Total support of the circulation of a patient with post-cardiotomy stone-heart syndrome by a partial artificial heart (ALVAD) for 5 days followed by heart and kidney transplantation

A patient with acute bacterial endocarditis in whom ischaemic contracture of the left ventricle (stone-heart syndrome) developed during aortic and mitral valve replacement had an emergency implantation of an intracorporeal partial artificial heart (an abdominal left-ventricular assist device of ALVAD). This device functioned as a total artificial heart for nearly 6 days, while a donor heart for transplantation was sought. The ALVAD was then removed, and the patient received allografts of a heart and a kidney. The transplanted heart functioned well, but the patient died 15 days later from gram-negative sepsis. There was no evidence of cardiac or renal allograft rejection.

Ovine ill-thrift in Nova Scotia. 5. The production and toxicology of chetomin, a metabolite of chaetomium spp

Chetomin is a metabolite of Chaetomium cochliodes and C. globosum. It is produced by C. cochliodes on a denned medium and the yield is increased about 50-fold by the addition of corn steep liquor to the culture medium. Five single spore isolates of C. cochliodes (HLX 440) all produced chetomin and one of them produced appreciable quantities of a metabolite related to chetomin but having a S:N ratio of 1:1. Previous reports of the antibacterial activity of chetomin were confirmed and the antibiotic was shown, in addition, to inhibit the mycelial growth of some fungi. At 0.02 μg/ml, it inhibited protein synthesis in cultures of HeLa cells. Its oral LD50 in rats was 75 mg/kg, and in turkeys, 30 mg/kg. No pathological changes were observed in lambs dosed orally at 30 mg/kg but a single intraperitoneal dose of chetomin at 5 mg/kg resulted in the death of half the animals treated. Sublethal oral doses in all the animal species mentioned resulted in loss of body weight.

Ovine ill-thrift in Nova Scotia. 4. The survival at low oxygen partial pressure of fungi isolated from the contents of the ovine rumen

Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor rouxii, and Sporormia minima have been isolated from the rumen contents of sheep grazing permanent pasture at Nappan, Nova Scotia. To determine the ability of these fungi to survive and grow at the low oxygen partial pressure present in the rumen, a method of determination of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide has been developed. The lowest partial pressures of oxygen [Formula: see text] and nitrogen that could be detected were 0.0005 cm Hg and the precision of the determination was ±0.001 cm Hg. Carbon dioxide was determined with slightly less precision than achieved for oxygen and nitrogen. Using this method, respiration was detected in cultures of all the fungi named at [Formula: see text] Hg and growth was observed at [Formula: see text] Hg in the case of M. rouxii. It is concluded that all these fungi are capable of survival in the ovine rumen.

Cytological studies of Chaetomium cochliodes

A culture of Chaetomium cochliodes, HLX 440-1, is homothallic. The vegetative hyphal cells are multinucleate and the cells of the ascogenous hyphae are predominantly uninucleate. There is no true crozier stage in the development of the asci from the ascogenous hyphae, though a structure reminiscent of a crozier is formed. The ascogenous cell from which the ascus develops is initially uninucleate.