In a Scots pine forest the throughfall deposition and the chemical composition of the soil solution was monitored since 1984. (Inter)national legislation measures led to a reduction of the deposition of nitrogen and sulphur. The deposition of sulphur has decreased by approximately 65%. The total mineral-nitrogen deposition has decreased by ca. 25%, which is mainly due to a reduction in ammonium...

a nine month old infant was taken to a rural medical center due to hematemesis and melena. the bleeding persisted in spite of active management with gastric lavage, intravenous cimetidine, antiacid therapy and blood transfusion for four days' duration. the patient was referred to our center for further evaluation and management. on arrival he was pale and ill looking with active bleeding f...

BACKGROUND Leeches have been used clinically to help salvage venous-congested skin flaps since 1960. Numerous articles have described their success in benefitting the survival of local, regional, and free flaps. However, the clinical application remains imprecise. The theory behind leech therapy is that leech bites decrease venous congestion in compromised skin flaps. Venous congestion is detri...

Ever since there were doctors they have had to consider the problem of telling public about medicine. For many centuries it was not really a big problem. Medicine was mostly magic. It was a mixture of Babylonian numerology, Arabian chemy, medieval horoscopy and inspired water-divining, or uromancy. Ihe profession disagreed about a lot of things. Whether seven was a better dumber than fourteen. ...

BACKGROUND The use of leeches can effectively increase the salvage rate of flap congestion. However, the first reaction from patients and carers in using leeches in clinical fields is strong aversion. This can be due to the fact that development of our culture from agriculture to industrial society, coming across leeches became fairly rare. Also because of the biological traits that leeches car...

A nine month old infant was taken to a rural medical center due to hematemesis and melena. The bleeding persisted in spite of active management with gastric lavage, intravenous cimetidine, antiacid therapy and blood transfusion for four days' duration. The patient was referred to our center for further evaluation and management. On arrival he was pale and ill looking with active bleeding fr...

Saliva of hematophagous leeches (Hirudo sp.) contains bioactive proteins which allow the leech proper feeding and storage of ingested blood, but may also exert effects in the host. Leech therapy is used to treat many different ailments in humans, although only a small fraction of salivary proteins are characterized yet. Moreover, we do not know whether complete transfer of salivary proteins sto...