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NORPPA H, SORSA M, VAINIO H, GROHN P, HEINONEN E, HOLSTI LR, NORD-MAN E. Increased sister chroma tid exchange frequencies in lymphocytes of nurses handling cytostatic drugs. Scand j w01'k envi1'on health 6 (1980) 299-301. In oncology units, personnel handling chemotherapeutic drugs may occasionally be exposed to small amounts of genotoxic agents. This exposure was obviously the cause of the increased frequencies of sister chromatid exchange (SCE) observed in nurses in daily contact with cytostatics (N = 20, mean SCEs/cell ± SE 9.4 ± 0.3) as compared to a group of office workers (N = 10, mean SCEs/cell 8.1 ± 0.3). The oncology nurses also had a higher SCE frequency than other hospital nurses (N = 10, mean SOEs/cell 8.7 ± 0.2), but this difference was not statistically significant. The SCEs of patients under chemotherapy were about five times higher (mean SCEs/cell 36.8 ± 0.6) than those of healthy subjects.

Six healthy male subjects were given in a crossover fashion medium molecular weight (HES 125) and low molecular weight (HES 40) hydroxyethyl starch, dextran, and balanced salt solution by intravenous infusion. The plasma volumes were determined using labeled albumin and plasma protein measurements. Three properties of factor VIII protein complex and indices of blood coagulation and hemostasis were measured before and after the infusions. Both the salt solution and HES 40 increased plasma volume, but their effect wore off within 3 hours. Dextran and HES 125 increased plasma volume significantly (P less than 0.001) more than the salt solution did, and the expansion was maintained for 24 hours. Plasma volume increases (dextran and HES 125) were associated with high nonglucose carbohydrate levels in plasma and low levels in urine. No or slight increases in plasma volumes (HES 40), on the other hand, were associated with low and high carbohydrate levels in plasma and urine, respectively. Serum alpha-amylase activity increased significantly after both HES preparations as compared to salt solution. Dextran and HES 125 decreased all the three values of factor VIII, these decreases being maximal 3 to 6 hours after administration and highest (about 25 per cent) for F VIII R:Ag and F VIII R:cof. It is concluded that HES 125 and dextran are equally effective plasma expanders.