A study on the vital reaction in wounded skin: simultaneous determination of histamine and polyamines in injured rat skin by high-performance liquid chromatography

This paper describes a modified method of simultaneous quantitative determination of histamine and polyamines (putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine and spermine) in incised skin wounds of rats using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a strong-cation exchange column, shim-pack ISC-05/S0504P, employing a linear gradient of 0.7-2.5 M sodium chloride. There was scarcely any change in the histamine content of the vital wounds throughout the one week experimental period, although content decreased slightly in 1-h-old wounds. On the other hand, concentrations of putrescine and spermidine increased suddenly 12 h after wounding, and spermine content increased slightly in 4-day-old wounds. There was no post-mortem change in the histamine, spermidine and spermine contents of vital wounds allowed to stand at 25 degrees C up to 24 h after death. Based on these results, this HPLC method may be useful for the determination of wound age during the period of healing.     

Field performance of the Intoxilyzer 5000: a comparison of blood- and breath-alcohol results in Wisconsin drivers

Intoxilyzer 5000 and blood-alcohol results from drivers arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and for related offenses were compared during a two-year period. Three hundred and ninety-five pairs of results were studied. The breath- and blood-alcohol specimens in this study were collected within 1 h of each other. The mean blood-alcohol concentration obtained was 0.180 g/dL, with a range from zero to 0.338 g/dL. By comparison, the mean Intoxilyzer 5000 result was 0.16 g/210 L with a range from zero to 0.32 g/210 L. Compared with the blood-alcohol result, Intoxilyzer 5000 results were lower by more than 0.01 g/210 L 67% of the time, within 0.01 g/210 L 31% of the time, and higher by more than 0.01 g/210 L 2% of the time.     

Melatonin concentrations in the sudden infant death syndrome

To examine a possible relationship between pineal function and the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), samples of whole blood, ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or vitreous humor (VH) were obtained at autopsy from 68 infants (45 male, 23 female) whose deaths were attributed to either SIDS (n = 32, 0.5-5.0 months of age; mean +/- S.E.M., 2.6 +/- 0.2 months) or other causes (non-SIDS, n = 36, 0.3-8.0 months of age 4.3 +/- 0.3 months). The melatonin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. A significant correlation was observed for melatonin levels in different body fluids from the same individual. After adjusting for age differences, CSF melatonin levels were significantly lower among the SIDS infants (91 +/- 29 pmol/l; n = 32) than among those dying of other causes (180 +/- 27; n = 35, P less than 0.05). A similar, but non-significant trend was also noted in blood (97 +/- 23, n = 30 vs. 144 +/- 22 pmol/l, n = 33) and vitreous humor (68 +/- 21, n = 10 vs. 81 +/- 17 pmol/l, n = 15). These differences do not appear to be explainable in terms of the interval between death and autopsy, gender, premortem infection or therapeutic measures instituted prior to death. Diminished melatonin production may be characteristic of SIDS and could represent an impairment in the maturation of physiologic circadian organization.     

THE FUTURE OF POLICE AUTHORITIES: MEMBERS VIEWS

Part of the argument about police accountability concerns the role of police authorities, their membership and powers. The Conservative, Alliance and Labour Parties have developed policies which are broadly retentionist – leave things as they are – reformist – change the membership – and radical – empower police authorities to determine policy. The evidence suggests that police authority members' views, though broadly consistent with their party policies nationally, differ in some important respects. Conservatives are increasingly unhappy about the statutory co-option of magistrates. Alliance members appear not to favour an increase in the proportion of nonelected members. And many Labour councillors entertain doubts about the control model.