S D Godfrey | PubMed Health

PubMed1992

Epidural test dose and intravascular injection in obstetrics: sensitivity, specificity, and lowest effective dose.

The authors studied the sensitivity and specificity of several epidural test doses as markers of intravascular injection in laboring patients in a prospective double-blind, randomized study. Fifty-nine parturients were assigned randomly to receive an intravenous injection of either normal saline solution (3 mL, NS group) or 1.5% lidocaine with epinephrine 1:200,000 (1 mL, EPI-5 group; 2 mL, EPI-10 group; or 3 mL, EPI-15 group). The EPI-5 and EPI-10 doses were diluted to 3 mL volume with normal saline solution. All injections were given during uterine diastole. Maternal heart rate was monitored with a pulse oximeter. An observer who was unaware of the study treatment recorded the baseline and the peak maternal heart rate within the first minute after the injection and questioned the patient about tinnitus, dizziness, metallic taste, and palpitations. He then recorded his opinion as to whether the patient had received the saline or the test solution. Analysis of the maternal heart rate showed an average increase (baseline-to-peak criterion) of 8 +/- 10 beats/min (mean +/- SD) in the NS group. In the other groups, the increase was 21 +/- 8 (EPI-5 group), 31.5 +/- 13 (EPI-10 group), and 29 +/- 9 beats/min (EPI-15 group). A baseline-to-peak criterion of greater than 10 beats/min identified all intravascular injections in the EPI-15 (by design) and EPI-10 groups (15 of 15 and 14 of 14, respectively) with a sensitivity of 100%. Specificity was 73% (11 of 15 true negatives).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Analgesia, Epidural↗

PubMed1980

Physarum myosin light chain binds calcium.

Myosin from the slime mold Physarum polycephalum contains three sizes of polypeptides: a heavy chain and two light chains, LC-1 and LC-2. Using a simple qualitative test for calcium binding by comparing electrophoretic migration of the polypeptides in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) acrylamide gels in the presence and absence of calcium, we have found that Physarum myosin light chain LC-2 migrates with an apparent molecular weight of 16,900 daltons in the presence of the metal ion chelator ethylene glycol bis (B-aminoethyl ether) N,N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA). However, if calcium chloride is added to the sample prior to electrophoresis, the apparent molecular weight decreases to 16,100. Lanthanide and cadmium ions, but not magnesium, can substitute for calcium. Because the ionic radii of Ca2+, La3+, and Cd2+ are almost identical, we conclude that Physarum myosin LC-2 possesses a very size-specific binding site for calcium. Physarum myosin LC-1 and the heavy chain give no evidence for binding calcium by this test. Since cytoplasmic streaming in the plasmodium of Physarum requires calcium, our evidence indicates that the calcium-binding property of Physarum myosin LC-2 may be important in regulating the production of force by actomyosin in the ectoplasm. Unexpectedly, the myosin light chain in Physarum capable of binding calcium, LC-2, is the essential light chain, while LC-1 is a member of the regulatory class of myosin light chains [V. T. Nachmias, personal communication]. Until now, essential myosin light chains have not been shown to have high affinity divalent cation binding sites. This means a new version of the myosin-based model for actomyosin regulation by calcium may be required to explain cytoplasmic movement in Physarum, and perhaps in other motile systems involving cytoplasmic myosins as well.

Actomyosin↗