The anti-microbial activity of electrolysed oxidizing water against microorganisms relevant in veterinary medicine.

Standards of the German Association of Veterinary Medicine (DVG) for the evaluation of chemical disinfectants were used to assess the anti-microbial efficacy of electrolysed oxidizing water (EOW). Enterococcus faecium, Mycobacterium avium subspecies avium, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans were exposed to anode EOW (pH, 3.0+/-0.1; oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), +1100+/-50 mV; free chlorine, 400+/-20 mg/l Cl2) and combined EOW (7:3 anode:cathode, v/v; pH, 8.3+/-0.1; ORP, 930-950 mV; free chlorine, 271+/-20 mg/l Cl2). In water of standardized hardness (WSH), all bacterial strains were completely inactivated by a 30 min exposure to maximum 10.0% anode EOW (approximately 40.0 mg/l Cl2) or 50.0% combined EOW (approximately 135.5 mg/l Cl2). The sensitivity ranking order for anode EOW to the bacterial test strains was P. mirabilis>S. aureus>M. avium ssp. avium>E. faecium>P. aeruginosa. P. mirabilis and S. aureus decreased to undetectable levels after 5 min of exposure to 7.5% anode EOW (approximately 30.0 mg/l Cl2). Candida albicans was completely inactivated by a 5-min exposure to 5.0% anode EOW. Both, anode and combined EOW exhibited no anti-microbial activities in standardized nutrient broth or after addition of 20.0% bovine serum to the WSH. Further research is necessary to evaluate the efficacy of EOW as a disinfectant under operating conditions in animal production facilities.

General practitioners and hospitals. Continuity of care.

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to improve continuity of care for patients undergoing major gynaecological surgery, by increasing their general practitioners' contact with the hospital and providing a comprehensive discharge summary. METHODS: Prospective randomised study of 200 patients admitted to a gynaecological oncology ward, and their GPs. Visits and telephone calls by GPs to hospital during their patients' admission were measured, with and without invitation and offer of payment for contact. A discharge summary was distributed. Postdischarge questionnaires surveyed patient satisfaction with care, confidence in future management by the GPs, and GP confidence in continuing patient care. RESULTS: Significant increases in contact rates by the GPs followed invitation. The discharge summary was not effectively distributed. No significant differences in patient satisfaction and confidence in future management by their GPs were found. General practitioners valued hospital contact most in meeting their patients' needs for information. CONCLUSION: Personal invitation increases GP contact with hospitals. While no statistically significant improvements in patient satisfaction or GP confidence were shown, the data suggested that GPs value contact to meet patient information needs.

Integrating general practice and hospital services.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a model of negotiations between six Divisions of General Practice and four teaching hospitals, aimed at creating formal agreements to improve the GP-hospital interface. METHOD: The evaluation examined the model's outcomes and participants' experiences. Outcomes were investigated via unstructured interviews with key informants, and analysis of relevant documentation. Participants' experiences were elicited via structured interviews with 11 Divisional members and 14 hospital representatives. RESULTS: Progress towards agreements was made in all cases, with a full agreement being reached at one hospital. Negotiations are continuing in the remaining hospitals. Additional outcomes were achieved during the process, and included resources and structural arrangements involving GPs. Participants were satisfied with the model, but certain key issues were identified. CONCLUSION: This evaluation suggests that for negotiations between GPs and hospitals to be successful, Divisions must be involved and be representative, hospitals must see value in formal agreements, their structure must be considered and the process must be collaborative. In the current policy context, which emphasises primary care, hospitals and GPs are increasingly likely to start working more cooperatively. This model has significant potential to improve the interface between the two parties, through its formal negotiation process, and could easily be adapted to other settings.

Cytokeratin provides a specific marker for human arachnoid cells grown in vitro.

Cells from cranial and spinal arachnoid membranes of humans were grown in culture. Their growth characteristics, morphology and details of their cytoskeletal composition are described. Arachnoid membranes, obtained at autopsy, were finely minced and incubated in tissue culture medium. Monolayers of cells of homogeneous morphology grew from these tissue fragments. The cells were flat and polygonal. They divided slowly to form nonoverlapping monolayers of low cell density. Electron microscopic examination of cultured arachnoid cells revealed numerous desmosome-like tight junctions and abundant intermediate filaments (tonofilaments). Both morphological features are characteristic of arachnoid cells in situ, but not of cells in the fibroblast-rich dura mater. Immunofluorescence microscopy with monoclonal antibodies demonstrated cytokeratin in the cytoplasm of primary cultures of arachnoid cells. Thus we demonstrated that these cultured cells retained certain of the specific differentiated properties of arachnoid cells in situ and that they are not fibroblasts (which lack tight junctions and cytokeratins). To our knowledge, there have been no previous reports of in vitro growth of arachnoid cells. This in vitro model should be useful in studying the response of arachnoid cells to a variety of substances thought to be involved in the chronic inflammatory condition of the meninges known as arachnoiditis.

