Aphasics can distinguish permuted orders of phonemes--but only if presented rapidly.

Speech consists of a rapid succession of phonemes, and receptive aphasia has been attributed to an impairment in temporal acuity that interferes with the ability to discriminate between different arrangements of brief sounds. The present study reports evidence that aphasic listeners could distinguish between permuted orders of steady-state vowels occurring at rates matching or exceeding those employed in natural speech production. They could not, however, distinguish between different arrangements when the rate of presentation was slowed, although this task could be accomplished with ease by nonaphasic listeners. Our results suggest that the poor comprehension of language by aphasics is not the consequence of deficits in the ordering of brief sounds, but rather involves difficulties in performing tasks requiring specific psycholinguistic skills.

Hepatic portal venous gas: an unusual presentation of Crohn's disease.

Hepatic portal venous gas is associated with numerous conditions and traditionally has been regarded as an ominous prognostic sign. There are several reports of hepatic portal venous gas occurring in patients with inflammatory bowel disease after or during the performance of colonic diagnostic studies. We report an unusual case of Crohn's disease whose initial presentation included hepatic portal venous gas. The literature of hepatic portal venous gas associated with inflammatory bowel disease is reviewed.

Tweaking the lexicon: organization of vowel sequences into words.

The ability of listeners to distinguish between different arrangements of the same three vowels was investigated for repeating sequences having item durations ranging from 10 msec (single glottal pulses) up to several seconds/vowel. Discrimination was accomplished with ease by untrained subjects at all item durations. From 30 through 100 msec/vowel, an especially interesting phenomenon was encountered: The sequences of steady-state vowels were organized into words, with different words heard for the different arrangements of items. In a second experiment, repeating sequences of random arrangements of 10 40-msec vowels were employed. When sets of four such sequences were presented to listeners, distinctive words were heard, which permitted each arrangement to be discriminated from the others. In addition, minimal differences (reversing the order of a single contiguous pair of vowels) in the 10-item sequences could be detected via verbal mediation. Hypotheses are offered concerning mechanisms responsible for these results.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics in American hospitals.

A total of 5,825,243 strains of bacteria were isolated in 242 American hospitals during a period of twelve years (1971 to 1982). The susceptibility to antibiotics of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp. Proteus mirabilis, Haemophilus sp. and Pseudomonas sp. did not change significantly during this period of time. The susceptibility to tetracycline for E. coli and S. aureus increased. Streptococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus epidermidis showed a decrease in susceptibility.

Iatrogenic hyponatraemia of the newborn due to maternal fluid overload: a prospective study.

Over five weeks 136 out of 246 deliveries were studied. Maternal plasma sodium concentrations were normal at admission. At delivery no significant difference was found between maternal and infant cord plasma sodium concentrations. Twenty-four of the 41 mothers who had received only oral fluids during labour had infants whose cord plasma sodium concentrations were normal. Of the 95 mothers who had been given intravenous fluids, however, only 14 infants with normal plasma sodium concentrations, 31 had a concentrations of 130 mmol (mEq)/1 or less and nine of these had a concentration of 125 mmol/1 or less. There was a highly significant inverse relation between cord plasma sodium concentration and rate of fluid administration, suggesting that hyponatraemia was due to intravenous treatment with predominantly sodium-free solutions. Endogenous antidiuretic activity probably increases during labour, and synthetic oxytocin in large doses has been shown to have an antidiuretic effect. The dose used in this study did not appear to have such an effect. Glucose solutions are often used as a vehicle for oxytocin; 83% of all fluid intake in this study was 5% or 10% glucose in water. Fluid balance in labour should be supervised closely, and oxytocin should be given in a more concentrated solution.

Bacterial contamination of a phenolic disinfectant.

Twenty ward stock bottles of aqueous 1% Printol were examined and 17 were found to be contaminated with Alcaligenes faecalis. Organisms were present in dead space behind the plastic liners of the bottle caps, where they could have survived washing. A. faecalis was also isolated from 31 out of 34 1% Printol solutions in use in the hospital. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was grown from two samples of 1% Printol in one ward, but not from stock bottles.The minimal bactericidal concentration (M.B.C.) in aqueous solution of Hycolin, Sudol, and Stericol for A. faecalis and Ps. aeruginosa was 1 in 320. The M.B.C. of Printol for both organisms was 1 in 80. The activity of all four disinfectants was reduced in the presence of large amounts of organic matter. Sudol was the least affected. Polyethylene, of which stock bottles were made, did not reduce the activity of the disinfectants. It is suggested that, ideally, stock bottles of disinfectant diluted ready for use should be autoclaved before they are refilled.