This study aimed to investigate the existence of GABA receptor and the mechanisms of action of GABA and diazepam of the trachealis muscle isolated from dog. Horizontal muscle strips of 2mm×15mm were prepared from canine trachea, and isometric myography in isolated muscle chamber bubbled with 95/5%-O₂/CO₂ at 36℃, at the pH of 7.4 was performed. Muscle strips contracted responding to the electrical field stimulation (ESP) by 2~20 Hz, 20 msec, monophasic square wave of 60 VDC. GABA and diazepam suppressed the EFS-induced contractions to the similar extent, significantly. (p<0.05). Bicuculline, a GABA(A) receptor antagonist blocked both GABA- and diazepam-inhibitions; but DAVA, a GABA(B) receptor antagoinst did not affect either of them. These results suggest than in the canine trachealis muscle, there may be only GABA(A) receptor, and GABA and diazepam inhibit the contractility via GABA(A) receptor.
Animals ; Bicuculline ; Diazepam ; Dogs ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid* ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Myography ; Receptors, GABA ; Receptors, GABA-A ; Trachea

No abstract available.
DNA* ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin*

BACKGROUND: Anesthesiologists often encounter patients who have acute, massive blood loss and severe hemodilution as the result of fluid therapy in the operating room. It is known that patients with normal heart function survive at hemoglobin 4 6 g/dl. Recently, the incidence of elderly patients with ischemic heart disease have been increasing progressively but studies about critical hematocrit level in patients with ischemic heart disease are rare. This study, therefore, was designed to evaluate the hemodynamic response of isovolemic hemodilution in myocardial ischemia-induced dogs. METHODS: In 12 anesthetized dogs, a Swan-Ganz catheter and left ventricle catheter were inserted and hemodynamic parameters were measured as control values. Myocardial ischemia was induced with a left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery ligation. Thereafter, isovolemic hemodilutions were done several times to set the hematocrit levels of 36%, 31%, 26%, 21%, 16%, and 11%. Records and samples for hemodynamic parameters were obtained after LAD ligation and at each hematocrit level. RESULTS: There were significant decreases in diastolic blood pressures in hematocrits 21%, 16%, 11%, in mean arterial pressures in hematocrits 16%, 11% and in systolic blood pressure in hematocrit 11% (P < 0.05). Oxygen delivery progressively decreased in hematocrits 36%, 31%, 26%, 21%, 16% and 11% (P < 0.05). Oxygen extraction ratios progressively increased and were statistically significant in hematocrits 21%, 16% and 11% (P < 0.05). Arterial blood gases showed metabolic acidosis in hematocrits 16% and 11%. There was decreased PCO2 in hematocrit 11% (P < 0.05). Mixed venous blood oxy-hemoglobin saturation decreased in hematocrit 16% and 11% (P < 0.05). Other variables were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Blood pressure decreased at hematocrit 16% so it is necessary to maintain a hematocrit level above 21% at least in cardiac depressed dogs.
Acidosis ; Aged ; Animals ; Arterial Pressure ; Blood Pressure ; Catheters ; Coronary Vessels ; Dogs* ; Fluid Therapy ; Gases ; Heart ; Heart Ventricles ; Hematocrit ; Hemodilution* ; Hemodynamics* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Ligation ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Operating Rooms ; Oxygen

BACKGROUND: Automated systems are used widely for pre-transfusion tests in blood banks, in an attempt to reduce effort and human error. We evaluated the clinical performance of an automated blood bank system, ORTHO VISION (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Switzerland), for blood cross-matching. METHODS: Saline cross-matching was performed for 93 tests using 56 samples. Coombs cross-matching was performed for 400 tests using 166 samples. Saline cross-matching was compared for the automated ORTHO VISION and manual tube methods. Coombs cross-matching was compared for the automated ORTHO VISION and manual column agglutination technique (CAT) methods. The evaluation of 32 antibody-positive samples using the automated ORTHO VISION and manual CAT methods was compared by performing 97 cross-matching tests. Additionally, the ORTHO VISION efficiency and carryover were evaluated. RESULTS: The concordance rate of the saline cross-matching results between the manual method and automated ORTHO VISION was 100%. The concordance rate of coombs cross-matching results between manual CAT and automated ORTHO VISION was 97.9%. The concordance rate of cross-matching for antibody positive samples between manual CAT and the automated ORTHO VISION was 97.9%. Coombs cross-matching was efficient using ORTHO VISION, whereas saline cross-matching was efficient using the tube manual method. CONCLUSIONS: ORTHO VISION showed reliable results for cross-matching and was more efficient than manual CAT for coombs cross-matching. Thus, ORTHO VISION can be used for pre-transfusion tests in blood banks.
Agglutination ; Animals ; Automation ; Blood Banks ; Cats ; Humans ; Methods