Effects of phosphorylation and pH on the association of NS protein with vesicular stomatitis virus cores.

The proteins of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) were analyzed on the basis of charge as well as size in polyacrylamide gels containing urea and acetic acid. The phosphorprotein NS was resolved into two major species. The less phosphorylated NS1 species contained about 10% fewer phosphate residues than the second species, NS2. These two phosphorylated forms were compartmentalized both in the virus and in the infected cell cytoplasm. Cores from virions and the core-containing fraction of the infected cell cytoplasm contained only the NS1 form. All of the more highly phosphorylated NS2 form and some of the NS1 form were found to be free of cores, whether they were derived from virions or from the infected cell. Therefore, the degree of phosphorylation appeared to determine whether or not the NS protein became bound to VSV cores. Moreover, the amount of bound NS1 protein relative to nucleocapsids increased as the pH of the culture medium was raised from 6.6 to 7.4. Because an increased in pH increases VSV replication (Fiszman et al., J. Virol. 13:801-808, 1974; Palma and Huang, in W.S. Robinson and C.F. Fox, ed., Mechanisms of Virus Disease, ICN-UCLA Symposia, p. 87-100, 1974), the NS1 protein may either regulate overall VSV RNA synthesis or regulate the switch between transcription and replication.

Biosynthesis of the Sindbis virus carbohydrates.

The sequence in which sugars are added to the Sindbis virus glycoproteins was studied. Infected cells contain three glycosylated virus-specific proteins: the two virion glycoproteins and the immediate precursor to the smaller virion glycoprotein. Larger Sindbis-specific proteins are not glycosylated. The cell-associated forms of both of the virion glycoproteins contain glucosamine, mannose, galactose, and fucose. The glycosylated precursor contains only glucosamine, mannose, and some galactose. The conversion of precursor to virion protein involves both the addition of galactose and fucose and the loss of mannose. The apparent extent of glycosylation of each virus-specific protein is not influenced by the host cell.

Enzymatic iodination of Sindbis virus proteins.

Sindbis virus was iodinated by using the enzyme lactoperoxidase, an iodination technique which labels only surface proteins. By this technique, the two viral glycoproteins are labeled, and the internal viral protein is not. The two glycoproteins are iodinated to strikingly different extents. This difference in susceptibility to iodination apparently is due to the position or conformation of the glycoproteins in the envelope spikes of the virion and not to differing contents of tyrosine, the amino acid substrate of lactoperoxidase. Both viral glycoproteins are iodinated by lactoperoxidase on the surface of Sindbis-infected chicken cells. Here, as in the virion, the glycoproteins are iodinated unequally, with the smaller glycoprotein again being preferentially iodinated. Another virus-specific protein found in large amounts in infected cells, and from which the preferentially iodinated virion glycoprotein is produced by a proteolytic cleavage, is not iodinated by lactoperoxidase. Thus it appears that the viral glycoproteins are present on the cell surface and that the precursor protein is not.

Modification of Sindbis virus glycoprotein by host-specified glycosyl transferases.

The amino acid sequence of the membrane glycoprotein of Sindbis virus is specified by the viral genome, but it has not been determined whether the carbohydrate portion of this molecule is specified by the cell or by the virus. We have examined two of the enzyme activities which catalyze transfer of monosaccharides to glycoprotein (sialyl and fucosyl transferases). Comparison of particulate enzyme preparations from infected and uninfected cells showed no difference in either the specific activity or acceptor specificity of these enzymes. This is impressive in view of the fact that the Sindbis membrane glycoprotein is the only glycoprotein synthesized in the infected cell. It was also determined that sialyl transferase from uninfected cells is capable of transferring ((3)H) sialic acid to acceptor prepared from Sindbis membrane glycoprotein. These results imply that at least some of the carbohydrate of the virus glycoprotein can arise by host modification.

Comparison of membrane protein glycopeptides of Sindbis virus and vesicular stomatitis virus.

A comparison has been made of the membrane glycoproteins and glycopeptides from two enveloped viruses, Sindbis virus and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Glycopeptides isolated from Sindbis virus and VSV grown in the same host appear to differ principally in the number of sialic acid residues per glycopeptide; when sialic acid is removed by mild acid treatment, the glycopeptides of the two viral proteins are indistinguishable by exclusion chromatography. Preliminary evidence argues that the carbohydrate moiety covalently bound to different virus-specified membrane proteins may be specified principally by the host.