Showing papers by "University of Louisville published in 1974"

I segment lengths and thin filament periods in skeletal muscle fibers of the Rhesus monkey and the human.

Abstract: The I segment length has been measured and the number of thin filament periods per I segment has been counted in electron micrographs of Rhesus monkey and human leg muscle fibers. The number of I segment periods in the monkey fiber (60) and in the human fiber (66) multiplied by axial periodicity (385 A) in thin filaments of living fibers (Huxley and BROWN, '67) plus 1,000 A allowed for Z line width in living fibers, provided a formula for calculation of I segment lengths in living fibers. The calculated I segment lengths are 2.41 μ for the monkey and 2.64 μ for the human fiber. The ratio of calculated I segment length over an assumed constant thick filament length (1.6 μ) among vertebrates is in close agreement with the ratio of measured I segment length over measured thick filament length in micrographs of frog, rat, monkey and human leg muscle fibers. The calculated I segment length in the frog (1.95 μ) is compared with that of the human (2.64 μ) to show the relation of I segment length to the length-developed tension diagram and to the series elastic components of the skeletal muscle fiber.

Focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver. Possible relationship to oral contraceptives.

Abstract: The possible association between oral contraceptives and benign hepatomas has recently been reported. A study of three hepatic masses, all surgically resected, leads us to the conclusion that our lesions represent focal nodular hyperplasia, and may be similar to those reported as adenomas. The possibility that the vascular changes found in these lesions play an etiologic role is suggested. The vascular lesions, in turn, could be related to oral contraceptives. A fairly definite syndrome consisting of oral contraceptive ingestion, intrahepatic or intraperitoneal hemorrhage, or both, shock or syncope, acute abdomen, and focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver (or benign hepatoma) has predominated in the cases thus far reported.

Analyses of methadone and other drugs in maternal and neonatal body fluids: use in evaluation of symptoms in a neonate of mother maintained on methadone

Abstract: A former heroin addict treated with methadone maintenance throughout pregnancy, with rapid dose reduction from 110 mg to 9 mg during the last five weeks pre-partum, was evaluated in late pregnancy, at time of labor and delivery, and post-partum; her child was also evaluated. Using gas and thin-layer chromatography and mass spectroscopy, methadone levels were measured, and other drugs looked for in (1) plasma during late pregnancy, (2) mixed cord blood, (3) amniotic fluid at delivery, (4) maternal plasma and milk post-partum (on 50 mg methadone), (5) neonatal plasma and urine. Low levels of methadone were present in amniotic fluid and neonatal urine but not in mixed cord blood or neonatal plasma. Levels of methadone present in breast milk during moderate dose maintenance were also low. Unexpectedly, pentobarbital was identified in amniotic fluid. Neonatal infection was also diagnosed. Multiple factors may have contributed to symtoms observed in the neonate.

Suppression of Cell-Mediated Immunity in Experimental African Trypanosomiasis

Abstract: Adult New Zealand white rabbits were experimentally infected with a parasitic African hemoflagellate, Trypanosoma congolense, and were subsequently tested for in vivo and in vitro aspects of cell-mediated immune function. Chronically infected rabbits were sensitized to mycobacterial protein and skin-tested with purified protein derivative; all infected animals demonstrated much milder skin-test responses to antigen than control groups. Similarly, peripheral blood lymphocyte responses in vitro to purified protein derivative and, as well, to phytohemagglutinin were markedly suppressed. Supernatant fluids of antigen-stimulated lymph node cell cultures from T. congolense-infected rabbits failed to demonstrate migration inhibitory factor activity but did possess normal levels of blastogenic factor activity. An active infection was necessary for demonstration of suppressed immune responses, and components present in infected rabbit serum were apparently not responsible for the observed abnormalities. Suppression of T-lymphocyte subpopulations may well explain the occurrence of numerous immunological aberrations arising during human and animal infections with the African trypanosomes.

African Responses to Christian Mission Education

Abstract: Missionary domination of African education is a dying phenomenon. Today's church-affiliated institutions in Africa, while still mindful of their proselytizing duties, subordinate their religious messages to the rigors of academic preparation. The realities of contemporary African nation-building preclude any other course. Just as increasing nationalistic impulses and socio-economic considerations during the 19th century forced European politicians to recognize that education of their youth was too important to be left to the various confessions, so increasingly are African leaders coming to a similar conclusion. The shift from denominational to state control of the educational system is well advanced in many nations. In 1942, 97% of Nigeria's student population was enrolled in missionary schools; today missionary education has been banned in the East Central State of Nigeria—the heartland of the highly Christianized Ibos—and is steadily declining with the strengthening of the Local Education Authorities in other areas of Nigeria (Coleman, 1958: 113). As recently as 1950, missionary schools accounted for 97% of the total enrollment in Ghanaian schools; twelve years later the government assumed the responsibility tor the payment of salaries of all teachers, irrespective of the type of school in which they taught (Anim, 1966: 189). In an attempt to remove the school issue from the arena of sectarian politics the government of Uganda abolished the posts of mission school supervisors in 1963, placing their functions in the hands of secular authorities (Hindmarsh, 1966: 145). In 1945 there were 5,360 mission-run schools for Africans in South Africa and only 230 state-sponsored schools;

Deductive Echocardiographic Analysis in Infants with Congenital Heart Disease

Abstract: A step-by-step approach to cardiac diagnosis utilizing a chest X-ray and echocardiography is described and used to study a normal infant and six infant patients with angiocardiographically-proven complex congenital heart malformations The heart is divided into three major anatomical segments in order to localize the atrial and ventricular chambers and determine the relationship of the great arteries The atrial chambers are localized by noting the position of the liver on the X-ray The right atrium is on the same side as the liver with few exceptions The ventricular chambers are localized by echocardiographically identifying the tricuspid and mitral valves They are a part of the morphologically right and left ventricles, respectively As a general rule, the atrioventricular valve whose anterior leaflet is continuous with the posterior margin of a semilunar valve is the mitral valve The atrioventricular valve whose anterior leaflet is not continuous with a posterior semilunar valve margin is the tricu

