In Cook v. FDA,1 the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously affirmed a March 2012 decision by the DC District Court permanently enjoining the Food andDrug Administration (FDA) from permitting the entry of foreign manufactured sodium thiopental (thiopental) into interstate commerce. The decision is a serious setback for the FDA’s use of its enforcement discretion.Co...

BACKGROUND We tested the effect of thiopental on the excitability of the corticospinal-motoneuron axis in normal human subjects. METHODS Magnetic stimulation was used to excite the neurons in the motor cortex which give rise to the fast conducting corticospinal pathway. The characteristics of the composite excitatory post-synaptic potentials (EPSPs) produced in individual spinal motoneurons b...

Pulmonary veins (PV) make a significant contribution to total pulmonary vascular resistance. We investigated the cellular mechanisms by which the intravenous anesthetics propofol and thiopental alter adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium (KATP+) channel relaxation in canine PV. The effects of KATP+ channel inhibition (glybenclamide), cyclooxygenase inhibition (indomethacin), nitric oxide s...

BACKGROUND Thiopental and propofol are highly lipid-soluble, and their entry into the brain often is assumed to be limited by cerebral blood flow rather than by a diffusion barrier. However, there is little direct experimental evidence for this assumption. METHODS The cerebral kinetics of thiopental and propofol were examined over a range of cerebral blood flows using five and six chronically...

Several studies have found a correlation between the onset time of muscle relaxants, cardiac index, and muscle blood flow. Ephedrine increases these hemodynamic variables and shortens onset time of rocuronium in humans. Our aim in this animal study was to determine the effect of ephedrine on the onset time of rocuronium, cardiac index, and muscle blood flow after administration of thiopental. A...

BACKGROUND The development of alcohol use disorders is genetically influenced, and may be mediated through differences in the subjective response to alcohol. There is some evidence to suggest that response differences to alcohol could be conveyed by heritable differences in GABAA receptors. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether individuals with a family history positive (FHP) for...

Transmembrane potentials of the respiratory laryngeal motoneurons were recorded in decerebrate, vagotomized and paralyzed cats. Twenty inspiratory and thirteen postinspiratory neurons were identified. Periodic membrane potential (MP) fluctuations as well as patterns of postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) were characterized in each type of neurons by measuring the input resistance and injecting Cl- t...

A prospective, randomized, double-blind study was performed in 40 patients (ASA class I-III) treated with atracurium to ascertain whether histamine release caused hemodynamic or cutaneous changes. The treated group of 20 patients was premedicated with the H1 antagonist dimetindene (0.2 mg/kg) and the H2 antagonist ranitidine (1.25 mg/kg); the control group of 20 patients received saline. Six mi...