BACKGROUND: Analysis of body fluids provides important information for assessing various medical conditions. We aimed to validate the analytical and diagnostic performance of the Sysmex UF-5000 (Sysmex, Japan) system for the analysis of different body fluids. METHODS: Eighty body fluid samples were analyzed using the UF-5000 system in the body fluid mode and light microscopy. Body fluids included ascitic, pleural, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as well as other fluid samples. RESULTS: A comparison between the UF-5000 system and manual counting demonstrated good correlations with regard to red (r=0.6555) and white blood cell (r=0.9666) counts. The UF-5000 system also demonstrated good performance for differential cell counting (r=0.9028). CSF particularly showed a good correlation. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the UF-5000 system for cell counting and differential analysis of body fluid samples might be an effective and automated alternative to chamber counting in laboratory routine analysis, thereby enhancing laboratory workflow and clinical effectiveness.
Automation ; Body Fluids ; Cell Count ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Erythrocytes ; Leukocytes ; Methods ; Microscopy ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND: Point-of-care testing (POCT) is designed to be used near the site where the clinical care is being delivered. The demand for POCT in the medical field is expanding significantly, given that rapid results can eventually lead to early diagnosis and immediate clinical management of diseases. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the i-STAT POC analyser (Abbott Diagnostics, USA) for testing 8 chemical analytes (viz., sodium, potassium, chloride, total carbon dioxide, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, glucose, and ionised calcium) and 2 hematological analytes (hematocrit [HCT], hemoglobin [Hb]). METHODS: The precision and linearity of the 10 analytes were measured according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) EP15-A3 and EP6-A guidelines. Comparisons with a central laboratory hematology analyser, Coulter LH 780 (Beckman Coulter Inc., USA), and a chemical analyser, UniCel DxC 880i (Beckman Coulter Inc.), were performed using 85 patient samples according to CLSI EP9-A3. RESULTS: The coefficient of variation values for the within-run precision and total precision at 3 levels of all analytes were within 5%, except those for low level creatinine. In the aspect of linearity, the correlation coefficient values of all analytes were over 0.975 in the clinically important concentration range. A very high correlation was observed in glucose, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine (R>0.975), high correlation was observed in sodium, potassium, Hct and Hb (R>0.9), and relatively good correlation was observed in chloride and total carbon dioxide (R>0.7) compared to the central laboratory analysers. CONCLUSIONS: i-STAT showed relatively high precision and linearity, and comparable data to that of routine hematology and chemistry analysers. This device was concluded to have potential for providing faster results and relatively acceptable values to clinicians in need of immediate results.
Blood Glucose ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Carbon Dioxide ; Chemistry ; Creatinine ; Early Diagnosis ; Glucose ; Hematology ; Humans ; Nitrogen ; Point-of-Care Systems* ; Point-of-Care Testing ; Potassium ; Sodium ; Urea

Diaphragm injuries are very important because, if both thoracic and abdominal viscera are damaged, a combination of shock and acute respiratory distress may develop. It can be highly lethal. This evaluation was based on the reviews of 17 cases of traumatic diaphragm injuries treated at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Seoul Adventist Hospital during 5 years from March 1993 to February 1997. The mean age of the patients was 37.2 years and sex ratio was 3.2:1 with male dominance. Blunt trauma(N=5, Rt.=4, Lt.=1) was 29.5%, penetrating trauma(N=12, Rt.=5, Lt.=7) was 70.5%. Dyspnea(76%) was the most common symptom. Blunt trauma(9.8 3.7 Cm) was larger than the penetrating trauma(3.2 1.3 Cm)(P<0.05) in the size(mean SD) of the injury. All of the patients had associated injuries and repaired immediatley with thoracic approach 11 cases(64%), abdominal approach 3 cases(18%) and thoracoabdominal approach 3 cases(18%). 5 cases of penetrating diaphragmatic trauma was diagnosed on the operation of other organ injury. Now we suggest that diaphragmatic injury should be suspected in all patients with penetrating as well as blunt injury of the chest and abdomen to protect the patient from its late complications.
Abdomen ; Diaphragm ; Humans ; Male ; Seoul ; Sex Ratio ; Shock ; Thorax ; Viscera ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating

BACKGROUND: Fecal occult blood tests have been widely used as a means of gastrointestinal bleeding and colorectal cancer screening. HM-JACKarc (Kyowa Medex Co. Ltd, Japan) is a recently introduced automated fecal occult blood test analyser, which uses latex agglutination method. We evaluated the analytical performance of HM-JACKarc. METHODS: The linearity and precision for HM-JACKarc were evaluated according to the corresponding Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute guidelines. The comparison study between HM-JACKarc and OC-SENSOR DIANA (Eiken Chemical Co. Ltd., Japan) was done with stool specimens. RESULTS: The linearity was good (R²=0.999) and the coefficients of variation of within-day precision and between-day precision were 5.2% and 4.9%, respectively, in low concentration and 2.7% each in high concentration. The concordance rate between HM-JACKarc and OCSENSOR DIANA was 99.0% (198 out of 200). CONCLUSIONS: HM-JACKarc showed excellent performance in linearity, precision, and comparison studies. Therefore, it appears to be a useful automated fecal occult blood test analyser.
Agglutination ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Hemorrhage ; Latex ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Occult Blood*

No abstract available.
Blood Cell Count ; Bone Marrow Cells/metabolism/pathology ; Humans ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute/complications/*diagnosis/pathology ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Myeloma/complications/*diagnosis/pathology ; Paraproteinemias/diagnosis ; Syndecan-1/metabolism

Carbapenemase production has been reported worldwide in gram-negative bacteria, including Acinetobacter species. We detected carbapenemase-producing Acinetobacter pittii in clinical isolates in Daejeon, Korea. Twenty-one ertapenem-resistant A. pittii isolates screened with a disk diffusion method were characterized by using the Epsilon test, four multiplex PCR assays, and a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme. A total of 21 A. pittii isolates harbored the metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) gene bla(IMP-1) or bla(NDM-1). Nineteen isolates containing bla(IMP-1) were resistant to imipenem and meropenem, but two isolates harboring bla(NDM-1) were susceptible to them. The sequence types (STs) of the two New Delhi MBL (NDM-1)-producing A. pittii isolates were ST70 and ST207, which differed from the STs (ST63, ST119, ST396, and a novel ST) of the IMP-1-producing A. pittii. This is the first report on NDM-1-producing A. pittii isolates in Korea. Our results emphasize that the study of NDM-1-producing gram-negative bacteria should involve carbapenem-susceptible as well as carbapenem-resistant isolates.
Acinetobacter* ; Diffusion ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Imipenem ; Korea ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction