A new gastric impedancemeter for detecting the development of a visceral edema: a proof-of-concept study on an experimental endotoxemic shock.

Visceral congestion and edema are important features of advanced heart failure. Monitoring the evolution of fluid content in the gastric wall might provide an index of the development of this phenomenon and therefore constitute an innovative marker to early detect acute decompensated heart failure episodes. The evolution of the fluid content in the gastric wall is measured using a device implanted in the submucosa layer of the fundic region of the stomach. The device composed of two electrodes measures the bioimpedance values that reflects the water content of the tissue.An in-vivo experiment in a pig was carried out to validate the feasibility of detecting the gastric bioimpedance variations during the development of an experimental acute visceral edema caused by an endotoxemic shock. Our preliminary results confirm the possibility to monitor the bioimpedance variations due to moderate changes in tissue water content (10%) with a two-electrode configuration device implanted in the submucosa of the stomach.

Antioxidant activity of plasma from subjects with and without senile cataract.

The relationship between overall plasma antioxidant activity and senile cataract was examined in 148 subjects aged 37-90 years. Antioxidant activity of plasma from 52 control and 96 patients with senile cataract was determined by a method which measures the capacity of plasma to inhibit auto-oxidation of bovine brain homogenate. In contrast to previous studies which demonstrated a relationship between decreased levels of antioxidant components in blood and the occurrence of lens opacities, the present study does not show any significant difference between subjects with and without senile cataract.