had significant effects on naming but not on recognition performance. The aphasic group produced significantly longer naming response times regardless of uncertainty level. The differences between groups were much greater for high-uncertainty pictures (1100 msec) than for low-uncertainty pictures (270 msec). A comparison of estimates of word retrieval times showed that the two subject groups differed significantly for high-uncertainty but not for low-uncertainty items. It was concluded that (1) use of the term "word retrieval problem" rather than "loss of memory problem" was justified to describe the major component in the aphasic naming impairment for high-uncertainty items, and (2) when naming low-uncertainty items these aphasic subjects did not demonstrate a word retrieval problem. The results indicate that treatment procedures designed to improve naming should be process rather than content oriented.