>[Moderator's note: Close, but opposite, Sukie :-)  Polycitra-K is a
>urinary ALKALINIZING agent.  BIG]
 
Interesting.
 
The approach depends on the TYPE of stone as well as the root cause (some
are related to poor evacuation due to infections secondary to adrenal
disease, and more dysuria in the States seems to be adrenally related
than stone related).  There are types of stones which need the urine to
made more acidic to keep minerals in solution so that they pass out of
the bladder rather than clumping.  I am curious what situations call for
driving the urine in the opposite direction and making it more alkaline
instead; type of bladder stone, related medical problems, etc.
 
More info on those cases?
 
Some points on the new conscious animal pet scan work; the animal needs
to be as comfortable as possible (or other areas of the brain will be
active and botch up results).  From other photos it appears that there is
a standard neck collar behind the pet scan to keep it in place and there
is a counterweight system so the animal is not bearing any of the weight.
I guess I can see if Steve might have a chance to ask Craig Woody for
more info since they were friends who worked together on a charm search
in high energy physics decades ago; some of the presentations are in a
format that doesn't work for us right now.
 
This is still in the early stages but it is a major technical advance.
 
Not only does it bode well for better fundamental knowledge and better
future medical care in currently hard too understand situations, but it
has the promise of allowing some studies to not require destruction of
the animals even while getting data which wasn't available before.  As
such it promises chances for better humane, medical, and research
results, but it certainly will be some time before it is past the
research stage.
 
Since one aim is for human use I suspect they might also be thinking in
terms of helping premmies as well as getting the foundation needed to
make better use of human pet scan results.
 
Since then I have seen a mention in Science News (That time the rat
wasn't sleepy but looked alert and happily perky as I recall; the rat
is not pilo-erected ad doesn't have "pain face" in either photo; I did
look for such signs.) and suspect the info is in multiple places now.
 
As anyone with a ferret who has had a possible brain injury (thromboses,
trauma, etc.) knows, there are a great number of "black box" unknowns
to the problem, so having a chance to get more useful data is something
which may in the future make such folks glad that advances then exist.
At this point we know to avoid things which can cause problems when
possible (avoiding head injuries, avoiding using anything which might
cause blood pressure to be too high or heart rhythms more variable than
is healthy, avoiding back-wash in the heart, etc.  by imaging ferrets
with cardiomyopathy, and by avoiding things like dietary stimulants,
licorice root, and other such compounds in any ferret who may have
problems like cardiomyopathy, kidney disease, or lympho, and so on).
Still, there is a pile of room for future improvement.
[Posted in FML issue 4436]