Labor epidural analgesia onset time and subsequent analgesic requirements: a prospective observational single-center cohort study.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the correlation between lumbar epidural analgesia onset time and pain intensity at 60 and 120 min after initiation. METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study of nulliparous women receiving lumbar epidural analgesia (initial bolus 15 mL bupivacaine 0.1% with fentanyl 3.33 µg/mL), followed by patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA). The measured variable was lumbar epidural analgesia onset time (time to pain numerical rating score ≤3). Secondary outcomes were pain score at 60 and 120 min and at full dilatation; and analgesic requirements through the labor. RESULTS: One-hundred-and-five women were eligible for analysis. There was a significant correlation between lumbar epidural analgesia onset time and pain intensity at 60 min (Spearman's R2=0.286, P=0.003), but not at 120 min (R2=0.030, P=0.76). Women who requested more PCEA boluses during the first 120 min had a longer lumbar epidural analgesia onset time (R2=0.321, P=0.001) and reported higher pain scores at 60 min (R2=0.588, P <0.001) and at 120 min (R2=0.539, P <0.001). Women who reported higher pain scores at 60 min had more pain at 120 min (R2=0.47, P <0.001) and higher analgesic consumption during labor (R2=0.403, P <0.001). Women who were at a greater cervical dilatation at 60 and 120 min had higher pain scores at the same time point (R2=0.259, P=0.008 and R2=0.243, P=0.013 respectively). CONCLUSION: There was a correlation between the onset time of lumbar epidural analgesia during labor and the pain score 60 min later but this had disappeared by 120 min.

[Deuterium oxide as a stress factor to the methylotrophic bacterium Methylophilus sp]. / Oksid deiteriia kak stressovyi faktor u metilotrofnykh bakterii Methylophilus sp.

The adaptation of the methylotrophic bacterium Methylophilus sp. B-7741 to growth in highly deuterated media was studied. For the first time, we showed the cross adaptation of bacterial cells to deuterated media and oxidative and osmotic stresses. The activity at catalase in deuterated cells was higher than in the control cells. Deuterated cell-free culture liquids showed protective effects on the growth of Methylophilus sp. B-7741 in deuterated media, which was manifested as an increase in the deuterated biomass yield. These data and the data available in the literature suggest that the mechanisms of bacterial cell adaptation to heavy water and to oxidative and osmotic stresses are similar.

[Effect of deuteration on methanol dehydrogenase activity in Methylophilus sp. B-7741]. / Vliianie deiterirovaniia na aktivnost' metanoldegidrogenazy Methylophilus sp. B-7741.

We studied the effect of deuterium oxide present in the medium on the activity of methanol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.99.8) from methylotrophic bacteria Methylophilus sp. B-7741. Methanol dehydrogenase activity in extracts of the biomass obtained in a highly deuterated medium (2H-enzyme) was 34-47% of enzyme activity in the control biomass, which depended on reaction conditions. The isotopic effects of substrate deuterium (methanol) for 1H-enzyme and 2H-enzyme were 1.37 +/- 0.05 and 1.38 +/- 0.01, respectively. We revealed for the first time the reverse isotopic effect of solvent deuterium in the reaction catalyzed by methanol dehydrogenase (0.80 +/- 0.02 and 0.60 +/- 0.01 for 1H-enzyme and 2H-enzyme, respectively).

Origin of an insular population of the wood mouse based on parasitological evidence.

Parasitological data were used to test the hypothesis that the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) population of Fair Isle, Shetland, originated from the British Isles rather than Scandinavia, as is usually argued. This study was based on the assumption that the mice were likely to share most of their parasite fauna with conspecifics from their ancestral home. The ecto- and endo-parasites of wood mice on Fair Isle between 18 June to 10 July 1987 and 17 to 26 August 1991 were identified and compared with those reported from conspecifics in the two putative source areas. All eight species of metazoan parasites that infected A. sylvaticus on Fair Isle were common to mice of the British Isles, whereas just one parasite on Fair Isle, a mite, had been recorded from Scandinavia. This lends support to the hypothesis that the mice originated from Britain rather than Scandinavia.

[Pruritus due to obstructive jaundice, with delusions of parasitosis].

A wide range of nonpsychiatric medical conditions can cause delusions. We present a 62-year-man with pruritus due to obstructive jaundice, who developed delusions of parasitosis, which he considered to be the reason for his pruritus++. The holistic approach to diagnosis and treatment of this combined disorder is important.

Cell proliferation and cell differentiation in tissue cultures of adult muco-cilliary epithelia.

Explants and monolayers from a variety of muco-ciliary epithelia were cultivated in vitro and the kinetics of their proliferation and differentiation described. New epithelial lining and epithelial-like monolayer sheets of cells formed in which the migration cells were all originally undifferentiated cycling stem cells. The divided and differentiated in ML growth into cell types characteristic of the tissue source: however, the control mechanisms which regulate cell division and cell differentiation in the tissues were lost outside the tissue framework. Cell division and cyto-differentiation in ML growths both in ciliated and in mucus-producing cells, were not always mutually exclusive.