The effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on neurobehavioral outcome: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis was performed of the research published from 1985 to 1998 examining the effect of in utero exposure to cocaine on infant neurobehavioral outcome. The initial search for articles to include in the meta-analysis identified 18 studies with potentially meta-analytic variables. Of the studies originally retrieved, 13 failed to meet all of the inclusion criteria and were excluded from the meta-analysis. A total of 14 meta-analyses were performed comparing cocaine-exposed infants to nonexposed infants on NBAS cluster scales at birth and at 3-4 weeks of age. While the meta-analytic combination of studies produced a large enough sample size to drive statistical significance in a small majority of the tests of difference between the cocaine-exposed and nonexposed infants both at birth and soon after, the magnitude of all effects was small. The largest reliable differences appeared for the motor performance and abnormal reflexes clusters. Both also demonstrated a slight trend for increasing standard differences from birth to measures obtained at 3-4 weeks. The orientation and autonomic regulation clusters produced small, significant effects at both time periods, but the trend was for reduced effect sizes over time. All other effects appear truly negligible.

Imports: Current trends and usage.

Nonhuman primates are essential to the advancement of some areas of biomedical research and testing. Some populations of these species in the wild may be threatened with extinction because of habitat destruction; therefore, the biomedical community has been monitoring trends in their importation and use, and supporting various conservation activities. During the past 25 years, there has been a marked decrease in importations into the United States, a large proportion of which is the result of a 1975 ban on their importation for the pet trade. During the same period, the need for biomedical purposes has remained fairly constant. Nonetheless, the reductions in imports have been augmented by the biomedical community through reducing losses during quarantine and conditioning, ensuring a more judicious use of these animals, and by increasing the availability of animals from breeding programs both in source countries and the United States. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Organization of veterinary public health in the United States of America and Canada.

Veterinarians in the United States of America and Canada are involved in a variety of activities which contribute to improving human health and well-being. Some of these activities can be considered as a part of veterinary public health (VPH), including: zoonoses control, food safety, environmental protection, comparative medicine, disaster medicine and animal welfare. Both countries have federal systems, and their VPH activities are dependent on close interaction between health and agricultural agencies at the national, state or provincial, and local levels. In addition to governmental agencies, other entities such as academic institutions and various professional associations are also important contributors to VPH activities in the two countries.

Probability of introducing diseases because of false negative test results.

The use of diagnostic tests for the selection of healthy individual persons or animals for inclusion in certain groups carries with it an inherent risk of including those with infections because they falsely reacted negatively. The factors of sensitivity of the test, prevalence of the disease, and the size of the group all influence the degree of such risk. The probability of including an infected individual person or animal can be calculated combining conditional probability and the binomial distribution.

Primate research resources in the Soviet Union.

The authors visited Soviet medical institutions as part of a USA-USSR Professional Exchange Program sponsored by the Fogarty International Center. The primary purpose of this visit was to obtain a general view of the Soviet use and care of laboratory animals in biomedical research and to lay a foundation for a continuing exchange of information and models.

Requirements for laboratory animals in health programmes.

Laboratory animals are essential for the successful execution of many health programmes. A wide variety of animal models is used in the worldwide efforts to improve the control of various diseases, and in the basic research needed to improve health care. Biomedical programmes require specially-bred animals reared under controlled conditions, with close attention given to such factors as physical environment, nutrition, microbiological status, and genetic background. The need for a regular supply of appropriate animals has led to the development of a field of study known as laboratory animal science, and a speciality within veterinary medicine known as laboratory animal medicine. The importance of laboratory animals is recognized by the World Health Organization, which, in cooperation with other organizations, provides training, technical information, and consultative support in this field.

Responsibilities of the investigator in the utilization of laboratory animals.

Man's utilization of animals for any purpose is a privilege which carries with it a series of responsiblities. In the case of research animals, these fall into three broad categories: 1) technical, 2) ethical, and 3) legal. The technical include factors such as selecting the proper animal, providing the proper environment and care, and designing experiments to use as few animals as possible while maintaining scientific validity. Ethical considerations stem from an inherent respect and reverence for life which anyone utilization animals should have. This carries with it a responsibility to assure proper care and humane treatment. Some legal requirements have resulted from the ethical considerations. While these vary considerably, nearly all countries have some laws related to this subject.

Evaluation of the corneal test as a laboratory method for rabies diagnosis.

The corneal test (CT) for rabies diagnosis was evaluated in samples from 313 subjects of different species. Some of the subjects were inoculated experimentally and others were naturally infected. When the CT was compared with immunofluorescence staining and mouse inoculation tests on brains of the same subjects, a sensitivity of 41.7% and a specificity of 100% were found. The authors conclude that a positive CT result would confirm the diagnosis of rabies, but a negative one would not exclude the possibility of disease.