Normal survival curve after coronary artery bypass

A consecutive series of 2,628 patients subjected to isolated coronary artery bypass have had follow-up for a total of 13,915.5 patient-years. The number of patients surviving without angina decreased from 81% at one year to 36.9% at nine years after operation. Nonfatal myocardial infarction occurred at a rate of 3.1% per year, and the incidence of repeat coronary artery bypass was approximately 1% per year. The ratio of the five-year actuarial survival to that expected for a normal population, matched by age and sex, was 1.03 for single vessel disease, 1.00 for double vessel disease, and 1.00 for triple vessel disease. The survival ratio at ten years postoperatively was 1.13, 0.99, and 0.85 for single, double, and triple vessel disease, respectively. Cardiac causes accounted for 44.4%, 68.9%, and 65.7% of deaths in patients with single, double, and triple vessel disease, respectively.

Identification of two granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factors from porcine leukocyte cultures

Granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factors (CSF) were found in large-scale serum-free cultures of porcine blood leukocytes. The factors were concentrated from the conditioned culture medium of Concanavalin A-stimulated leukocytes using ammonium sulfate salting-out fractionation. The protein precipitate at 45-90% salt saturation contained two CSF types upon gel filtration on Sephadex G-100: One type was found to be active on mouse, but not on human bone marrow stem cells and had an apparent molecular mass of 85 000-100 000 Da; the other of about 40 000-45 000 Da stimulated both mouse and human bone marrow stem cells.

Plasma melatonin increases during exercise in women

Melatonin was measured in plasma of seven women volunteers before and after serial acute submaximal exercise tests performed during the course of a two-month, progressive endurance training program. Plasma melatonin increased during all exercise sessions and declined towards baseline values when re-measured thirty minutes after completion of each exercise. This finding indicates that vigorous physical activity elicits transient increases in plasma melatonin in both sedentary and trained women.

The development of noun definition

This study investigated the development of noun definition by grade school children and adults (N = 100). Subjects were asked to define 15 common nouns in one of two conditions: with objects present or without objects present. Definitions were classified on the basis of perceptual attributes (CONCRETE), everyday usage (FUNCTIONAL) or a combination of these (COMBINATORIAL). Results were analysed with a 5 (Grade) × 2 (Condition × 3 (Category) Analysis of Variance which indicated no effects for condition, but a Grade × Category interaction. With increasing age, there was a shift from FUNCTIONAL to COMBINATORIAL definitions; CONCRETE definitions were infrequent for all grades. In addition, age changes were found in the forms of the definitions subjects produced. In contrast to the children, adults formulated definitions in a more complex Aristotelian form. It was concluded that noun definition is a metalinguistic ability which follows a course of development similar to that for the acquisition of word meaning.

Surgical therapy for left main coronary artery disease

The course of a consecutive series of 271 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass for left main coronary artery obstruction (greater than or equal to 50% luminal diameter stenosis) between January, 1971, and December, 1976, at the Mid-America Heart Institute is reported. There were four (1.5%) operative deaths. All patients have been followed until their death or for 2 to 5 years with a mean follow-up of 3.8 years. There has been an incidence of acute myocardial infarction of 2.2 per 100 patient-years of follow-up, and four patients (1.5%) have required a second coronary artery bypass procedure. There have been 19 late deaths. Death was more frequent in women and in patients who had fewer than three bypasses performed. Actuarial survival at 5 years for the entire group was 88.8%. The expected survival rate of a general population matched for age and sex at 5 years is 88.4%. It is concluded that coronary artery bypass for left main coronary artery disease favorably affects longevity.

Effects of caffeine on anterior pituitary and thyroid function in the rat

We studied the effects of acute, intraperitoneal administration of caffeine on serum thyrotropin (TSH), growth hormone, prolactin, thyroxine and 3,3',5-triiodothyronine in rats. Caffeine lowered serum TSH and GH in a dose-dependent manner with ED50 values of 30 and approximately 50 mg/kg, respectively. TSH levels were depressed 1 to 6 hr after injection and correlated with serum caffeine levels greater than 20 micrograms/ml. The decrease in serum TSH was followed by decreases in serum 3,3',5-triiodothyroxine and thyroxine 4 hr after caffeine administration. Theophylline and theobromine had effects similar to those of caffeine on hormone levels. Caffeine did not significantly affect hormone secretion when incubated directly with rat pituitaries in vitro. Administration of antisomatostatin antiserum to rats blocked the inhibitory effects of caffeine on serum GH levels, suggesting that caffeine inhibits GH and TSH secretion by releasing hypothalamic somatostatin.

[Objective assessment of clinical gingival findings by using photoplethysmography]

The effects of vaso-active drugs on the inclination time and the plateau index in the plethysmogram were determined on different days and at different hours of the day. A first evaluation of the limits of performance and of the diagnostic possibilities, based on 1,500 measured values, permits to conclude that this technique is suited for differentiating between normal and disturbed periodontal microcirculation, and between functional and organic vascular changes.