Search

The System for Continuous Observation of Rodents in Home-cage Environment (SCORHE) was developed to demonstrate the viability of compact and scalable designs for quantifying activity levels and behavior patterns for mice housed within a commercial ventilated cage rack. The SCORHE in-rack design provides day- and night-time monitoring with the consistency and convenience of the home-cage environment. The dual-video camera custom hardware design makes efficient use of space, does not require home-cage modification, and is animal-facility user-friendly. Given the system's low cost and suitability for use in existing vivariums without modification to the animal husbandry procedures or housing setup, SCORHE opens up the potential for the wider use of automated video monitoring in animal facilities. SCORHE's potential uses include day-to-day health monitoring, as well as advanced behavioral screening and ethology experiments, ranging from the assessment of the short- and long-term effects of experimental cancer treatments to the evaluation of mouse models. When used for phenotyping and animal model studies, SCORHE aims to eliminate the concerns often associated with many mouse-monitoring methods, such as circadian rhythm disruption, acclimation periods, lack of night-time measurements, and short monitoring periods. Custom software integrates two video streams to extract several mouse activity and behavior measures. Studies comparing the activity levels of ABCB5 knockout and HMGN1 overexpresser mice with their respective C57BL parental strains demonstrate SCORHE's efficacy in characterizing the activity profiles for singly- and doubly-housed mice. Another study was conducted to demonstrate the ability of SCORHE to detect a change in activity resulting from administering a sedative.

Background and aims: Our aim was to provide age- and sex-stratified prevalence estimates of physical disabilities and handicap in the general Belgian population. Methods: A cross-sectional and demographically representative health interview survey was conducted nationwide in Belgium in 1997. The 8836 persons aged 15 years and over who answered the health interview were included in this study. Seventeen items from the survey encompassing main activities of daily living (ADL) and confining were analyzed. To provide prevalence estimates as detailed as possible, neither aggregation nor dichotomization were applied. Results: Women consistently reported more disability than men: mobility (p

To investigate the distribution of meloxicam in the human knee joint and to compare it with the inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase (COX) activity in synovial cells.Prospective pharmacokinetic study and in vitro laboratory investigation.42 male and female patients aged 26 to 85 years hospitalised for rheumatic disease and requiring a diagnostic and/or therapeutic knee puncture.After a single oral dose of meloxicam 15mg, synovial fluid and blood samples were collected once per patient at various intervals after administration. Meloxicam concentrations were determined by a validated high performance liquid chromatography assay, protein binding by equilibrium dialysis, and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by noncompartmental analysis from the mean drug concentration-time profiles. The inhibitory effect of meloxicam on COX activity was investigated separately in unstimulated or interleukin-1beta-stimulated human synovial cells from osteoarthritic patients.Meloxicam was found in synovial fluid at the earliest sampling time (1 hour). Peak concentrations were reached approximately 6 hours postdose in both plasma (842 microg/L) and synovial fluid (320 microg/L). A plateau was observed after the distribution phase (6 hours), corresponding to a constant ratio of drug concentration between synovial fluid and plasma of about 0.47. This ratio was higher in patients with acute inflammation (0.58) than in those with no inflammation (0.38). Meloxicam was extensively bound to protein, mainly to serum albumin. The area under the drug concentration-time curve (AUC) in plasma was more than 2.5 times that in synovial fluid. The AUC for free meloxicam was similar in plasma and synovial fluid. The 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) for basal and stimulated COX activity in human synovial cells were 33.7 nmol/L (11.8 microg/L) and 2.0 nmol/L (0.70 microg/L), respectively. The free concentration of meloxicam in synovial fluid was higher than the IC50 for stimulated COX activity from 6 to 36 hours postdose.On the basis of free synovial concentrations and the IC50 for stimulated COX activity, meloxicam is expected to have a long duration of action. Inhibition of COX activity is expected to be more marked in inflamed synovium compared with non-inflamed synovium.

