Middle Branch Research Articles

STUDIES ON THE METHOD OF THERMAL ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC MEDICINALS. IV. DOUBLE MELTING POINT OF ORGANIC BINARY MIXTURES.

In order to improve the dependability of the thaw-melt method, the double melting point phenomenon which has hitherto been neglected or overlooked was investigated on five kinds of organic binary systems with one or two molecular compounds. The systems were those of aminopyrine and barbital, aminopyrine and sulfisoxazole, benzoic acid and isonicotinamide, nicotinamide and sulfamerazine, and urea and N-sulfanilyl-3, 4-xylamide. The metastable or the first melting point occurs either by the delayed peritectic reaction in a stable mixture or by the suspended compound formation in a metastable mixture. In the former case, the metastable melting points appear on the upper extension of the middle branch of the stable liquidus. In the latter, they are observed on either or both of the extensions of the right and the left branch of liquidus. The occurrence of this phenomenon depends not only on the nature of the system but also on the conditions of measurement, such as agitation and heating rate. The submerged maximum which was thought to be hypothetical was clearly observed with the system of aminopyrine and sulfisoxazole and that of urea and N-sulfanilyl-3, 4-xylamide. The isolated compound of the former was examined by the differential thermal analysis. Heat effect was noted only at the metastable melting point of this compound. If the sample contains no supercooled liquid, the occurrence of double melting point in the heating procedure is actually limited to those cases described above. It will therefore, be very useful for the detection of molecular compound. Also the knowledge of this phenomenon will help to construct a correct phase diagram.

Bronchial arteriography.

The true functions of the systemic circulation of the lung in the living patient have been relatively neglected. To evaluate the role of this circulation in health and disease we have initiated an attempt to visualize experimentally the bronchial arteries and other components of this second circulatory system. Optimum visualization of the bronchial arteries on the roentgenogram is accomplished by retrograde femoral arterial catheterization, with placement of the catheter tip within the aorta just distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery. Fifty milliliters of high contrast radiopaque medium is injected and filming is begun at the start of injection. The normal variations in the origin of the bronchial arteries may be numerous. They may arise from the anterior aspect of the thoracic aorta at the level of the upper intercostals or as branches from any of the upper intercostal arteries. At times, the right bronchial artery may spring from the upper left bronchial vessel. Each side may have one or two arteries supplying its bronchial tree. The bronchi may be supplied partially by small arterial twigs from the internal mammary, pericardial, phrenic, or left subclavian arteries. The normal bronchial artery is minute, coursing anteriorly from its origin toward the carina and then peripherally, lying adjacent to the posterior aspect of the bronchus. As the artery approaches the periphery it forms a plexus around the bronchus and can normally be followed anatomically as far as the small bronchiole. Figure 1 shows an angiogram, with an explanatory diagram, of a normal dog. The right bronchial artery (A) originates from the first right aortic intercostal artery, and lies superior and anterior to the bronchial tree. A small esophageal branch (B) is noted. At the level of the bronchus the artery divides into three small radicles. The left bronchial artery (C) is derived from the anterolateral aspect of the descending aorta just below the level of the second aortic intercostal arteries (D). It continues anteriorly, giving rise to three branches, one of which lies superior and anterior to the carina. The middle branch is directly anterior, and the inferior one goes anterior to and beneath the carina. Other variations are seen in Figure 2 in which a broncho-gram and a bronchial arteriogram were obtained simultaneously. Both the right and left bronchial arteries are derived from the descending aorta. The left branch originates above the first aortic intercostal artery and the right courses anteriorly from the aorta just below the second aortic intercostal. Note their approach and proximity to the bronchi. Pathological changes in the systemic vessels of the lung may result either from primary abnormalities or changes secondary to parenchymal or pulmonary arterial disease. Primary multiple saccular aneurysms of the bronchial arteries have been recorded in a patient with luetic arteritis(3).

The quantitation of atherosclerosis: III. The extent of correlation of degrees of atherosclerosis within and between the coronary and cerebral vascular beds

1. 1. The strength of the relationship of the degree of atherosclerosis within major branches of cerebral arteries (anterior cerebral branch, middle cerebral branch and carotid and basilar branches) is much stronger than those within coronary arteries (left main coronary, anterior descending branch, left anterior branch, left circumflex and right coronary). 2. 2. The strength of interrelation of atherosclerosis between coronary and cerebral arterial branches is much less than that within the cerebral arterial beds but of a lesser order of magnitude than that within the coronary arterial beds. Thus the extent of correlation of the degree of atherosclerosis within and between the coronary and cerebral vascular beds may be represented as follows: Within cerebral beds> within coronary beds> between coronary and cerebral beds.

The collateral circulation following middle cerebral branch occlusion.

The collateral circulation following middle cerebral branch occlusion.

The mechanism of chvostek's sign.

