Fibreoptic intubation.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A F Cole.
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The effect of a protein-rich meal on the pharmacokinetics of moclobemide was studied after intravenous (75 mg) and oral (100 mg) administrations of this selective MAO-A inhibitor to eight healthy male volunteers. The meal chosen did not affect plasma concentration-time curves of the drug after oral administration apparently, because the influence of blood flow changes to the liver on hepatic first-pass metabolism (AUC increases) and on systemic clearance (AUC decreases) balance each other out.
This paper describes the efforts of the Department of Family and Community Health at Sultan Qaboos University in providing opportunities for the development of 'hands-on' problem-solving skills appropriate for Oman. The curriculum of the Department is discussed, highlighting the unusual emphasis of this discipline in both the preclinical and clinical curriculum of the College of Medicine. The importance of continuous assessment and supervision of students is discussed. Course-work in the preclinical curriculum of the Department is kept to a minimum. Field-work forms an important part of preclinical training, where application and problem-based learning are emphasized. During the clinical years the students are exposed to an integrated series of lectures and practicals covering core knowledge in clinical medicine. Practical clinical training, over a total period of 15 weeks, takes place at a variety of sites where common problems in primary health care in Oman are handled by students under supervision.
The authors studied the effectiveness of ephedrine given intramuscularly before epidural anaesthesia with bupivacaine 0.5 per cent in three groups of patients undergoing elective caesarean section. The patients received intramuscular saline as a placebo, ephedrine 25 mg or ephedrine 50 mg, 15 to 30 minutes before anaesthesia. The incidence of hypotension was 8 to 12 per cent in all three groups. Prophylactic intramuscular ephedrine did not lower the incidence of hypotension significantly. Intramuscular ephedrine 50 mg caused a persistent hypertension in eight out of 12 patients and was associated with an increase in umbilical artery [H+] (decrease in pH). No differences were observed in other indices of neonatal well-being. The prophylactic use of intramuscular ephedrine before epidural anaesthesia for caesarean section is not recommended.
A questionnaire was designed to determine the type of personnel that provide obstetrical anaesthesia care and the techniques used in the provision of this care. All seven hospitals with an obstetrical unit affiliated with the University of Toronto and seven community hospitals responded. All anaesthetics were given by physicians. Ninety-two per cent of those in University affiliated hospitals and 63 per cent of those in the community hospitals had obtained their specialty qualification. Standards for preoperative assessment and communication with the patients should be similar to those applied to patients receiving anaesthesia for other reasons. It was clear from our survey that pre-anaesthetic assessment of obstetrical patients differs from that advocated for other surgical patients. For vaginal deliveries, epidural analgesia was clearly the preferred choice, Subarachnoid block was rarely used. The majority of anaesthetists did not use a test dose. Eleven per cent in University-affiliated hospitals and 50 per cent in community hospitals sometimes conducted surgical anaesthesia without tracheal intubation for vaginal delivery. More than 60 per cent routinely encouraged their patients to accept general anaesthesia for Caesarean section. The doctors providing neonatal resuscitation may require further training. Surveys such as this are important if standards of anaesthetic practice are to be established.
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The effect of lateral positioning and the volume of drug injected on the spread of epidural anaesthesia was assessed in 131 healthy parturients. Epidural injection for anaesthesia was done at the L3-4 interspace and a catheter was inserted into the epidural space after injection of the drug. The patients were randomly assigned to four groups. The doses used were 12 ml of bupivacaine 0.25 per cent and 6 ml of bupivacaine 0.5 per cent. Patients were kept in the lateral position in which the block was done (Groups I and III) or turned to the opposite side after completion of the epidural injection (Groups II and IV). Sensory levels and maternal assessment of pain relief were determined fifteen to twenty minutes after injection. All assessments were done by a trained observer who did not know to what group the patient had been allocated. Maintenance of the lateral position after induction of epidural anaesthesia is compatible with satisfactory analgesia for labour. Twelve ml bupivacaine 0.25 per cent provides better analgesia than 6 ml bupivacaine 0.5 per cent although the same mass is injected. The quality of analgesia is improved by turning the patients to the contralateral side after injection of 12 ml bupivacaine 0.25 per cent.
The effect of high-protein meal on the hepatic clearance (ClH) of intravenous lidocaine, because of its conceptual importance in understanding first-pass metabolic phenomena, was evaluated in nine healthy males. Our randomized crossover study demonstrated that mean ClH rose from 1245 to 1477 ml/min (P less than 0.03) as a result of the meal (i.e., mean area under the blood concentration-time curve decreased 20%). The magnitude of the change in clearance correlated weakly with fasting ClH (r = 0.54; slope = -0.037% per ml/min; intercept = 67.2%; P less than 0.15). In a separate study, it was observed that the meal did not influence lidocaine serum protein binding; the free fraction of lidocaine in samples drawn from the subjects in the fasting state averaged 0.305 +/- 0.027 while that from subjects who had eaten was 0.321 +/- 0.042. These data suggest that the mean clearance of lidocaine is increased by stimulation of hepatic blood flow rate. Furthermore, the magnitude of this increase is consistent with expectations based on a simple physiologic model. Thus, these data provide experimental support for the hypothesis that transient increases in splanchnic blood flow rate observed after a high-protein meal may explain apparent improvement of the oral bioavailability of model high intrinsic clearance drugs.
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Using a standard ambulatory coding system as a base, an index of 42 problem clusters encountered in family practice was developed by two Pennsylvania family practice residency programs. Comparisons of frequencies with which these index problems were encountered by physicians in the Family Practice Centers were used to identify the practice patterns of family practice residents and faculty. Analyses of these displays, while largely subjective, produced some interesting general and specific results. The initial study indicates that many problems known to be common in family practice are not identified as such by the physician. When this type of information can be simplified, it is welcomed and found useful by residents and faculty in family practice training programs. A simplified index can be developed and used by any physician without any special equipment.
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