Letter: Outmoded barbiturates.

Is VVI pacing outmoded?

Pacing is a common clinical procedure. The permanent implant rate in the United Kingdom is lower than in other Western countries. The last World Survey' showed a new implant rate of 148 per million population per year (8346 systems) in the United Kingdom. This compares with 421 in Germany, 413 in France, 359 in the United States, and 175 in Spain. In the United Kingdom, the pacing mode was simp...

Integrity--an outmoded concept?

We’ve heard a lot in the news recently about “integrity,” or the lack thereof. Although the word has been used most often in politics, it has surfaced in business, medicine, law and even in relation to the United States site for the Winter Olympics. I’ve pondered what this word really means. It is associated with images of “honesty,” “a handshake is as good as my bond,” “keeping promises,” “hon...

Barbiturates.

Comparative depression of several short acting barbiturates and spiro-barbiturates.

In an effort to develop new and possibly better types of barbiturates, suitable for intravenous use, a large number of spiro-barbiturates have been prepared by a ring closure on the 5-carbon atom of the barbituric acid and afforded for pharmacologic study. Spiro(2'-ethyl-3',5'-dimethyl cyclopentane) thio-barbituric acid appears to be the most promising product of a series of 50 analogues. Stoel...

Barbiturates and oxidative phosphorylation.

It has been claimed that barbiturates uncouple oxidative phosphorylations (Brody & Bain, 1954; Brody, 1955). These authors have demonstrated that during the oxidation of pyruvate by liver and brain mitochondria, phosphate uptake was lowered proportionately more than oxygen uptake. Support for the uncoupling theory was derived from certain similarities between the barbiturates and 2:4dinitrophen...