The increase of intracellular calcium plays a key role in spinal transmission of pain and in the establishment of central sensitization. We examined the effects of nifedipine, nimodipine, and magnesium sulfate in postoperative analgesia after colorectal surgery. We found no differences in morphine consumption with the administration of each drug alone.

Thoracic epidural ropivacaine/fentanyl provided adequate pain relief and similar analgesia to bupivacaine/fentanyl during the first 2 postoperative days after posterolateral thoracotomy. Plain 0.2% ropivacaine was associated with worse pain control and an increased incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting. We conclude that epidural ropivacaine/fentanyl offers no clinical advantage compared with bupivacaine/fentanyl for postthoracotomy analgesia.

We conclude that AM, as inflammation-related cytokines, increases during and after CPB, that cAMP response is unrelated to AM and that AM response is higher in those patients with worse basal ejection fraction.

An infant with alpha1-antitrypsin (alpha1-AT) deficiency PiSZ presented with liver cirrhosis and showed clinical and laboratory evidence of renal disease when hepatic decompensation developed, shortly before death at 12 months of age. Low serum levels of alpha1-AT were only demonstrated late in the disease. SZ phenotype was proved by starch gel electrophoresis. Post-mortem pathological studies revealed severe hepatic cirrhosis with intracytoplasmic inclusion of alpha1-AT and membranous glomerulonephritis with deposits of complement and immunoglobulins but without the presence of alpha1-AT. The present case suggests the importance of studying Pi phenotypes and serum levels of alpha1-AT in all cases of idiopathic cirrhosis or renal disease in infancy.