BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL12 JULY 1975 7. that CO could be implicated in any of the health improvements attributable to smoking cigarettes with unventilated filter-tips. Unfortunately, hopes that tobacco subsitutes may be safer to smoke have not as yet been supported, at least so far as CO production is concerned. Planet cigarettes, which were hastily withdrawn just over a year ago, had a CO yield well above the other brands used in this study. It was also higher than has ever been reported for cigarettes. Cigarette X, which contains a mixture of tobacco (70°,) and tobacco-substitute (30%O), gave a CO yield which was about average for the group of medium and high nicotine brands. The very high CO yield of the cigar tested agrees with previous work6 and also with the evidence that cigarette smokers who switch to smoking cigars often have high COHb levels.14 15Our smoking machine "smoked" with a square-waved rather than bell-shaped puff,16 and the mean duration of each puff was 1-82 instead of 2-0 s. This is unlikely to have affected the absolute values more than negligibly, and would not affect the comparisons between brands. Our aim was to draw attention to the considerable differences between brands rather than to construct a CO yield Medical3Journal, 1975, 3, 73-74 Summary In a double-blind trial with monofluorophosphate (25 mg fluoride per day) given to 460 aged persons (237 treated, 233 control) for eight months no difference was observed in height, admission to hospital, or mortality.Fractures and exacerbation of arthrosis were more frequent in the fluoride group. Vertebral x-ray films showed no difference. The free ionized fluoride levels in the plasma of the fluoride-treated group were still twice as high two months after treatment ended. Fluoride treatment in the prophylaxis of osteoporosis is not recommended unless there is simultaneous measurement of plasma ionized fluoride levels.
Twenty patients with severe or medium severe asthma were given atenolol (Atenol ICI-Pharma) and/or metoprolol (Seloken Hässle) for tachycardia, hyperkinetic tremor, arterial hypertension or symptoms of angina pectoris. These cardioselective beta-blocking drugs caused only a very slight decrease in PF values. There was no difference between atenolol and metoprolol as regards the PF values. A 24 hourly dose of 100 mg atenolol caused a distinct fall in diastolic fall in diastolic pressure as compared with the same amount of metoprolol. Both these two beta1-blockers moderated the tachycardia which occurs in asthma; atenolol in this dose had a slightly stronger action. The subjective condition of five patients with severe or medium severe asthma was considerably relieved by atenolol and/or metoprolol. The relief manifested as a lessening of dyspnoea and improvement of the general status. No essential change was observed in the PF values despite the subjective effects. The most noteworthy change was the amelioration of tachycardia which had continued longer than expected in these patients. The heart rate dropped from 140-120/min to 90-70/min and dyspnoea was relieved at the same time.
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