Flecainide in Cadaveric Blood and Tissues

In this report, we described a death caused by a deliberate overdose of Flecainide acetate （Almarytm^（R））, an antiarrhythmic agent. The patient had taken a box of 20 Almarytm^（R） 100 mg tablets. The Flecainide concentration found in the post-mortem cardiac blood was 10.16 mg/L. This concentration could not have been determined by post-mortem diffusion of the drug from gastric residue because the patient was previously given activated carbon during the emergency procedure. In fact, in the peripheral blood, the Flecainide concentration was 8.64 mg/L, therefore, this concentration is overlapping with the concentration in the cardiac blood; the gastric content was negative at the screening of Flecainide, while the liver tissue concentration of Flecaiuide was 59.6 mg/L and the bile concentration was 128 mg/L. The brain tissue concentration of Flecainide was 4.19 mg/L. In this case, the cause of death, excluding that toxicity was depending on post-mortem gastric diffusion of the drug, because of the absorbing activity of the administered carbon at the recovery.

STUDY ON THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF ACUPUNCTURE THERAPY FOR TREATMENT OF EPIGASTRALGIA

In the present paper, the therapeutic effect of acupuncture in treatment of 42 cases of epigastralgia was observed using multiple objective indexes, including electrogastrogram (EGG), output of gastric acid and pepsase, plasma prostaglandin (PG) E and gastrin contents, the number and morphological structure of gastrin (G) cells of the antrum mucosa. These 42 cases included 18 cases of deficiency syndrome type, 13 excess syndrome type and 11 mixed type of deficiency and excess. Zhongwan (CV 12), Neiguan (PC 6) and Zusanli (ST 36) were punctured combined with other acupoints according to syndrome patterns. After treatment, 32 cases (76.19%) were cured, 6(14.29%) had remarkable improvement and 4 (9.52%) had improvement, with a cure plus markedly effective rate of 90.48%. Gastroscopic and EGG examination suggested that the function and structure of the stomach returned to normal after acupuncture. In addition, acupuncture stimulation had a bi directional regulative action on gastric acid secretion, gastrin content, EGG activity, etc. Conclusion: Acupuncture treatment has a good regulative action on gastric function and structure in epigastralgia patients.

Effects ofm perioperative cimetidine administration on tumor cell nuclear morphology and DNA content in patients with gastric and colorectal cancer

Objective To explore the effects of perioperative cimetidine administration on tumor cell nuclear morphometric parameters and DNA content in patients with gastric and colorectal adenocarcinoma (GCRA) Past studies have attributed the antitumor effect of cimetidine to its immunomodulatory property, which led to an increase of cellular immunity Whether there are other possible mechanisms by which cimetidine exerts its antitumor function is unknown 49 patients with GCRA were randomized into treatment group (n=25) and control group (n=24) based on whether cimetidine was applied to them during the perioperative periold The treatment group started oral cimetidine intake 400mg, tid, 7-10d before oiperation, followed by curative surgery 'The control group did not receive cimetidine Tumor specimens were paraffin embedded for 4μm thick microsection and stained with (1) hematoxylin and eosin (HE) for the morphometric measurements of tumor cell nuclear area (NA), nuclear perimeter (NP), maximal nuclear diameter (MMND) and minimal nuclea4r diameter (MNND); (2) feulgen stain for tumor nuclear DNA content analysis by IBAS Image Analyzer The percentages (%) of diploidy (2C), tripletetraploidy (3C 4C), quintuple ploidy (5C) and >quintuple ploidy (>5C) tumor cells were calculated, using the mean value of DNA content of 50 lymphocytes as normal 2C control 3C 5C cells were designated as law aneuploid cells and >5C cells as high aneupoid cells Results The clinicopathological variables between the two groups were balanced and comparable There were no statistically significant differences between bthe treatment and control groups in regard of the following parameters: age, gender, tumor location, pathological type, TNM stage, and degree of differentiation The NA (μm 2), NP (μm), MMND (μm) and MNND (μm) for treatm ent group/control group were 23 54±5 08/34 698±10 18 ( P <0 001), 22 06±4 43/24 88±4 05 ( P <0 05),7 84±1 64/8 62±1 24 ( P >0 05), and 4 42±0 61/5 41±0 89 ( P <0 001), respectively The percentages (%) of 2C, 3C 4C, 5C and >5C tumor cells for treatment group/control group were 16 64±2 58/5 35±2 14 ( P <0 002), 39 84±2 28/35 70±3 58 ( P >0 50), 12 42±5 00/14 48±0 74 ( P >0 20), 31 11±6 86/45 97±3 82 ( P <0 005), respectively In the treatment group, there was a tendency tiowards low aneuploid tumor cells from high an euploid tumor cells However, high aneuploid tumor cells predominated in the control group Conclusion Perioperative administration of cimetidine to GCRA patients could decrease the size of tumor cell nuclei, raise the percentage of diploid tumor cells, and partially convery high aneuploid tumor cells into low aneuploid tumor cells All of these effects may in turn help reduce the proliferative potential and invasiveness of tumor cells The direct inhibitory functions on tumor cell nuclei may be a new antitumor mechanism of cimetidine, in addition to its immunomodulatory action