Effects of ions on partitioning of serum albumin and lysozyme in aqueous two-phase systems containing ethylene oxide/propylene oxide co-polymers.

Aqueous two-phase systems composed of ethylene oxide/propylene oxide random co-polymers, EO30/PO70 or Ucon (EO50/PO50), in the top phase and dextran T500 in the bottom phase, have been studied. The cloud point diagram for EO30/PO70 in water solution was determined. EO30/PO70 has a cloud point of 32 degrees C at a concentration of 10% (w/w). The phase diagram for the system EO30/PO70-dextran T500-water was determined. Salt effects have been studied on the partitioning of two model proteins, bovine serum albumin and hen egg white lysozyme, in EO30/PO70-dextran and Ucon-dextran systems. Ions with different hydrophobicity, i.e., with different position in the Hofmeister or lyotropic series, were investigated with reference to their effect on protein partition. The counterion hydrophobicity was shown to have a strong influence on the partitioning of BSA and lysozyme. Most extreme partitioning was obtained with hydrophobic (chaotropic) ions like CIO4- and I-. A comparison of protein partitioning between PEG-dextran and EO30/PO70-dextran has been done. A more extreme protein partitioning was obtained in the EO30/PO70-dextran containing system. Temperature-induced phase separation was studied with EO30/PO70 at 45 degrees C. Both BSA and lysozyme were completely partitioned to the water phase formed above the cloud point of EO30/PO70. Model calculations, based on Flory-Huggins theory of polymer solutions, have been done which could reproduce the salt effect on the protein partitioning in aqueous-two phase system.

Acupuncture before delivery: effect on pain perception and the need for analgesics.

Pain experience and the amount of analgesics needed during labor were studied in 32 primiparous women who had received repeated treatment with acupuncture (AP) during the month prior to term and in 16 nontreated primiparous women. The women's psychological profiles were evaluated by a psychiatric interview at week 38 of pregnancy. Treatment with AP did not reduce the need for analgesics in labor. During labor, all women experienced successively rising pain irrespective of whether or not they had been treated with AP prior to labor or delivered under local anesthesia. Experience of pain was not reduced in subjective assessments in women treated with AP. There was a strong correlation between assessments of pain made during labor and 6 months after delivery. In the group that did not receive AP, cerebrospinal fluid dynorphin A was significantly lower in parturients who chose epidural anesthesia.

Evaluation of the diagnosis pancreatitis.

A widely used classification of pancreatitis is the one proposed in Marseilles in 1963, which distinguishes among acute, acute relapsing, chronic relapsing, and chronic pancreatitis. The diagnostic criteria in chronic pancreatitis are permanent damage of morphology and/or function of the pancreas after clinical symptoms of pancreatitis. In clinical practice, however, it can be difficult to find the suitable and comparable diagnosis in accordance with the Marseilles classification. In the present study the exocrine and endocrine function and the morphology of the pancreas have been thoroughly investigated in 54 patients who have been treated for various diagnoses of pancreatitis. The results show that the above diagnostic criteria often are difficult to interpret. We consider that the prevailing classification of pancreatitis needs to be revised in the light of progress in investigative techniques. A proposal for a modified classification is presented.

Clinical course and autopsy findings in acute and chronic pancreatitis.

A retrospective study of 314 patients hospitalized for pancreatitis in the period 1972-1973, showed that 74 (24%) had died in the course of five years. The aim of the study was to elucidate the etiology and the course of the pancreatitis and the immediate cause of death in the 61 cases where an autopsy was performed. There were three types of histopathological findings at autopsy concerning the pancreas: acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and one group with no or minimal changes in the pancreas. The last group had had typical clinical symptoms of pancreatitis with abdominal pain and elevated urine and/or serum amylase, in many patients a very marked rise. Alcoholism was the dominant predisposing factor, regardless of the type of histopathological findings, but when the first attack of pancreatitis appeared at advanced age, biliary tract disease and cancer were the dominant causes. Liver damage was a common finding in alcoholic pancreatitis.

Prognosis in acute haemorrhagic, necrotizing pancreatitis.

Acute haemorrhagic and/or necrotizing pancreatitis is a most serious condition. A retrospective account is presented of the clinical course, treatment and results in 61 patients with the diagnosis confirmed at laparotomy and/or autopsy. Forty-eight patients (79%) died while in hospital. Of the 13 surviving patients, 10 were followed up for periods ranging from 1.5 to 9 years. They were reinvestigated with respect to morphologic and exocrine and endocrine functional changes in the pancreas. The aetiology of the acute condition was biliary tract disease in 33% of the total series and alcoholism in 59%. Neither cause of the disease nor type of treatment (surgery with or without peritoneal lavage) had statistically significant effect on survival. At the follow-up examination the endocrine and exocrine pancreatic functions were satisfactory in many patients. In almost half of the surviving patients, endoscopic retrograde pancreatography showed openly minor changes.

Compression of the inferior caval vein--a rare complication of a large non-parasitic liver cyst.

A patient with massive edema of the legs and scrotum is presented in whom non-parasitic cysts of the liver were found. Surgical evacuation of one large lobulated liver cyst completely relieved the patient of his edema. It is concluded that in this patient the peripheral edema was caused solely by cystic obstruction of the inferior caval vein.