Israel journal of medical sciences
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The effect of diazepam on uterine activity was assessed in a series of 30 patients in established spontaneous labor. The action of diazepam on the frequency and amplitude of contractions, uterine tone and fetal heart rate was monitored internally. ⋯ No effect on uterine tone was seen. This effect of diazepam on contraction frequency was additional to its tranquilizing and muscle relaxant action.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Increased serum angiotensin converting enzyme activity in sarcoidosis.
The activity of serum angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), assayed fluorometrically with the substrate hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine was significantly higher in 116 patients with sarcoidosis than in 415 patients with other diseases--pulmonary and nonpulmonary--and in 58 normal subjects. Serum ACE was elevated in 59% of 46 recently diagnosed, untreated patients with sarcoidosis and was significantly reduced following steroid therapy in three patients with sarcoidosis, but in only one of four patients treated with placebos. The results suggest that elevated serum ACE activity is a valuable, although not absolutely specific, diagnostic indicator of sarcoidosis. It should be stressed that a normal value does not rule out the disease, and that steroid therapy tends to reduce the serum ACE activity.
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A prospective study of the effects of the i.v. injection of 75 mg meperidine, alone or combined with 25 mg promethazine, was conducted by continuous and direct monitoring of the fetus and of intrauterine pressure. The study was carried out in 16 primiparas and 24 multiparas in active spontaneous labor with cervical dilatation of 3 to 4 cm. Administration of meperidine and of meperidine with promethazine was associated with an increase in uterine activity of 31 to 45% (Montevideo units), respectively. ⋯ In no other cases were there significant changes in fetal heart rate. Except for the latter two patients, no adverse effect of meperidine or of meperidine with promethazine on the fetal heart rate was noted. The condition of the newborns at birth was excellent in all but three cases, in two of which maternal amniotic infection and high fever were present.
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Simultaneous determinations of cerebral blood flow, measured by 85Kr clearance, and of intracranial pressure, measured in the cisterna magna, were made in anesthetized normocapnic and hypercapnic vagotomized cats. All animals were tested at their normal arterial pressure and at elevated arterial pressure induced by angiotensin infusion. ⋯ Analysis of the simultaneous behavior of intracranial pressure and cerebral vascular resistance did not indicate that changes in intracranial pressure affected the autoregulatory responses. The results of this study support the view that CO2 interferes with the basic reaction of vascular smooth muscle to contract after distension by increased transmural pressure.