Renal deposition of soluble immune complexes in mice bearing b-16 melanoma : characterization of complexes and relationship to tumor progress

Abstract: Histologic and immunofluorescence studies of the kidneys of mice bearing a progressive melanoma show a proliferative glomerulonephritis associated with immune complex deposition in the mesangium and along the glomerular basement membrane This immune complex disease is distinct from the age-associated disease of the C57BL/6J host strain and the complexes can be shown to consist of soluble tumor antigen and antitumor antibody. Furthermore, the intensity of IgG complex deposition correlates directly with tumor progress (size and metastases) and inversely with mononuclear leukocyte infiltration of the tumor. In vitro assays for lymphocyte cytotoxicity and humoral antibody were found to be less reliable indicators of tumor progress. The possible role of circulating soluble tumor antigen in modifying the immune response to tumors is discussed.

Surface potential contribution from discrete elements of ventricular wall

Abstract: Isopotential distribution maps were recorded before and after infarction in five dogs with an induced lesion in the circumflex branch of the left coronary artery and in five dogs with an occlusion created in the ventral interventricular branch by a closed chest catheter technique. Maps of "lost" potential distribution, derived by subtracting time-equivalent postinfarction maps from the dog's original or base-line maps, proved to be remarkably consistent in their configuration with respect to the location of the myocardial lesion. Even when the small, discrete infarctions, documented by histochemical postmortem examination, went undetected by conventional vector and scalar cardiography, the "difference" technique not only verified the presence of the lesion, but also served to predict its location.

Risk and effort measures of fatigue

Abstract: A method of measuring fatigue is suggested in which alternative routes, requiring different amounts of effort, lead to different probabilities of success or failure. An experiment designed to investigate a task which has these features shows it sensitive to the fatigue generated by a synthetic work battery. Fatigued Ss shifted their choices towards easier, riskier routes, compared with their own earlier performance and with that of a control group; they also showed an increased error rate on a subsidiary measure. In a second experiment, measurements on the task were shown to correlate with self-rated fatigue.

Growth standards for twins from birth to four years.

Abstract: SummaryGrowth standards for twins are presented for weight, height, and head circumference, based on a sample repeatedly measured from birth to four years of age. The results give the means, SDs, and selected centiles for the size attained at each age, the amount of gain between ages, and the size differences within twin pairs. Sex differences in growth rate were evident at several ages; males grew more rapidly during the first 6 months, whereas females grew more rapidly during the third year. Comparing high and low birth-weight twins, the mean weight gain was the same for both groups during the first two years, and the weight differential remained constant also, but there was an increasing degree of overlap between the two weight distributions. By age 4, over 20% of the low birth-weight twins were larger than the average high birth-weight twins.Compared to singletons, the twins' size deficit was greatest at birth but there was a marked recovery in the first six months, followed by only gradual changes th...

Pulmonary Platelet Aggregates Associated with Sudden Death in Man

Abstract: Six human cases of unexpected sudden death were found to have many platelet aggregates in the small arterial vessels of the lungs. Postmortem examination revealed no other significant findings.

CARDIVAR: the statistical analysis of heart rate data.

Abstract: Eleven statistical programs have been developed for use with heart rate data, and seven of the programs are illustrated in this paper. The programs make use of ANOVA and trend analysis to isolate the components of polyphasic response curves. The analysis can determine whether there are systematic changes over trials in the shape and phasing of the response curves, and whether there are significant differences between groups in the size of the trend components. The programs may be employed with other psychophysiological data having the same general properties as cardiac data.

The Cryptophthalmos-Syndactyly Syndrome Description, Manner of Inheritance, and Notes on the Eye Lesions

Abstract: The cryptophthalmos-syndactyly syndrome is a rare disorder of which approximately 55 cases have been reported in the world literature. A few have been described in the American literature. It is the purpose of this paper to report another case and to stress the importance of early identification and of genetic counseling of the parents.

Control of post-anaesthetic shivering

Abstract: From the data shown here, magnesium sulfate and methylphenidate may be the most effective of the substances tested, in the treatment of post-anaesthetic shivering, though not consistently so. Calcium chloride appears to be the least effective and its use is accompanied by some untoward cutaneous flushing which may be uncomfortable for conscious patients. The mechanisms thus far proposed for shivering appear to be inadequate to explain it in every case and no therapy is completely successful; therefore further investigation of the subject is certainly indicated.

Cycloheximide induced amnesia and recovery as a function of training parameters

Abstract: Mice were given 2 or 3 training trials in a passive avoidance task following an injection of cycloheximide or saline. They were tested 1, 1.5, 3, 24, or 72 hr after training and tested again 72 hr after the first test trial. All the cycloheximide groups except the 1 hr groups were inferior to saline controls on the first test trial, and there was no suggestion of spontaneous recovery over the intervals tested. Test 2 performance was generally inferior to Test 1 performance for all groups, but the cycloheximide groups showed the greatest drop in performance. A second experiment extended train/test intervals to 144, 146, 148, and 192 hr. Spontaneous or test induced recovery again did not occur. The discussion attempts to reconcile these results with prior reports of recovery in terms of differential conditioning of different components of passive avoidance memory by the different training procedures. This results in partial sparing of some components of passive avoidance memory by cycloheximide, which has the appearance of recovery under certain test conditions.