Vaginal distention rodent model for fecal incontinence: a pilot study on the effect on defecation behavior

Objectives: Vaginal balloon inflation simulates the compressive forces on the pelvic floor during the second phase of natural delivery. The foremost use of this animal model of vaginal distention (VD) is to study the mechanisms underlying urinary incontinence. As damage to the pelvic floor during natural birth is a common cause of fecal incontinence, the present paper aimed to investigate the effect of VD on defecation behavior in adult rats. Methods: Vaginal distention was performed in 8 rats for 2 hours, and in 3 rats for 4 hours, and sham inflation was performed in 4 rats. With the use of a latrine box in the rat home-cage and 24/7 video tracking, the defecation behavior was examined. The time spent in and outside the latrine was monitored for two weeks preoperatively and three weeks postoperatively, and a defecation behavior index (DBI; range: 0 [continent] to 1 [incontinent]) was defined. Pelvic floor tissue was collected postmortem and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Results: Vaginal balloon inflation for 2 hours resulted in fecal incontinence in 29% of the animals (responders) whereas the DBI scores of non-responders (71%) and control animals did not change in the postoperative phase compared with the baseline score. A 4-hour balloon inflation resulted in fecal incontinence in 1 animal and caused a humane endpoint in 2 animals with markedly more tissue damage in the 4-hour responder compared with the 2-hour responders. Conclusions: Vaginal balloon inflation, with an optimum duration between 2 and 4 hours, can be used as a model to study changes in defecation behavior in rats induced by pelvic floor damage. (AU)

Efecto de la temperatura del baño de hemodiálisis en diabéticos / Effect of the temperature of the dialysis bath in diabetics

During the dialysis procedure, arterial hypotension is one of the most common problems and it has been object of many studies. In hemodialysis, changes are produced in body volume through ultrafiltration that generate an increase in the production of thermic energy, which is removed during the treatment. The hypovolemia resulting from the removal of volume activates the sympathetic system, avoiding in this way heat loss and increasing body temperature that promotes vascular vasodilatation and interferes with the compensatory constrictive response to volume fall with consequent arterial hypotension. Patients with autonomic neuropathy would be the most affected by volume depletion and they are usually the ones that show the highest frecuency of hypotension episodes, typical of patients with diabetes. It has been proved before that the use of a cold bath does not decrease the efficiency of the dialysis treatment and improves the cardiovascular stability as well, mostly in patients proned to it, such as diabetics, elderly, and patients with cardiac failure. In this study, it was observed that patients showed low basal temperatures before dialysis treatment and that the use of bath temperature of 35.5 degrees C increased the temperature post dialysis less than with the standard bath at 37 degrees C. The bath at 35.5 degrees C decreased the episodes of arterial hypotension, with an improvement in patient's welfare, and lower requirement of attention and treatment costs.

Estudio de prevalencia de microalbuminuria y macroproteinuria en diabéticos y su relación con otras complicaciones / A collaborative study on the prevalence of microalbuminuriaand macroproteinuria in diabetic patients and their relation to other complications

Se determinó la prevalencia de microalbuminuria(Mi) y macroproteinuria(Ma) y otras complicaciones en diabéticos en un estudio multicéntrico en la Argentina. Se entrevistaron 214 pacientes sin selección previa, se evaluó historia clínica, se dividió por tipo de diabetes. La Mi se realizó por radioinmunoanálisis o inmunoturbidimétrico la Ma por método sulfosalicílico. Se relacionaron con edad, antigüedad y prevalencia de hipertensión,dislipemia y retinopatía. Se aplicó para análisis el método estadístico DBase con programa EPI INFO 50. Se calcularon estadísticas descriptivas, se aplicó prueba de chi cuadrado con unnivel de significación p=0.05. La población insulinodependiente (DID)n73(34,1), la no insulinodependinte (DNID) n101(47,2), la insulinorrequiriente(DIR)n40(18,7), la edad promedio del DID 34,88+ 16,3; el DNID 64,27 + 9,83; DIR 61,85 + 9,37,lo que mostró una diferencia estadísticamente significativa para el DID con respecto al DNID y al DIR. La antigüedad de la diabetes no mostró diferencias significativas, lo mismo sucedió con la hemoglobina glicosilada para los diferentes grupos.La prevalencia de Mi fue 26,22,23.17,30 y la Ma fue 21,13, 10,9,26,66 respectivamente. El 19,20 careció de datos para la proteinuria. La prevalencia de hipertensión arterial fue para el DID 15.06,DNID 54,45,DIR 57.50, la dislipemia 13,69, 39,60,47,50 y retinopatía 35,10,24.757 y 57,50 respectivamente,la hipertensión y dislipemia mostraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas si se comparaba los DNID y DIR con respecto DID