There is dispute as to whether paradoxical gas embolism is an important aetiological factor in neurological decompression illness, particularly when the spinal cord is affected. We performed a blind case-controlled study to determine the relationship between manifestations of neurological decompression illness and causes in 100 consecutive divers with neurological decompression illness and 123 ...

Normal inclividuals breathing pure oxygen obtain full saturation of their hemoglobin, whereas those with right to left shunts do not. Oxygen hemoglobin dissociation curves indicate that increases to full oxygen saturation of hemoglobin are accompanied by marked increases of the oxygen tension. WVhen breathing oxygen fails to produce full saturation, relatively little change in oxygen tension oc...

devices originally described by Clark and Bargeron1 in 1959 provide a simple, rapid and reproducible means of detecting and localizing intracardiac shunts. Their clinical application has been well documented in the past five years.25 This paper will describe a modification of the platinum electrode and its application and a modification of the method of hydrogen gas administration. The advantag...

W HEN there is a right-sided aortic arch, persistence of a left-sided ductus arteriosus can readily be demonstrated by angiocardiography. This is important because in some types of eyanotic congenital heart disease, such as in the tetralogy of Fallot, anl artificial aortico-pulmonary (Blalock-Taussig' or Pott S2 shunt) is often created in order to alleviate the distress produced by anoxia. Two ...

BACKGROUND Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is a vasoactive hormone that acts on the kidney to conserve solute-free water and produces a potent vasoconstrictive effect during hypovolemic states. AVP levels are elevated in adults with congestive heart failure (CHF), and early clinical trials using AVP antagonists are being conducted. The purpose of this study was to determine if AVP levels (1) are ele...