Information technologies and patient safety.

Advances in health information technology provide significant opportunities for improvements in surgical patient safety. The adoption and use of electronic health records can enhance communication along the surgical spectrum of care. Bar coding and radiofrequency identification technology are strategies to prevent retained surgical sponges and for tracking the operating room supply chain. Computerized intraoperative monitoring systems can improve the performance of the operating room team. Automated data registries collect patient information to be analyzed and used for surgical quality improvement.

Effects of chronic and intermittent cocaine treatment on dominance, aggression, and oxytocin levels in post-lactational rats.

RATIONALE: Little is known about mechanisms underlying female rodent aggression during the late postpartum period with no pups present. Studies of aggression, dominance, and oxytocin (OT) response in cocaine-treated females are sparse. OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to examine dominance (drinking success) and aggression in a limited-access drinking model of water competition. Acute OT level measures were made on postpartum day (PPD) 36 in several brain regions of interest. Chronic and intermittent cocaine- and saline-treated and untreated rats 10 days post-weaning were tested (without pups) over PPDs 31-35 following cessation of cocaine treatment 10-30 days before testing. METHODS: Subjects were water-deprived overnight, and triads consisting of an untreated control (UN), a chronic continuous saline-treated (CS), and chronic continuous cocaine-treated (CC; 30 mg/kg/day throughout gestation) or a UN, an intermittent saline-treated (IS), and an intermittent cocaine-treated (IC; 30 mg/kg two consecutive days every 4 days throughout gestation until PPD 20) female were tested for aggression and drinking behavior during 5 min sessions on five consecutive days. The amygdala, medial preoptic area (MPOA), and ventral tegmental area were assayed for OT levels. RESULTS: CC and IC females were more aggressive than controls, but only IC females drank more often than controls. OT levels were lower in the MPOA of IC and CC females than in controls. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate that long after cessation of treatment, CC- and IC-treated non-lactating females (no pups present) had higher rates of aggression, altered drinking behavior, and acutely lower MPOA OT levels.

Cocaine treatment and prenatal environment interact to disrupt intergenerational maternal behavior in rats.

The link between impaired maternal behavior (MB) and cocaine treatment could result from drug-induced decreases in maternal reactivity to offspring, prenatal drug exposure (PDE) in offspring that could alter their ability to elicit MB, or the interaction of both, which could subsequently impair MB of the 1st-generation dams. Following chronic or intermittent cocaine or saline treatment during gestation, rat dams rearing natural or cross-fostered litters were compared along with untreated dams for MB. Untreated 1st-generation females with differentially treated rearing dams and PDE were tested for MB with their natural litters. The authors report disruptions in MB in dams and their 1st-generation offspring, attributable to main and interaction effects of maternal treatment, litter PDE, and rearing experience.

Effects of NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist drugs on the volitional consumption of ethanol by a genetic drinking rat.

The ability of drugs that reduce NMDA receptor activity on the volitional consumption of ethanol in the genetic drinking rat, mHEP line, was investigated. After the consumption of ethanol solutions and water by each male or female mHEP rat had stabilized on its preferred concentration, different doses of LY 274614, a competitive NMDA antagonist, MK 801, a non-competitive NMDA antagonist, (+)-HA-966 or ACPC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid), antagonists of the glycine site were administered daily for three days. The dose of 3.0 mg/kg i.p. LY 274614 reduced the consumption of ethanol by 64% compared to the pre-treatment baseline, while 0.3 mg/kg of MK 801 reduced consumption by 44%, 20 mg/kg (+)-HA-966 reduced consumption by 47% and 300 mg/kg of ACPC reduced consumption by 30%. These doses of LY 274614 and MK 801 reduced the ability of Sprague-Dawley rats to walk on a rotorod. Effects of these drugs on food intake were small except for the 20 mg/kg dose of (+)-HA-966. Therefore, the drugs did not have an anti-caloric effect and manipulations of the glutamatergic system through NMDA receptors may modify the consumption of ethanol. This interaction should be explored further for its therapeutic potential and to better understand the control by central neuronal systems of the consumption of ethanol.