Myoelectric prostheses. A long-term follow-up and a study of the use of alternate prostheses.

Forty-four patients who had had a total of forty-seven amputations of an upper extremity and who had had a myoelectric prosthesis for more than two years were evaluated retrospectively for the amount of use of the prosthesis, the use of any other prosthesis, and the demographic factors that might be related to use of the prosthesis. The average duration of follow-up was five years (range, twenty-five months to seventeen years). Forty of the forty-four patients also had a conventional prosthesis. Twenty-two patients (50 per cent) rejected the myoelectric prosthesis completely; thirteen (32 per cent) of the forty patients who also had a conventional prosthesis rejected the conventional prosthesis completely. The patients who used the myoelectric device the least were employed in occupations that required high-demand use of the prosthesis (lifting of more than 4.5 kilograms [ten pounds] or repetitive manual labor) or were receiving or seeking Workers' Compensation, or both.

[Substance dependence. Information, diagnosis and therapy--encouragement for pragmatic treatment]. / Suchtkrankheiten. Information, Diagnostik und Therapie--Anregungen zum pragmatischen Handeln.

According to the author's experience with addiction diseases, questions of etiology, diagnostics, and therapy are reviewed. Starting with basic terms: such as the addicted human and his background, the drugs and the disease, chosen facts are combined with the author's individual experiences and theories for pragmatic actions are derived.

Hemophilus influenzae meningitis in the rat: behavioral, electrophysiological, and biochemical consequences.

Hemophilus influenzae is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in children, and a high percentage of survivors are at risk for long-term sequelae. To explore the mechanisms responsible for these sequelae, a neonatal rat model was used to define the behavioral, electrophysiological, and biochemical changes following meningitis. Three days after inoculation of 6-day-old rats with a minimum of 1 X 10(7) colony-forming units of a virulent Hemophilus influenzae, type b, cerebrospinal fluid and blood were cultured to confirm the presence of meningitis and bacteremia, respectively. At this time, forebrain norepinephrine and dopamine levels were significantly elevated in meningitic rats when standardized on a wet-weight basis. No changes in brain serotonin or heart norepinephrine levels could be found in the 9-day-old rats. No residual changes were found in steady-state concentrations of norepinephrine or dopamine in surviving adult rats. However, survivors that had had meningitis as neonates showed significant impairment in active and passive avoidance learning tasks and demonstrated a significantly higher level of activity during a habituation period in circular photocell activity cages. No change in the flinch-jump threshold was detected. Brainstem auditory evoked potentials showed delays of various waves in 3 of 10 Hemophilus influenzae type b-treated adult rats tested. These rats also exhibited markedly augmented locomotory responses to d-amphetamine (1 mg/kg), suggesting a long-lasting perturbation of central monoamine neuronal transmission.