Biotelemetry is a new biological technology which evaluates continuous spontaneous locomotor activity and body temperature in rodents. The telemetry system comprises a transmitter implanted in the peritoneal cavity of the rodent, and a receiver placed beneath the animal's cage. The receiver detects the radio waves and the activity of the rodents as counts which are registered in the computer system, and the adapter detects the calibrated body temperature. First, we showed that biotelemetric studies of different species (rats, guinea pigs, mice and gerbils) provide substantial information about their circadian rhythms. Second, using the most common examples employed in pharmacology of inflammation (hyperthermia, arthritis, ischemia-reperfusion and so on) biotelemetry has helped us to clarify the pathophysiological significance of the parameters of temperature and mobility in several experimental models in rodents.

Objective: Osteoporosis-related costs are now considered a major burden for health authorities in most developed countries. An accurate and exhaustive evaluation of these costs would be a major contribution to health economic studies evaluating the efficiency of screening and prevention strategies. Osteoporosis is the most frequent underlying cause of femoral neck fractures in the elderly; these fractures weigh heavily on healthcare budgets. However, in Belgium, very few data on the financial burden of hip fractures are available and no updated estimates have been made. The goal of this paper is to estimate the direct medical expenditures associated with hip fractures in Belgium in 1996. Design and setting: This 1-year population-based cross-sectional study is conducted from the social security perspective. The target population in this study are men and women aged 60 years and over. Patients and participants: We selected patients who had been hospitalised for a hip fracture during the year 1996 who were also affiliated with a registered social security organisation (covering 25% of the Belgian population). The sample constituted 2374 patients. Interventions: For each of these patients, we collected an exhaustive and detailed list of healthcare resource use as well as nursing home admissions following the hip fracture event. Cost items investigated in the analysis were inpatient hospital costs and outpatient costs. Mean annual costs per case recorded in the sample were then extrapolated to the whole country on the basis of an exhaustive list of diagnoses having lead to all countrywide hospitalisations (1700000 hospital stays/year). Main outcome measures and results: The mean hospital inpatient costs for hip fracture were evaluated at 332 148 Belgian francs (BeF) [$US8977] per case and BeF4 367 746 200 ($US118 047 194) for the whole country (10 million inhabitants). Patients with a hip fracture experienced an annual BeF27 825 ($US752) extra outpatient cost during the year following this fracture event, after correcting for costs related to additional comorbidity already present before the hip fracture. Finally, after a proximal femoral neck fracture, the rate of nursing home admission was higher, both for men and women at any age compared with age- and gendermatched population. Conclusions: With a total cost (acute hospital and outpatient costs) of BeF4 667 894 950 ($US126 159 323) per year in Belgium, proximal femoral neck fracture should be considered a major health economic problem and appropriate measures to prevent this disease should be rapidly undertaken.

In order to document the stereoselective distribution in joints of a chiral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, the relative affinities of the enantiomers of tiaprofenic acid in synovium and for cartilage were compared.The distribution of tiaprofenic acid in synovium and in cartilage was studied 25 h after administering the racemic drug for 2 days (600 mg of a sustained-release preparation, once daily), in 12 inpatients with osteoarthritis of the hip requiring arthroplasty. Enantiomers were quantified in plasma and freeze-ground tissues by a chiral HPLC assay.Plasma concentrations of the dextrorotatory (R) enantiomer (0.40 microgram/ml) were higher than those of its antipode. The concentration of racemate in synovium (in dried and fresh tissues, 150% and 40%, respectively, of the concentration in plasma) was much higher than that in cartilage (in dried tissues 32% of the plasma concentration). The ratio of the active, dextrorotatory (R) enantiomer to its antipode was higher in synovial tissue than in plasma.Tiaprofenic acid is distributed stereoselectively in plasma and synovium, which contain a higher concentration of the active, dextrorotatory (R) enantiomer. In cartilage, it reaches only a very low concentration.

