Urethral instability: current pathophysiological concept.

The role of urethral pressure variations during filling cystometry is seldom assessed as a potential cause of voiding dysfunction and/or storage disorders. In this article, we review current research in the field of urethral pressure variations and discuss the way of determining urethral pressure variations, its value for the clinical practice and hypothesize the origin of urethral pressure variations. The observation and recognition of urethral pressure variations (urethral instability) could be valuable in the diagnosis and evaluation of therapy in functional lower urinary tract disorders.

Evaluation of gamma radiation levels for reducing pathogenic bacteria and fungi in animal sewage and laboratory effluents.

Sewage samples collected from animal wastes and from effluents at an animal disease laboratory were inoculated with known numbers of pathogenic organisms and subjected to various doses of gamma radiation from a 60Co source. Surviving test organisms were quantitatively determined by selective and enrichment techniques. The experiment was modeled as a quantal assay in which probit analysis was applied to obtain D10 values. The D10 value represents the irradiating dose required to reduce the population by 90%. The D10 value ranged from 13.4 krad for Campylobacter fetus to 156.6 krad for Streptococcus faecalis in animal sewage. However, the D10 value for the laboratory effluent was generally lower. Based on the estimated D10 values, the rating of the test organisms in decreasing order of radiosensitivity appeared as follows: Brucella abortus, Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter laridis, Mycobacterium fortuitum, Aspergillus fumigatus, Salmonella muenster, Candida albicans, Clostridium difficile and Streptococcus faecalis. If the D5 and D1 values were utilized, this listing would be only slightly altered.

Inactivation by gamma irradiation of animal viruses in simulated laboratory effluent.

Several animal viruses were treated with gamma radiation from a 60Co source under conditions which might be found in effluent from an animal disease laboratory. Swine vesicular disease virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, and blue-tongue virus were irradiated in tissues from experimentally infected animals. Pseudorabies virus, fowl plague virus, swine vesicular disease virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus were irradiated in liquid animal feces. All were tested in animals and in vitro. The D10 values, that is, the doses required to reduce infectivity by 1 log10, were not apparently different from those expected from predictions based on other data and theoretical considerations. The existence of the viruses in pieces of tissue or in liquid feces made no difference in the efficacy of the gamma radiation for inactivating them. Under the "worst case" conditions (most protective for virus) simulated in this study, no infectious agents would survive 4.0 Mrads.

Combined dynamic studies of the bladder and urethra. Report of a method.

The authors report a method of complex urodynamic investigation. The intravesical pressure, the intrarectal pressure, the electronically computed detrusor pressure, the urinary flow and the electromyography of the anal and urethral striated sphincters are recorded simultaneously with the fluoroscopic image on 16 mm film using the kinescopic procedure. The intravesical pressure is measured per urethram. The routine examination method is described. The authors consider that the use of 16 mm film has advantages in comparison to videotape recordings. The installation was made out of existing materials except for the electronic mixing device, which was created in the research laboratory. Radiation dosis measurements show that even by extensive examination the received radiation dosis does not exceed the exposure of a standard voiding cystourethrogram.