Intraspinal injections of magnesium sulphate, in doses which do not affect the respiratory centre or other vital function, are capable of abolishing completely all clonic convulsions and tonic contractions in cases of human tetanus, and experimental tetanus in monkeys. The relaxing effects of the injections may last twenty-four hours or longer. In experimental tetanus in monkeys early intraspin...

Although postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a common chronic pain syndrome, the pathophysiology of this disorder is not well known and management is often very difficult. N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists are known to be effective in PHN, and magnesium, a physiological blocker of NMDA receptors, is widely used to treat various chronic pain disorders. Here, we present a case of the P...

The pressor response to tracheal intubation is known to be exaggerated in patients with gestational proteinuric hypertension (GPH). We have studied the effect of pretreatment with magnesium sulphate 40 mg kg-1 or 30 mg kg-1 with alfentanil 7.5 micrograms kg-1 on this pressor response in 38 patients with moderate to severe GPH. The magnesium-alfentanil combination produced better control of arte...

Eclampsia is said to occur when a woman with preeclampsia experiences generalised tonic-clonic seizures during pregnancy or shortly after delivery [1]. Eclampsia complicates between 1 to 2% of all cases of severe preeclampsia [2]. Preeclampsia is a multi-systemic disorder, characterised by hypertension and proteinuria occurring after the 20th week of pregnancy in a woman who has been previously...

Eclampsia is said to occur when a woman with preeclampsia experiences generalised tonic-clonic seizures during pregnancy or shortly after delivery [1]. Eclampsia complicates between 1 to 2% of all cases of severe preeclampsia [2]. Preeclampsia is a multi-systemic disorder, characterised by hypertension and proteinuria occurring after the 20th week of pregnancy in a woman who has been previously...

Editor—We read with interest Wadhwa and colleagues’ paper about the use of magnesium sulphate to reduce the shivering threshold. We question whether there is any potential ‘real world’ use for this proposed therapy of high-dose magnesium in patients with myocardial ischaemia, either peri-infarction, periangioplasty or perioperative coronary bypass graft surgery. We agree that shivering is undes...

These experiments justify the following general conclusions. By the intravenous injection of M/4 magnesium sulphate into dogs at a certain rate, a stage can be reached where the abdominal walls are completely relaxed and when section of the abdomen and stimulation of sensitive parts of the parietal peritoneum do not produce pain or elicit any reaction of the animal. At the same time spontaneous...

The effect of magnesium sulphate in releasing calcium emission from interference by phosphate and sulphate has been investigated. Samples were diluted in 10 mM MgSO(4), 2 mM NaCl, giving final calcium concentrations of about 0.05 to 0.10 mM. In this diluent, galvanometer readings were proportional to calcium concentrations up to 0.4 mM. The magnesium sulphate released calcium emission from depr...

a-Galactosidase production by a novel actinomycete strain Streptomyces griseoloalbus in shake flask culture was optimized using response surface methodology. Screening of variables to find their relative effect on a-galactosidase production was done using Plackett-Burman design. Out of the eleven factors screened, salinity, magnesium sulphate and temperature were found to influence the enzyme p...

Objectives were to identify and to evaluate controlled trials of interventions for term infants developing hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. Five randomized trials concerning prophylactic anticonvulsant therapy for neonatal HIE were identified. There were methodological problems with all of them, and meta-analysis of barbiturate prophylaxis showed no significant effect on death or disability. O...