prandial venous ammonia concentrations in the OAOne hundred twenty-six patients with cirrhosis, hytreated group showed improvements in comparison perammonemia (ú50 mmol/L), and chronic (persistent) with placebo. In addition, venous fasting blood ammonia hepatic encephalopathy (HE), which developed spontaconcentration (P õ .01), mental state gradation (P õ neously without the existence of known precipitating .001), and PSEI (P õ .01), which includes the mental state factors, were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, gradation, NCT-A time, and postprandial venous ammoplacebo-controlled clinical trial of intravenously adminnia in this trial, improved to a much higher degree in Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is one of the major complicapresented are based on the total study sample (intent-to-tions of cirrhosis. Five years after the diagnosis of cirrhosis, treat analysis), which included 63 patients in the placebo the probability of developing at least one episode of this spegroup and 63 patients in the OA group. Of the 126 pa-cific form of decompensated cirrhosis is in the range of 26%. 1 tients, 114 met all the criteria for inclusion and com-Once clinical decompensation has occurred, however, the pleted the trial and treatment as outlined in the protocol prognosis (16% 1 to 22% 2 probability of survival at 5 years) (treated-per-protocol analysis). During baseline, the pla-compared with a survival probability of 55% 2 to 70% 1 in circebo and treatment groups were homogeneous with re-rhotic patients without HE is very poor. 1,2 Therefore, prevengard to mental states, NCT-A performance time, fasting tion and effective treatment of HE may have important progvenous blood ammonia levels, and Child-Pugh criteria. nostic implications in cirrhotic patients. Although a slight improvement occurred in the placeboHyperammonemia 3,4 by a variety of postulated mechagroup, NCT-A performance times (P õ .001) and post-nisms 3-8 is felt to be one of the primary pathogenetic factors in the development of HE. 8 The majority of therapeutic measures currently in use are therefore directed at reducing blood Abbreviations: HE, hepatic encephalopathy; SHE, subclinical hepatic encephalopathy; ammonia levels, 9-13 mainly by diminishing enteric ammonia OA, L-ornithine-L-aspartate; GS, glutamine synthetase; NCT-A, number connection test A; PSEI, portal systemic encephalopathy index.production. Otherwise, it is known that liver and muscle play From the 1 Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Internal Median important part within the ammonia detoxification system, cine, Halle;

No abstract

In order to test the applicability of laser-Doppler flowmetry in monitoring cochlear blood flow clinically, the thickness and the helium-neon laser light transmission of specimens of human, rat and guinea pig promontory bone and human skin were determined. Furthermore, comparative laser-Doppler measurements were taken from the promontory in patients, rats and guinea pigs. Due to the different thicknesses of the promontory bone in different species, the light transmission was found to be considerably higher for the animal cochlea (rat, 15%; guinea pig, 6.6%) than the human cochlea (1.7%). However, a clearly higher laser-Doppler signal was recorded from both the human and the rat cochleas as compared with the guinea pig. The relative laser light attenuation by the human skin specimens corresponded to that of the human promontory bone. The findings are discussed with regard to the suitability of the laser-Doppler method for blood flow measurements in the human cochlea.

From March 1986 to June 1988 ultrasound examinations for gallstones were performed on 1616 symptom-free persons (982 females and 634 males, aged 12-93 years). They were also asked about gallstones and (or) cholecystectomy among blood relatives. Gallstones were discovered or a previous cholecystectomy was reported in 316 persons (19.6%). The prevalence of gallstones was age-dependent and increased with age. Prevalence was higher in females than in males. There was, in this group of 316, a significant increase in family prevalence of gallstones among six of nine age-groups (P less than 0.05 and P less than 0.01, respectively) compared with those without gallstones. These data suggest a genetic disposition towards cholelithiasis, while dietary factors could not be definitely excluded.