Treatment of primary and secondary pruritus ani has a good prospect of regression of symptoms and skin changes.

The effects of dietary protein deprivation on he healing of colonic anastomosis in the rat have been investigated. Nutritional status was assessed both before and after operation using body weight, nitrogen balance studies and serum albumin estimations. Healing of colonic anastomosis was assessed by bursting pressure measurements. Rats fed a protein-depleted diet throughout the study were compared both with rats restored to a full diet after surgery and rats receiving a full diet throughout. Although protein depletion caused a 12.5 per cent weight loss and a negative nitrogen balance, serum albumin remained normal in all rats at the time of operation. After operation, all rats were in negative nitrogen balance, although this was greater in the protein-depleted group. Similarly, in comparison to control animals, the protein-depleted group had significantly lower colonic bursting pressures and significantly lower serum albumin concentrations. Rats returned to a full diet after operation had smaller losses of nitrogen and normal colonic bursting pressures. The results indicate that a commonly encountered degree of malnutrition, insufficient to affect nutritional indices used in clinical assessment, may interfere with colonic healing. Early re-introduction of nutrition in the postoperative period may be able to reverse this effect.

No abstract

Nine healthy volunteers were studied to validate the reproducibility of the Doppler perfusion index--the ratio of hepatic arterial to total liver blood flow--and to evaluate the method of its derivation and the influence of the variable parameters necessary for its calculation. Wide intraobserver variability was observed, and Doppler perfusion index values were consistently outside the previously reported normal range.

We describe an apparatus modified for the chemiluminescent estimation of nitrogen in biological and clinical samples. Analytical characteristics have been assessed and results compared with those by the traditional Kjeldahl method. The chemiluminescence method, much faster and more sensitive than the traditional method, is at least as accurate, precise, and reproducible. Costs are low, and the method should find a place in laboratories needing, for example, rapid assessments of nitrogen balance in surgical patients and renal function in patients with renal failure, or estimations of small amounts of specific nitrogen-containing chemical substances in biological samples.