Cerebral edema on high mountains.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Pines.
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Seven climbers spent 6 weeks in the East African mountains, at heights of up to 5890 m. The mean protein urine concentration in morning specimens was over 100 mg/100 ml after climbs during the first 12 days but fell to 15 mg/100 ml during subsequent climbs. The highest concentrations (100-300 mg/100 ml) were in 5 climbers with peripheral oedema, 3 with obvious high-altitude illness. The findings implicate the kidney in high altitude acclimatization and illness.
Sress research has concentrated on the presence of negative conditions as a source of stress and largely has ignored stress reactions that result from a lack of positive conditions. In an attempt to demonstrate the seriousness of this omission of stress theory, for samples of students (N = 84) and professionals (N = 205) the presence of negative and absence of positive life and work features were each related to the experiences of life and work tedium and satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Two hypotheses were proposed: that the presence of negative and lack of positive life and work features are (1) both significantly related to tedium and satisfaction/dissatisfaction and (2) are independent of each other. The hypotheses were confirmed for both samples except in the case of work satisfaction/dissatisfaction, which was related only to the lack of positive features. These results highlight the need in stress research to consider lack of positive conditions as a source of stress.
To determine the characteristics of staff burnout and ways of coping with it, the authors gathered data on institution-relation and personal variables for 76 staff members in various mental health facilities in the San Francisco area. A correlational analysis revealed a large number of statistically significant findings. For instance, the longer staff had worked in the mental health field, the less they liked working with patients, the less successful they felt with them, and the less humanistic were their attitudes toward mental illness. The authors present recommendations for reducing staff stress and subsequent burnout, including allowing more chances for temporary withdrawal from direct patient care and changing the function of staff meetings.
Occupational tedium among social service workers was found to depend more on a worker's interpersonal relations with colleagues and clients than on intrinsic work conditions, such as the variety of job assignments. This suggests that social workers may be particularly sensitive to people as sources of both emotional stress and support.
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Five climbers were studied during an ascent of a 7500 m mountain in the Hindu Kush. Representiative samples from 24-hour urines were preserved from five subjects at 5400 m and 6600 m and from two at 7000 m. Sodium and cortisol excretion was normal, but that of potassium and especially aldosterone was low, especially in two climbers who had episodes of peripheral oedema. Hypoaldosteronism is a feature of high altitude acclimatization but its cause and significance have still to be elucidated.
One hundred and thirty-two patients with purulent exacerbations of chronic bronchitis were randomly allotted to treatment in three groups. They received (a) amoxycillin 250 mg and pivmecillinam 200 mg; or (b) amoxycillin 500 mg; or (c) amoxycillin 500 mg and pivmecillinam 400 mg: three times daily for 10 days. By the 7th day of treatment there was significant improvement over amoxycillin alone for both groups given combined chemotherapy in conversion of sputum to mucoid and in general improvement; at the end of treatment results in patients given the higher doses of both antibiotics were still superior to amoxycillin alone. Patients were observed 2 to 4 weeks later, when those given amoxycillin alone relapsed much more frequently. The three treatments were well tolerated and succeeded equally in clearing potential pathogens from the sputum. Combined treatment may be superior due to synergy against Haemophilus influenzae or to the elimination of beta-lactamase producing organisms and should be investigated further.
100 hospital patients suffered from acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. 50 were treated with amoxycillin in a dose of 500 mg, three times a day for 10 days and the results compared with 50 patients treated with co-trimoxazole in a dose up to 480 mg trimethoprim and 2,400 mg of sulphamethoxazole daily in males, and two thirds of this dose in females. The trial was single-blind. During the acute phase of infection, both treatments were equally effective in clinical improvement, conversion of the sputum from purulent to mucoid, diminution of quantity and elimination of pathogenic bacteria. Amoxycillin was quicker in sputum conversion and gave less side effects, but the differences were not significant. During the 2-4 weeks following treatment, only a third of the patients who had received co-trimoxazole remained well and free from purulent relapse, as opposed to 72% who had received amoxycillin, a difference significant at the 2% level.
Cephazolin has certain advantages over other systemic cephalosporins. It was given in a dose of 2-3 g daily for 7 days in 40 patients with severe purulent exacerbations of chronic bronchitis, 11 with purulent bronchiectasis and 24 with secondarily infected bronchial carcinoma. Most had failed to respond to high doses of other antibiotics. Results were very good and toxicity minimal.
100 hospital patients suffered from acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. 50 were treated with amoxycillin in a dose of 500 mg, three times a day for 10 days and the results compared with 50 patients treated with co-trimoxazole in a dose up to 480 mg trimethoprim and 2,400 mg of sulphamethoxazole daily in males, and two thirds of this dose in females. The trial was single-blind. During the acute phase of infection, both treatments were equally effective in clinical improvement, conversion of the sputum from purulent to mucoid, diminution of quantity and elimination of pathogenic bacteria. Amoxycillin was quicker in sputum conversion and gave less side effects, but the differences were not significant. During the 2-4 weeks following treatment, only a third of the patients who had received co-trimoxazole remained well and free from purulent relapse, as opposed to 72% who had received amoxycillin, a difference significant at the 2% level.
Forty-eight patients with advanced squamous-cell lung cancer were treated with radical radiotherapy. Thereafter twenty-five received B.C.G. regularly and twenty-three did not. Differences in survival during the first year of observation and absence of peripheral metastases were significantly in favour of the patients treated with B.C.G. There was no response to B.C.G. in patients receiving palliative radiotherapy or cyclophosphamide nor in those with undifferentiated carcinoma.
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Temazepam, a common metabolite of diazepam and oxazepam, was evaluated as a sleep inducer. A dose of 20 mg, in a Scherer capsule formulation, was compared with 200 mg of amylobarbitone sodium in a between-patients, randomized study. Patient and staff assessments were used. No statistically significant difference as to onset of sleep, duration or quality of sleep or morning drowsiness was found using the patients' assessments. The staff recorded significantly less daytime dozing and morning hangover in patients receiving temazepam. Side-effects were mild and confined mainly to drowsiness on awakening. Two patients, both on amylobarbitone sodium, withdrew from the study because of increasing confusion.
The effects on subjective aspects of sleep of flurazepam 15 mg and amylobarbitone sodium 100 mg were compared in insomniac patients with chest disease. A double-blind technique was used. The results indicate a significant superiority of flurazepam over the other drug.