The American journal of emergency medicine
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Ingested foreign bodies can be hard to diagnose but cannot be missed. We report two cases where helical computed tomography (three-dimensional computed tomography) was used for the effective preoperative diagnosis (swallowed fish bone-induced perforation of sigmoid colon and a case of ileus caused by ingested PTP [press-through package]). Other traditional diagnostic methods could not identify the foreign bodies. Three-dimensional computed tomography is useful for the diagnosis of foreign body ingestion and should be used for the difficult cases.
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We studied the effect of low molecular weight dextran (mean molecular weight 40,000, Dextran 40; LMD) on the accumulation of extravascular lung water (EVLW), and also on hemodynamics and blood gases, in the oleic acid (OA)-injured lung in pentobarbital anesthetized rats. Starting just before the OA injection (0.01 mL/kg via femoral vein), 10% LMD in lactated Ringer's solution was infused throughout the experiment (5 mL/kg/h) instead of lactated Ringer's solution. ⋯ LMD protected against the increase in EVLW (4.14 +/- 0.10) and the hypoxemia (112 +/- 19 mmHg), but it did not reduce the albumin leakage into the alveolar space (0.052 +/- 0.009). These data suggest that LMD may limit the fluid accumulation that is secondary to OA-induced lung injury.