Measuring the efficacy of flunixin meglumine and meloxicam for lame sows using a GAITFour pressure mat and an embedded microcomputer-based force plate system.

Pain associated with lameness on farm is a negative affective state and has a detrimental impact on individual farm animal welfare. Animal pain can be managed utilizing husbandry tools and through pharmacological approaches. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs including meloxicam and flunixin meglumine are compounds used in many species for pain management because they are easy to administer, long lasting, and cost-effective. Assessing an animal's biomechanical parameters using such tools as the embedded microcomputer-based force plate system and GAITFour pressure mat gait analysis walkway system provides an objective, sensitive, and precise means to detect animals in lame states. The objectives of this study were to determine the efficacy of meloxicam and flunixin meglumine for pain mitigation in lame sows using the embedded microcomputer-based force plate system and GAITFour pressure mat gait analysis walkway system. Lameness was induced in 24 mature mixed-parity sows using a chemical synovitis model and compared 3 treatments: meloxicam (1.0 mg/kg per os), flunixin meglumine (2.2 mg/kg intramuscular) and sterile saline (intramuscular). Weight distribution (kg) for each foot was collected twice per second for a total of 5 min for each time point using the embedded microcomputer-based force plate system. Stride time, stride length, maximum pressure, activated sensors, and stance time were collected using 3 quality walks (readings) for each time point using the GAITFour pressure mat gait analysis walkway system. Sows administered flunixin meglumine or meloxicam tolerated more weight on their lame leg compared with saline sows (P < 0.005). Sows administered flunixin meglumine or meloxicam had smaller differences in stance time, maximum pressure, and activated sensors between the sound and lame legs compared with saline-treated sows between 37 and 60 h after lameness induction (P < 0.03). In conclusion, flunixin meglumine and meloxicam administration mitigated pain sensitivity in sows after lameness induction when pain sensitivity was evaluated with the embedded microcomputer-based force plate system and GAITFour pressure mat gait analysis walkway system. Analgesic drugs may be a key tool to manage negative pain affective states associated with lameness.

Placebo controlled double-blind trial of fluvoxamine maleate in the obese.

Obesity and depression are common disorders which may co-exist. The management of the combination is complicated because some antidepressants cause weight gain fenfluramine, an effective antiobesity agent, may cause depression. Fluvoxamine is an antidepressant which, like fenfluramine, inhibits serotonin re-uptake within the brain. Forty obese female subjects with refractory obesity participated in a double-blind placebo controlled trial. During the twelve week study, those subjects receiving fluvoxamine achieved a mean weight loss greater than, but not significantly different from, that of the placebo group. The result suggests that fluvoxamine may be particularly useful in the management of obese patients requiring treatment with an antidepressant.

Inhibition of monocyte complement receptor enhancement by low molecular weight material from human lung cancers.

We have studied the effect of dialysates from lung cancer homogenates to alter both the expression of complement (C3b) receptors per se and also to inhibit leucoattractant-induced enhancement of complement rosettes on monocytes from healthy individuals. Enhancement and enhancement-inhibition by tumour extracts were compared with material derived from normal lung excised from distance from the tumour. There was no significant difference between tumour homogenate (TH) and normal lung homogenate (NLH) in terms of enhancement of complement rosettes per se. In contrast, TH produced a dose- and time-dependent inhibition of leucoattractant-induced enhancement of C3b rosettes which was significantly different from that obtained with NLH. This enhancement-inhibition was observed with four undifferentiated, four squamous and three adenocarcinomas of lung. The degree of enhancement-inhibition was not related to the type of tumour or varying accompanying histological features such as necrosis and the degree of infiltration with inflammatory cells. Following gel filtration on Sephadex G-50 each type of cancer gave a major peak of inhibitory activity which eluted with molecules having an apparent molecular size of approximately 3,000 daltons. A second larger peak (8,000-10,000 daltons) was also detected with extracts from the undifferentiated and adenocarcinomas. These results support previous findings, mainly from experimental animals, indicating that 'anti-macrophage/monocyte principles' are elaborated from certain tumour types.