SUMMARY In order to establish whether alcohol in amounts customarily imbibed during social drinking causes gastro-oesophageal reflux, 12 healthy young individuals, without symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux, were studied twice. Each time, distal oesophageal pH was monitored continuously for three hours after a standard meal which included either 180 ml 100 proof vodka or 180 ml water. The order of studies with and without alcohol was random. Peak blood alcohol concentrations ranged between 0-63 and 1 29 g/l. Eleven of the 12 subjects refluxed more after alcohol; and the difference in mean reflux scores for studies with and without alcohol was highly significant. We conclude that relatively modest quantities of alcohol induce gastro-oesophageal reflux in healthy people.

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SUMMARY The effect of ethanol upon gastric emptying in healthy human subjects was studied by measuring the gastric emptying rates of three 750 ml meals, the osmolalities, energy densities, and pH of which were similar. Meal A, which contained 80 ml alcohol, emptied more rapidly than meal B, which contained 40 ml ethanol and 63-3 g dextrose; and meal B emptied more rapidly than meal C, which contained 126-6 g dextrose but no ethanol. The slower rate of emptying of the dextrose meal (C) was not due to an increased gastric secretory rate, as serial measurements of gastric pH were substantially and significantly higher with this than with the other two meals; nor was it due to a greater degree of duodenogastric reflux, as serial measurements of gastric bile acid concentrations were similar for the three meals. We conclude that the duodenal osmoreceptor mechanism is relatively insensitive to ethanol; that the relationship between energy density and gastric emptying rate does not hold in the case of ethanol; and that the gastro-oesophageal reflux which occurs in response to ethanol is not due to impairment of gastric emptying.Recently we reported that alcohol induces gastrooesophageal reflux in healthy individuals (Kaufman and Kaye, 1978

The computerized cell-scanning system demonstrated the relationship between chromosomal aberrations and sperm morphology in the same spermatozoon. The incidence of chromosomal aberrations was positively linked to abnormal sperm morphology, the more severe the abnormality, the higher the incidence of aneuploidy.

Peripheral and bone marrow eosinophils were determined in a group of patients on chronic hemodialysis and in predialysis uremics. Healthy subjects were taken as controls. Increased number of eosinophils in bone marrow were found in the predialysis uremic group and this finding was even more accentuated in the dialyzed patients. Marrow eosinophilia correlated linearly with serum creatinine levels in the predialysis group. The peripheral eosinophil count was normal in the uremic group and in part of the hemodialysis group. Marked and progressive peripheral eosinophilia was evident in a distinct subgroup of the dialysis patients. Marrow eosinophilia seems to be part of the uremic syndrome. The possible nature of the factor(s) involved in the derangement of eosinophil homeostasis is discussed.