Hematology and clinical chemistry reference values for C57BL/6 X DBA/2 F1 mice.

We have analyzed hematology data from 504 individual male C57BL/6 X DBA/2 (hereafter called B6D2F1) mice. Clinical chemistry data from an additional 304 individual male B6D2F1 mice have also been analyzed. The mice had served as drug-diluent controls in 24 toxicological evaluations of anticancer drugs administered singly or in combination. The studies were carried out under standardized conditions during an 18-month period between July 1975 and December 1976. Test values corresponding to 9 percentiles have been selected from an ordered ranking of values for each of 18 hematologic tests and 18 clinical chemistry tests. Since 95% of the values for a given test are found between the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles, test values corresponding to these percentiles provide reference values ("normal" values) for these mice. The other percentiles (5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 95th) indicate the distribution of values between the reference limits for each test. Since values for all tests do not conform to the Gaussian distribution, this nonparametric analysis provides reference values that are more accurate than might be obtained from calculation of the mean and standard deviation of a given test. The B6D2F1 mouse, commonly referred to as BDF1, has been widely used for preclinical evaluation of anticancer drugs, and these data should be useful to investigators who are conducting qualitative and quantitative toxicity evaluations in these mice.

Gastric emptying of liquids after different vagotomies and pyloroplasty.

Gastric emptying of five liquid meals which differ in their physicochemical properties have been measured in control dogs and dogs that have received a Heinecke-Mikulicz pyloroplasty alone, proximal gastric vagotomy without drainage, selective gastric vagotomy and pyloroplasty and truncal vagotomy and pyloroplasty. The first two phases of emptying have been computed by the method of least squares to obtain a logarithmic-linear pattern and are expressed as relative rates: The initial post-ingestion process is characterized by beta or the average relative rate of emptying in the first ten minutes, the basic or exponential rate as beta and the change in rate from the initial to basic pattern as deltabeta. Each measure of gastric emptying was statistically analyzed to determine specific differences in rates between the operations studied. We confirmed the earlier claims that pyloroplasty alone does not change the emptying rate of liquid meals. Each measure or phase of emptying varies consistently across the operations from meal to meal tested. Initial emptying after all three vagotomies is significantly faster than control with progressive rate increases as proximal gastric vagotomy is compared with selective gastric vagotomy with pyloroplasty and with truncal vagotomy with pyloroplasty, probably indicative of gastric fundal loss of accommodation to volume distention after denervation. The basic exponential pattern of emptying is not lost after any of the operations studied. The basic rate after proximal gastric vagotomy and selective gastric vagotomy with pyloroplasty is nearly identical, slightly delayed from the control rate and significantly slower than the more rapid rate after truncal vagotomy with pyloroplasty. Possible explanations for these are discussed and imply a particular importance of the hepatic and celiac vagal fibers, sectioned only with truncal vagotomy, in the regulation of gastric emptying of liquids.

Comparison of left and right ventricular function in acute myocardial infarction.

Pulmonary arterial end-diastolic and mean right atrial pressures were compared in 25 patients with acute myocardial infarction and in one patient with unstable angina. No consistent relationship was observed between these pressures. Simultaneous ventricular function curves relating the stroke work of each ventricle to its respective filling pressure were constructed on 34 occasions, dextran infusion or diuresis being used to alter the filling pressure. The curves from each ventricle were described mathematically by a quadratic (parabolic) function as well as by a straight line function and then compared by canonical correlation analysis. Alterations in the left ventricular function curves occurred with and without depression or right ventricular function curves. These hemodynamic measurements demonstrate that acute myocardial infarction can alter the relationship between left and right ventricular function.