Physiological Responses to Intravenous Diazepam as a Sedative for Conservative Dentistry

The physiological responses to intravenous diazepam and oral local analgesia for conservative dentistry have been assessed in 16 patients. Apart from a transient tachycardia during actual administration of the drug, no clinically significant changes occurred in the haemodynamic, respiratory, or metabolic status of the patients. In some patients there was a period of incompetence of the laryngeal closure reflex.     

Intravenous Diazepam for Direct-current Cardioversion

The induction of anaesthesia with intravenous diazepam is a valuable contribution to the simpler use of cardioversion and is the method of choice because it is readily available for elective cardioversion. Fifty-six cardioversion procedures were carried out by this method in an African hospital. No special premedication or drug preparation was used. There were no hazards apart from transient apnoea in two patients and persisting amnesia in one patient.     

Ten Heuristics for Interdisciplinary Modeling Projects

Complex environmental and ecological problems require collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts. A common approach to integrating disciplinary perspectives on these problems is to develop simulation models in which the linkages between system components are explicitly represented. There is, however, little guidance in the literature on how such models should be developed through collaborative teamwork. In this paper, we offer a set of heuristics (rules of thumb) that address a range of challenges associated with this enterprise, including the selection of team members, negotiating a consensus view of the research problem, prototyping and refining models, the role of sensitivity analysis, and the importance of team communication. These heuristics arose from a comparison of our experiences with several interdisciplinary modeling projects. We use one such experience—a project in which natural scientists, social scientists, and local residents came together to investigate the sustainability of small indigenous communities in the Arctic—to illustrate the heuristics. Received 27 April 2001; accepted 12 November 2001.     

Diazepam and Tests of Thyroid Function

The effect of diazepam on thyroid function tests was examined in 12 euthyroid patients requiring the drug for psychiatric reasons and in six patients with thyrotoxicosis. Assessment was made before and after four weeks'' therapy.There was no significant difference in results from tests of thyroid iodide trapping and binding (thyroid radioiodine uptake, thyroid clearance, and absolute iodine uptake) except in the one-hour thyroid uptake in the euthyroid group, which was increased after diazepam. This increase occurred without alteration in serum thyroid stimulating hormone levels. No change occurred in either group in tests of thyroid hormone release (protein-bound iodine, T-3 resin uptake, or Thyopac-3 and free thyroxine index).Patients with suspected thyroid disease who are taking diazepam do not need to stop therapy while their thyroid status is being determined.     

Physiological Responses to Intermittent Methohexitone for Conservative Dentistry

Intermittent methohexitone for conservative dentistry has been shown to cause clinically undetectable respiratory obstruction, depression of the laryngeal reflex, and arterial hypoxaemia. Because of the pronounced decrease in total peripheral resistance, the blood pressure was maintained only by large increases in cardiac output. Furthermore, the output of the heart could not increase when challenged by hypoxia.     

Diazepam: A Preliminary Study of its Effects on Patients with Athetoid Cerebral Palsy

Diazepam was administered to seven severely affected athetoid children for a period of two to three months to determine whether beneficial effects could be demonstrated from its use. All patients were started on a daily dose of 2.5 mg. and the dose was increased as tolerated. The patients were assessed by a neurologist, an occupational therapist, a physiotherapist and a speech therapist before and after the trial.The dose of diazepam cannot be determined in advance. The optimum dose must be established by trial in each individual patient. No beneficial effects were noted in four of these children. One of those who showed improvement became significantly worse when the drug was withdrawn and it was necessary to reinstitute the drug. The response in any individual patient is unpredictable. The most significant side effect was drowsiness.     

Molecular biology of Diazepam Binding Inhibitor peptide

Complementary DNA (cDNA) clones containing the entire coding sequence for Diazepam Binding Inhibitor (DBI) peptide, a 10-kDa precursor of putative natural ligands of benzodiazepine recognition sites, were isolated from rat, human and cow libraries. The sequence of all these clones is highly conserved; however, the N-terminal sequence predicted by the human DBI clone differed from that of the other two clones. DBI cDNA, utilized as hybridization probe in Southern blot analysis, revealed that DBI of both human and rat might be encoded by a multiple family of 4–6 genes. Furthermore, we have used in situ chromosomes hybridization to map human DBI genes. The results indicate that a human DBI gene is localized on chromosome 2 and that three of the four hybridization signals detected by the human DBI probe are located on three other chromosomes. These findings raise a question as whether multiple DBI genes encode for different molecular forms of DBI. In the attempt to test this hypothesis, cow cDNA and human genomic libraries were screened with DBI cDNA. In this paper I report the isolation of clones from these libraries which, although hybridizing well to DBI cDNA, possess a low percentage of homology (46.7%), randomly distributed within the coding region of DBI cDNA. Whether or not these clones encode for peptides sharing the same physiological role as DBI is under investigation.Special issue dedicated to Dr. Erminio Costa     

Interaction of Diazepam with the Muscle-relaxant Drugs

Diazepam has been found to increase the duration of the neuromuscular block produced by gallamine and to reduce that produced by succinylcholine. Preliminary studies suggest that the action is at the presynaptic site.     

Determination of Age from Cemental Incremental Lines for Forensic Dentistry

Determination of age from cemental incremental lines was evaluated in intact teeth obtained from 17 individuals aged 23-77 years. Mineralized 100 μm cross sections were subjected to one of three treatments: unstained, stained with Villanueva's blood stain, and stained with acridine orange. Ideal areas were selected by light microscopy and photographed. Countability of incremental lines from photographic enlargements were evaluated. The average number of years required for the eruption of a particular tooth was added to the incremental lines count to determine the estimated age for that individual. Results obtained from unstained mineralized 100 μm thick cross sections using differential interference microscopy (Nomarsky) provided the most countable lines. The accuracy and repeatability of the method is not dependent on tooth type or location, but on the average obtained from making as many counts as possible. This method can be applied to general populations regardless of systemic or periodontal health.     

Interdisciplinary malaria vector research and training for Africa

The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and International Centers for Tropical Disease Research Network held their 11th annual meeting ‘Research Beyond Boundaries’ on 15–18 April 2002.     

Formulation and Optimization of Orodispersible Tablets of Diazepam

Diazepam is one of the most prescribed benzodiazepines. The purpose of the present research was to optimize the formulation of orodispersible tablets of diazepam. Orodispersible tablets of diazepam were prepared using different types of superdisintegrants (Ac-Di-Sol, sodium starch glycolate, and crospovidone (CP)) and different types of subliming agents (camphor and ammonium bicarbonate (AB)) at different concentrations and two methods of tablets preparations (wet granulation and direct compression methods). The formulations were evaluated for flow properties, wetting time, hardness, friability, content uniformity, in vivo disintegration time (DT), release profiles, and buccal absorption tests. All formulations showed satisfactory mechanical strength except formula F5 which contains camphor and formula F9 which is prepared by direct compression method. The results revealed that the tablets containing CP as a superdisintegrant have good dissolution profile with shortest DT. The optimized formula F7 is prepared using 10% CP as a superdisintegrant and 20% AB as a subliming agent by wet granulation method which shows the shortest DT and good dissolution profile with acceptable stability. This study helps in revealing the effect of formulation processing variables on tablet properties. It can be concluded that the orodispersible tablets of diazepam with better biopharmaceutical properties than conventional tablets could be obtained using formula F7.