Evaluation of Thickened Fluids Used in Dysphagia Management Using Extensional Rheology.

Recent studies show that understanding the rheological properties of thickened fluids, such as viscosity and yield stress, is advantageous in designing optimal thickened fluids for the treatment of dysphagia. To date, these studies have focused on the rheological behavior of thickened fluids in shear deformation, while limited information is available on the surface tension of thickened fluids or their rheological behavior in extensional deformation. Knowledge of the extensional properties of thickened fluids (extensional viscosity and cohesiveness) is important to fully understand the behavior of such fluids while swallowing. Our aim in this work, therefore, was to characterize water and skim milk thickened with a commercial thickener (xanthan gum based) to determine extensional deformation and surface tension properties. It was observed that the surface tension decreases as the thickener concentration increases due to the accumulation of the biopolymer at the surface of the fluid when it dissolves in water. In addition, the extensional viscosity of the fluid increased over time as the filament thinned (i.e., as the Hencky strain increased) until it reached a plateau. It was observed that the maximum extensional viscosity, which is related to the cohesiveness of the fluid, increases with the higher concentrations of thickener. However, the cohesiveness of thickened skim milk was lower than that of the thickened water at a given thickener concentration due to lower surface tension. This study confirms that by increasing the concentration of thickener, it will not only increase the shear viscosity (i.e., bolus thickness) of the fluid, but also the extensional viscosity (i.e., bolus cohesiveness).

Neutron-mapping polymer flow: scattering, flow visualization, and molecular theory.

Flows of complex fluids need to be understood at both macroscopic and molecular scales, because it is the macroscopic response that controls the fluid behavior, but the molecular scale that ultimately gives rise to rheological and solid-state properties. Here the flow field of an entangled polymer melt through an extended contraction, typical of many polymer processes, is imaged optically and by small-angle neutron scattering. The dual-probe technique samples both the macroscopic stress field in the flow and the microscopic configuration of the polymer molecules at selected points. The results are compared with a recent "tube model" molecular theory of entangled melt flow that is able to calculate both the stress and the single-chain structure factor from first principles. The combined action of the three fundamental entangled processes of reptation, contour length fluctuation, and convective constraint release is essential to account quantitatively for the rich rheological behavior. The multiscale approach unearths a new feature: Orientation at the length scale of the entire chain decays considerably more slowly than at the smaller entanglement length.

Preference for NaCl solutions in sham drinking Sprague-Dawley rats: water deprivation, sodium depletion, and angiotensin II.

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fitted with closable gastric fistulas and were then tested under closed fistula (real intake) and open fistula (sham intake--fluids drain from the stomach without appreciable absorption) conditions in one of three states: fluid deprivation, sodium depletion, and infusion of angiotensin (Ang) II. Water and various concentrations of NaCl were offered to drink in 1-h one- or two-bottle intake tests. In Experiment 1, water-deprived rats with closed fistulas drank more 0.15 M NaCl than either water or 0.3 M NaCl, offered in one-bottle tests. In sham drinking tests, the intake decreased monotonically as NaCl concentration increased. In two-bottle tests, water was greatly preferred over NaCl solutions. In Experiment 2, sodium-depleted rats preferred NaCl over water, again demonstrating a peak intake at 0.15 M in closed fistula conditions. However, with the fistula open the intakes of 0.05 and 0.15 M were similar, and 0.45 M considerably lower. In Experiment 3, Ang II-infused rats consumed both water and NaCl in two-bottle tests in both open and closed fistula trials. The quantity ingested on sham trials was only modestly elevated over real intake trials with Ang II compared with sham tests in Experiments 1 and 2.

Effect of desalivation on water and sodium chloride intake in rats.

Desalivate rats consumed significantly less water than sham-operated rats in response to acute challenges with a variety of dipsogens, including polyethylene glycol (PEG), isoproterenol, serotonin, and an angiotensin I converting enzyme inhibitor (CEI). Nonsignificant reductions were recorded after treatments with either angiotensin II or hypertonic NaCl. Meal-related hyperdipsia, and resultant possible hyperhydration, of desalivate rats does not account fully for these reductions in experimental thirsts. The mean 24-h intake of three concentrations of NaCl, in choice with water, showed no difference in the preferences for NaCl of desalivate and sham-operated animals. During chronic administration of CEIs, both desalivate and sham-operated rats showed comparable induction of NaCl appetite.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition and Na appetite: microbehavioral analysis and nycthemeral physiology.

The present experiments describe a marked nycthemeral rhythm in both the appetite for 0.3 M NaCl solution and components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis stimulated in Sprague-Dawley rats by chronic administration of enalapril, an angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitor. Continuous recording of water, NaCl, and food intakes shows that the sodium appetite is manifest as discrete bouts of salt ingestion in temporal proximity to meals and is partially independent of water bouts. In particular, salt bouts occur without water bouts in the late afternoon of a 12:12-h light-dark cycle and continue periprandially with water bouts during the night. Intake of all three commodities is minimal in the morning. In a second experiment, it was determined that plasma renin activity (PRA) was maximally elevated by chronic enalapril in the daytime and that plasma aldosterone was reduced by enalapril but continued to show nycthemeral rhythm peaking in the afternoon. The concurrent maxima in PRA and aldosterone in the afternoon in enalapril-treated rats thus coincides with NaCl intake in the absence of water intake.