Objective and subjective tremor responses to oral beta 2 agents on first exposure. A comparison of metaproterenol and terbutaline.

Objective and subjective postural tremor responses at 60 and 120 min after drug treatment were studied in 24 veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who received either 5 mg terbutaline, 20 mg metaproterenol, or a placebo in random order. Subjects were fasting, and had not taken theophylline for 15 to 24 h or any oral sympathomimetics for 2 wk. The mean tremor response to terbutaline and metaproterenol was equal at 60 min, but the 120-min response to metaproterenol was less. When the 60- and 120-min responses were averaged, tremor response to terbutaline was significantly greater than that to metaproterenol in a 5 : 4 ratio. Subjective awareness was also greater. These results are consistent with the difference in bronchodilatory potency of the two preparations. That the drug producing the greater tremor could usually be identified by the patient, even at low tremor intensities, is consistent with the hypothesis that perception of tremor is a function of relative rather than absolute increase over basal tremor unless the tremor becomes physically disabling. In general, the individual tremor response was proportional to the extent by which a patient's basal tremor exceeded the minimal basal tremor for the group as a whole. These results fit a model in which the postural tremor derives from beta-sensitive and beta-insensitive cardioballistic and skeletal muscle forces. Variability in tremor response resides principally at the peripheral skeletal beta 2-receptor and its control system.

Common bile duct obstruction secondary to infection with Candida.

A patient is reported who had biliary tract obstruction secondary to infection of the common bile duct with Candida albicans, with the formation of a fungus ball. Treatment consisted of surgical removal of the fungus ball and drainage. Chemotherapy was not necessary. Ureteral obstruction through fungus ball formation, and even pulmonary fungus ball formation, has been attributed to candida, but this is the first case reported, to our knowledge, of bile duct obstruction.

Herpetic esophagitis in patients with cancer: ante mortem diagnosis by brush cytology.

Ante mortem diagnosis of herpetic esophagitis has been made in four immunosuppressed patients with cancer. The diagnosis was made by brush cytology at the time of esophagoscopy. All four patients had severe dysphagia unresponsive to nystatin therapy and the diagnosis of herpes infection excluded the use of Amphotericin B for resistant moniliasis. The diagnosis of herpes virus infection of the esophagus has been previously made almost exclusively at post mortem examination. Herpetic esophagitis is shown to be not necessarily a preterminal complication in cancer patients. In three of the four patients the esophagitis resolved as the patients responded to anti-tumor therapy.