THE INCREASED mechanical irritability of the peripheral nerves in tetany was described by Chvostek 1 in 1876 and 1879. Only the excessive irritability of the facial nerve, however, was named after him. He recommended percussing the facial nerve in front of the external auditory meatus and claimed that the muscular contraction evoked was not a reflex, but was due to direct stimulation of the facial nerve. Schultze 2 observed that Chvostek's sign could also be easily evoked by percussion of an area between the corner of the mouth and the zygomatic arch. The responses to this mode of stimulation are now often called Chvostek signs II and III, according to the extensiveness of the response within the muscles supplied by the middle facial branch. The Chvostek sign is often present in this form only. In some cases of tetany Schultze observed, moreover, that with percussion of the middle branch muscles

Iodinated Organic Compounds As Contrast Media for Radiographic Diagnoses

In the course of testing o-(4-hydroxy-3,5-diiodobenzyl)-benzoic acid (I) as a cholecystographic agent in dogs, it was observed that the extrahepatic biliary ducts were visualized as well as the gallbladder. Since duct visualization would be a desirable addition to cholecystography, a comparison was made against the standard cholecystographic media to determine whether this property was unique with the benzoic acid derivative. Dogs were used as subjects, and comparisons were made both by oral administration and by intravenous injection. Only the new compound (I) consistently gave good visualization of the extrahepatic ducts after oral administration, Injected intravenously in the form of their sodium salts, the benzoic acid derivative (I), iodoalphionic acid (Priodax) (II), tetraiodophenolphthalein (III), and phenoltetraiodophthalein (IV), all delineated the ducts. There were marked differences, however, in the rate and degree of visualization achieved with each preparation. Delineation was most rapid with o-(4-hydroxy-3,5-diiodobenzyl)-benzoic acid, and slowest with the iodinated derivatives of phenolphthalein. The time interval for initial duct visualization was in the range of ten to forty minutes. To eliminate the effect of the gallbladder on the secretion of the cholecystographic media, a number of examinations were made on dogs both before and after cholecystectomy. Intravenous injections of the benzoic acid derivative (I) and of iodoalphionic acid (II) gave satisfactory duct delineation. Anatomy The dog is the most satisfactory of the laboratory animals for the study of chole cystographic media, and is particularly suitable for the investigation of the secretion of such media into the biliary tract. The liver of the dog is divided into five chief lobes which are separated by deep fissures and drained by three main hepatic ducts. Although in situ the lobes overlap, the fresh specimen may be spread out so that all lobes and the main parts of the extrahepatic duct system are visible, as shown in Figure 1A. The gallbladder lies in a cleft between the two parts of the right central lobe and empties into the middle hepatic duct. The duct system varies greatly from dog to dog, but usually the right hepatic duct drains into the union of the left and middle branches a short distance from the entrance of the common duct into the duodenum. On roentgenograms the biliary system is best shown in lateral views, with the animal lying on its right side. Figure 1B is a lateral roentgenogram made after the injection of the biliary tract with ethyl iodophenylundecylate emulsion (1). For this illustration 7 c.c. of bile were replaced with 8 c.c, of emulsion through the cannulated common duct of a dead dog weighing 8.2 kg. Experimental Subjects: Stock dogs in apparent good health and weighing from 6 to 25 kg. were used in the preliminary studies.

STURGE-WEBER SYNDROME

Recently, O'Brien and Porter 1 reviewed the literature on the Sturge-Weber syndrome. They found records of 55 cases over a period of seventy-two years and to these added a case of their own. Subsequently, Nussey and Miller, 2 in 1939, found 145 cases (mostly European) reported in the available literature and described another case. Bentsen and his associates, 3 published a study of the syndrome, and Pincus 4 and Newson 5 have each reported a case. Observations on an increasing number of patients have revised the conception of the pathogenesis of this disease. A patient with this syndrome has vascular nevi, usually along the course of the superior and middle branches of the trigeminal nerve, glaucoma of the eye on the same side and vascular nevi of the pia. Various other conditions may be present, such as intracranial calcification, pituitary dystrophy, hemiatrophy of the brain, with calcification (mostly in the

The Next Task of Astronomy1

A VERY large amount of work is in progress at present upon astronomical photometry. The older branches of astronomy, astrodynamics and measures of position, are far from being exhausted, and it is a matter for great regret that the former, especially, with its splendid traditions of great workers, of discovery and invention, should have fallen into relative neglect. The middle branch, astrophysics, has so far been based, almost exclusively, upon measures of position, namely, precise determination of spectral lines. Beyond that it has been little more than a descriptive branch—an avenue to science rather than a part of it. But lately from every direction it is being forced to address itself in earnest to the problems of photometry—that is, to face directly and with as much science as it can command, the question of measuring quantity of light-emission.

On the Carboniferous Limestone South of the Craven Fault (Grassington-Hellifield District)

I. I ntroduction . South of the great Craven Fault is a district which may well be termed the Craven Lowlands. It lies between the limestone sears of Settle, Malham, and Grassington on the north and the grit hills of the Pendle Range on the south. The district thus defined may be held to include all that part of Craven which extends from Clitheroe to Skyreholme, and from the so-called 'middle branch' of the great fault-system, to the grit hills of Simon's Seat, Burnsall Fell, Flasby Fell, Carleton Moor, and westwards to Pendle. The Carboniferous Limestone and Pendleside Beds, which occupy almost the whole of the district under consideration, are everywhere very much folded and faulted. The greater part of the region is much obscured by drift. With the exception of a good section at Troller's Gill (which does not, however, show any considerable thickness of beds) there are no long continuous sections, and the geologist must remain perforce content with the numerous isolated exposures which are scattered over the whole district. Owing to the contiuually changing dips, it is not easy to make out the sequence of the beds. This paper will be confined to a description of the Carboniferous Limestone, as it may be seen in the various exposures between Swinden Moor on the west and Skyreholme on the east. I have previously discussed other parts of the Craven Lowlands. The lithologieal character of the limestone varies considerably in different parts of the district, the most widely different types being the greyish-white, irregularly-bedded shelly limestone of Elbolton