THE IMPORTANCE OF POTASSIUM AFTER OPERATION

A deficiency of potassium in a patient after operation is manifest clinically by anorexia, malaise, apathy, weakness, abdominal distention and hypochloremia.Many patients who have had a prolonged disturbance in nutrition may have a “subclinical” hypopotassemia.Prophylaxis by means of replacement of the potassium excreted daily in the urine is the ideal treatment.When the clinical picture of potassium deficit develops, the amount of the potassium ion needed for replacement should be calculated on the basis of the total amount of water in the body of the patient.     

CORTICAL GRANULES PERSISTING IN GERM CELLS OF XENOPUS LAEVIS AFTER THE CLEAVAGE STAGES

Cortical granules were demonstrated, in two successive Epon sections (0.7 μm thick) stained with PAS reagent and the triple staining method respectively, to persist beyond the cleavage stages of development to the tadpole stages in Xenopus laevis. They were also examined by electron microscope. The granules which are similar both cytochemically and ultrastructurally to the cortical granules of the unfertilized eggs were observed not only in germ cells, pPGCs and PGCs, but also in somatic cells at all the stages examined. An ultrastructural similarity between the granules found in the PGCs at the tadpole stages and chromatoid body was discussed.