The effects of sulphasalazine and related drugs on various models of arthritis are reviewed. Dosage regimen and duration of the treatment are of importance, as is the animal species, in determining clinical, biological, or radiological responses. Considering these parameters together with differences in administration protocols, it is not surprising that various drug effects are reported in the published studies. There is some evidence that sulphasalazine displays beneficial activity in attenuating experimental synovitis, but its influence only becomes apparent after a few weeks of therapy, thus functioning as a slow-acting antirheumatic drug. In contrast, sulphasalazine does not seem to be effective on the cicatricial ossifying process. Nevertheless, the respective therapeutic and remission-inducing effects of the parent drug, sulphasalazine, and its main moieties, 5-aminosalicylic acid and sulphapyridine, remain controversial.

Recent studies have reported the ambivalent properties of IL-1, in that it increases or decreases experimental arthritis depending on the dose, the mode, the site, the duration of administration, and the animal model used. In a first experiment we investigated the influence of iterative subcutaneous injections of human recombinant interleukin-1β (HrIL-1β) (0.02, 0.2 or 2 μg) on the inflammatory events in arthritic rats sensitized with type II collagen and muramyl dipeptide. The daily dose of 0.2 μg slightly reduced the pathological response score while 2 μg made it worse; the dose of 0.02 μg was always ineffective. Therefore, the long-term influence of the 0.2 μg dosage of HrIL-1β on the severity of arthritic lesions was investigated. In those experimental conditions, when compared with vehicle only, HrIL-1β slightly reduced hindpaw oedema. This effect was noticeable in severely diseased animals, but was absent in those having moderate swelling. In addition, HrIL-1β induced a delayed relapsing inflammation, whatever the severity of the arthritis. In comparison, indomethacin markedly decreased the early events of inflammation without affecting the delayed relapsing arthritic process.

Tenoxicam is an NSAID of the oxicam group. Its distribution in articular tissues was investigated in 12 patients who required total arthroplasty of the hip. They were given tenoxicam 20 mg once daily for 8 to 30 days before surgery. Blood, synovium and cartilage samples were taken concurrently during surgery, about 14 hours after the last tenoxicam dose. The tissues were ground using a freeze grinder. Tenoxicam was assayed by HPLC. Tenoxicam concentrations averaged 6.21 +/- 3.81 micrograms/ml in plasma, 7.56 +/- 4.67 micrograms/g in synovium and 2.05 +/- 1.43 micrograms/g in cartilage. The individual synovium/cartilage ratios ranged from 1.9 to 9.7. Finally tenoxicam exhibited more affinity for its target organ (synovial tissue) than for joint cartilage.

To evaluate any inhibitory effect of a single dose of human recombinant interleukin-1 beta (hrIL-1 beta) on the severity of carrageenan-induced oedema in rats (a commonly used model of acute inflammation), we first injected 0.1 ml of carrageenan (0.2%, 0.5%, or 2%) to induce mild, moderate, or severe inflammation, respectively into the right rear footpad. Then we promptly injected the interleukin (0.02, 0.2, or 2 micrograms) subcutaneously into the flank. The initial rapid increase in volume of the injected paw (within 2 h of the subplantar injection) was independent of the dose of carrageenan, whereas the increase in volume by 6 to 10 h was dose-dependent. All doses of HrIL-1 beta inhibited the carrageenan-induced swelling at the 6th hour. In the moderate and severe carrageenan-induced oedemas, the higher dose of HrIL-1 beta induced a delayed inflammation peaking at 10 h instead at 6 h.

A case is presented of a 55-year-old man with a MFH in a previous BI. The poor prognosis of such secondary MFH is related in part to the difficulty of its early diagnosis, its aggressive behavior, and its tendency to metastasize (mainly to bone sites and lungs). Nevertheless, although biopsy of asymptomatic bone marrow infarction is not indicated, MRI seems consistent in detecting sarcomatous transformation of symptomatic BIs and plays an important role in the patient's preoperative evaluation.