OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and effectiveness of manual vacuum aspiration for abortion in a primary care office setting. DESIGN: Retrospective chart audit. SETTING: Private family practice office. PATIENTS: A total of 1769 consecutive women who obtained an abortion in this office between January 1, 1993, and December 31, 1995, for whom 1677 medical charts were available for review. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rate of complete abortion, estimated blood loss, and rate of complications. Complications included early complications of uterine perforation, cervical injury, and hospitalization, and late complications of pelvic infection and retained products of conception. RESULTS: Overall, manual vacuum aspiration was 99.5% effective in terminating pregnancy through 12 weeks of gestation. There were no major complications, and the minor complications of retained products of conception and infection were easily treated. CONCLUSION: Manual vacuum aspiration performed in a primary care office setting is safe and effective in terminating pregnancy through the end of the 10th week of gestation.

Abortion, Induced↗

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Prostaglandin E2 and the regulation of protein degradation in skeletal muscle.

We tested the influence of PGE2 on protein degradation in isolated mouse and rat muscles. PGE2 had no influence on protein degradation rate in mouse muscles under several different incubation conditions and over a dose range of 28 nM to 28 microM. Furthermore, neither PGE2 (2.8 microM) nor arachidonic acid (5 microM) influenced protein degradation in rat muscles under incubation conditions identical to those previously reported. The biological activity of our PGE2 was confirmed with the rat stomach fundic strip preparation. We question the contention that PGE2 regulates protein degradation in skeletal muscle.

Animals↗

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Hypogravity-induced atrophy of rat soleus and extensor digitorum longus muscles.

Prolonged exposure of humans to hypogravity causes weakening of their skeletal muscles. This problem was studied in rats exposed to hypogravity for 7 days aboard Spacelab 3. Hindlimb muscles were harvested 12-16 hours postflight for histochemical, biochemical, and ultrastructural analyses. The majority of the soleus and extensor digitorum longus fibers exhibited simple cell shrinkage. However, approximately 1% of the fibers in flight soleus muscles appeared necrotic. Flight muscle fibers showed increased glycogen, lower subsarcolemmal staining for mitochondrial enzymes, and fewer subsarcolemmal mitochondria. During atrophy, myofibrils were eroded by multiple focal losses of myofilaments; lysosomal autophagy was not evident. Tripeptidylaminopeptidase and calcium-activated protease activities of flight soleus fibers were significantly increased, implying a role in myofibril breakdown. Simple fiber atrophy appears to account for muscle weakening during spaceflight, but fiber necrosis is also a contributing factor.

Aminopeptidases↗

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The influence of propranolol on catecholamine-induced changes in carbohydrate metabolism in the rabbit.

In vitro evidence has indicated that isoproterenol (ISO) is more potent than epinephrine (EPI) in releasing glucose from rabbit liver slices and that propranolol (PROP) is a competitive antagonist of ISO. In contrast, dose-response data from fasted rabbits have shown that EPI is more potent than ISO in increasing plasma glucose levels and in lowering hepatic glycogen levels. Pretreatment with PROP abolished ISO-induced hyperglycemia and changes in liver and muscle glycogen levels whereas only the muscle glycogen depleting effect of EPI was altered significantly. These results suggest that factors other than stimulation of hepatic beta-receptors must be involved in EPI-stimulated depletion of liver glycogen and hyperglycemia in the intact rabbit.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Some explanations for species differences in hyperglycemic responses to adrenergic agents.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Major and minor groove conformations of DNA trimers modified on guanine or adenine by 4-aminobiphenyl: adenine adducts favor the minor groove.

We have studied the conformational effects of 4-aminobiphenyl modification at C-8 of guanine or adenine on double-stranded DNA trimers. We used sequences with the modified purine at the central base pair and all 16 possible neighboring sequences at the outer pairs. Minimized potential energy calculations were carried out using the molecular mechanics program DUPLEX to survey the conformation space of these adducts, using a total of 1280 starting structures both in the modified guanine series and in the modified adenine series. Conformer families in which the bound 4-aminobiphenyl was located in the DNA major groove, and in the minor groove, were located for both adenine and guanine modification. In the modified guanine series, the major and minor groove families were roughly comparable in energy, and the sequence context determined which was more stable in a particular case. In the modified adenine series, however, the minor groove structure was more than 10 kcal/mol more stable than the major groove structure for all sequences. As a result, minor groove adducts provided most of the global minima in the adenine-modified series. This result may be relevant to a previous mutagenesis study [Lasko et al. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 15429-15435] in which the hot spot of most frequent occurrence was located at an adenine, in the sequence GAT.

Adenine↗

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Contrast medium- and mannitol-induced apoptosis in heart and kidney of SHR rats.

The induction of apoptosis by contrast media (CM) and mannitol (M) was investigated in the hearts and kidneys of 12-mo-old male SHR rats. Ten groups of 3 SHR rats received a dose of 5 ml/kg of one of the following: Hypaque (H)-30, H-60, H-76, Omnipaque (O)-140, O-350, mannitol (M)-4%, M-9%, M-19%, M-27%, or saline (S). DNA fragmentation was detected using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated [TdT] dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) method, and the morphology characteristics of apoptosis were confirmed in cardiac and renal cells. The immunoreactivities of Bcl-2, Bax, and p53 were assessed immunohistochemically in the kidneys. Apoptosis occurred in cardiac myocytes and renal tubular and glomerular cells as well as in vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells of the heart and kidneys. The high frequency of apoptosis correlated significantly with the increase in the osmolality of the H, O, and M. The increased Bax, the increased p53, and the decreased Bcl-2 immunoreactivities were detected in H- or O-treated, but not in M-treated, rats. These findings suggest that CM and M activate cardiac and renal apoptosis by different mechanisms and that the apoptotic process may be implicated in acute heart and renal damage.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The patient-centred care model: holistic/multiprofessional/reflective.

Holistic patient-centred care (PCC) is often regarded as the quintessence of nursing practice. However, closer examination reveals that provision of care for patients with a physical illness or disability is centred around their compromised physical condition rather than their individual needs. Often, little attention is given to 'total care' and negotiation with the patient is largely excluded. This is evident in the continued use of medical models of care and the assumption that physical needs are the priority for practice. This article presents an alternative--the PCC model. This is a multiprofessional, reflective model which facilitates an unbiased and non-presumptuous approach, thereby overriding the tendency of healthcare professionals to rely on paternalistic and habitual practice. It empowers patients, allowing them to determine their own needs, and encourages reflection, self-awareness and personal and professional growth in the healthcare professionals who adopt it. Although the model was devised and piloted within a hospice it has the potential to be adapted for use in any healthcare setting.

Holistic Nursing↗