Demographics and beef preferences affect consumer motivation for purchasing fresh beef steaks and roasts.

Surveys completed by 1370 consumers determined the motivational factors affecting consumer purchasing decisions for fresh beef steaks and roasts in three regions in the United States. Females placed greater importance on tenderness, ease of preparation, and nutritional value of steaks and roasts when compared to males. Age influenced tenderness, product consistency, and nutritional value of steaks, but influenced flavor, product consistency, and nutritional value of roasts. Consumers felt juiciness, nutritional value, and natural products were less important in determining their purchasing choices of steaks and roasts as their level of education increased. The preferred degree of doneness of steaks influenced the value placed on six of the nine purchasing motivators. Beef preferences and demographics influenced consumer purchasing decisions for fresh beef steaks and roasts. Results from this study can be used to help identify factors to positively influence purchasing decisions within targeted market segments.

Intestinal absorptive and digestive function in pernicious anemia.

We examined the digestive and absorptive function of the small intestinal mucosa in three patients with pernicious anemia to determine the functional correlates of the morphologic changes previously described. Digestive brush border enzymes (disaccharidases and leucyl-naphthylamidase) in jejunal biopsy specimens from the patients followed a normal distribution compared with those in the control group. With the exception of one patient with mild steatorrhea, the rest of the absorption test results were within the normal range. Jejunal perfusion studies, however, with glucose, sodium and water showed intestinal secretion of sodium and water, i.e., net movement of sodium and water from plasma to lumen, in the presence of normal glucose absorption. Follow-up studies in two patients after treatment with vitamin B12 did not reveal any significant improvement in the absorption rates from the pretreatment period. This abnormality of sodium and water transport in pernicious anemia represents another intestinal defect of a systemic disease which is not corrected by vitamin B12 replacement therapy.

Hepatic veno-occlusive disease originating in Ecuador.

A case of hepatic veno-occlusive disease manifested by massive ascites is described in a 35-year-old female. She had consumed an herbal tea containing a Crotalaria plant species for 6 months prior to evaluation. Inferior vena cava and hepatic veins were patent by angiography. Liver biopsy showed histological changes typical of hepatic veno-occlusive disease, consisting of centrilobular congestion and sublobular hepatic vein obstruction. Complete clinical, biochemical, and histological recovery was documented 1 year after ingestion of the brew was discontinued. This is the first case known to be reported from Ecuador and the first to be diagnosed in the United States.

Clindamycin-associated colitis.

Four cases of clindamycin-associated colitis have recently been observed at Kansas University Medical Center. There have been a few reports in the literature of colitis associated with this antibiotic, and our 4 cases are similar to those noted previously. All had the onset of diarrhea 7-14 days following the initiation of clindamycin therapy; the diarrhea persisted for weeks after the drug was discontinued. Mucosal changes ranged from focal ulceration to pseudomembrane formation. Diarrhea in a patient on clindamycin should alert the physician to the possibility of antibiotic induced colitis, a condition with significant morbidity and occasional mortality.