Surgical management of sand colic impactions in horses: a retrospective study of 41 cases.

OBJECTIVE: A retrospective review of the medical records of 41 horses requiring abdominal surgery for sand colic. RESULTS: The diagnosis of sand colic was made when sand was found to be the cause of impaction of the gastrointestinal tract during surgical exploration. The most common clinical signs at presentation were abdominal pain, abdominal distension and diarrhoea. A statistically significant association was found between the respiratory rate on arrival and short-term survival. Sand impaction at multiple locations was detected in one-third of the horses. Concurrent pathology was detected in half of the horses. Four horses were euthanased during surgery; of those that recovered from surgery, 35/37 (95%) were discharged from hospital. Short- and long-term complications were similar to those previously reported. Long-term (1 year) survival of the horses discharged was 100%. CONCLUSION: The good prognosis for horses undergoing surgery for the treatment of sand impaction supports early surgical intervention in cases where large amounts of sand are suspected.

Regulation of liver cell ganglioside composition by extracellular fluid viscosity.

The viscosity of plasma and extracellular fluid has been shown to be a regulator of lipoprotein production both in cultured hepatocytes and in vivo. The possibility that this extracellular effect on cell function involves modulation of cell surface membrane components was examined. In the present work, we studied the effect of medium viscosity on liver cell gangliosides known to be involved in various membrane functions and to be located predominantly at the cell surface membrane. Cultivation of isolated hepatocytes as primary cultures markedly reduced the ganglioside content, but this reduction process was attenuated by increasing the viscosity of the culture medium. Elevation of extracellular fluid viscosity inhibited the degradation of the cell gangliosides and secretion of lysosomal enzymes involved in ganglioside degradation. The cellular activity of these enzymes as well as the activity of enzymes involved in ganglioside synthesis, CMP-NANA:GM1 sialyltransferase, CMP-NANAP:GM3 sialyltransferase and UDP-galactose:GD2 galactosyltransferase, were not affected by modulation of the extracellular medium viscosity. It is proposed that the modulation of cell ganglioside content by extracellular fluid viscosity is due to an effect on enzymes involved in ganglioside catabolism.

Overt and fantasized aggression toward parents by enuretic and nonenuretic children.

This study compared the amount and direction of overt and fantasized aggression of enuretic and nonenuretic children. Following the dynamic approach, it was hypothesized that enuretic children would differ from nonenuretics in having more difficulty in expressing overt aggression toward their mothers than toward a neutral figure. In fantasy, enuretic children were expected to express more aggression feelings toward their parents than control subjects. Twenty-eight enuretic subjects and a matched group of control subjects were induced to aggress toward their mothers and toward a neutral figure. The experimental situation was a variation of the Buss (1961) technique for eliciting and measuring aggression. Aggressive fantasies were assessed, using Bene and Anthony's Family Relation Test (1957). A significant interaction was obtained between enuresis/nonenuresis and target figures. Enuretic subjects expressed more aggression toward a neutral figure than toward the mother (p = .05) and differed from the control group in expressing less aggression toward the mother (p = .10). On the fantasy level, a significantly opposite trend to the predicted one emerged: Enuretic subjects showed less aggression toward both parents. The results were discussed with respect to the dynamic and the behavioristic approach to enuresis, and further research directions were suggested.