Snakebite in the tarheel state. Guidelines for first aid, stabilization, and evacuation.

Snakebite is relatively common in North Carolina. The Copperhead is the most common offender, though we have representatives of all three genera of the Pit Viper family in addition to the Coral Snake. Pit Vipers are identified by the characteristic triangular head, elliptical eyes, well-developed fangs, and with the Rattlesnakes, a tail rattle. The Coral Snake is identified by its characteristic color pattern with red bands adjacent to yellow bands. Treatment is initiated by the safe identification of the snake, taking care to avoid a second bite. A lymphatic constriction band is applied above the bite and an Extractor, if available, is applied within three minutes. The extremity is splinted and the victim evacuated to the nearest trauma center as soon as possible.

Factors influencing cortisol and behavioral responses to maternal separation in guinea pigs.

Infant guinea pigs recently were found to respond to brief maternal separation with an increase in plasma cortisol levels. The present experiments were conducted to further characterize this response and compare it with the cortisol separation response previously observed in primates. In Experiment 1, separation of guinea pig pups from their mothers did not elevate the plasma cortisol levels of the pups at either 30 or 180 min when they remained alone in their home cages during the separation. Experiment 2 showed that cortisol levels of pups placed alone in a novel cage were greater at 30, 90, and 180 min than were those of pups placed in the cages together with their mothers. In contrast, the separated pups vocalized more than did pups tested with their mothers during the initial 30 min only. In Experiment 3, pups raised on inanimate surrogates responded less intensely to rearing-figure separation in terms of both cortisol and vocalizations than did mother-reared controls. Taken together, these results indicate both differences (response to home cage separation) and similarities (dissociation of cortisol and vocalization responses, effect of surrogate separation) in the separation responses of guinea pig and primate infants. The guinea pig model may provide a useful adjunct to primate studies for examining particular issues concerning physiological effects of brief separation from an attachment object.

Benign epithelioid cell nevi of the iris.

Two benign acquired melanocytic lesions of the iris stroma had distinctive clinical and pathologic features. One tumor was loculated and polypoid, suggesting ectopic glandular tissue, while the other was a flat tumor with a rich surface capillarity. Both lesions histologically were composed of mononucleated, binucleated, and multinucleated hypopigmented epithelioid and elongated "myoid" cells, widely separated in a finely fibrillar eosinophilic stroma. The ultrastructural features of one case included hyperconvoluted nuclei, conspicuous cytoplasmic filaments are rare, filamentary-striated (leptomeric) structures, scant organelles and inclusions except for numerous mitochondria and glycogen granules, small and infrequent melanosomes, and a fibrillary extracellular matrix focally organized into banded basement membrane material.