Electric shock INDEX

Muscle cells which arc damaged will leak creatine kina.se into the plasma. This enzyme exists in different isoforms. CK-MM or total CK is used as an index of skeletal mu.scle damage. Very high serum levels may be expected in patients who have been convulsing or have muscular damage due to electrical shock or crush injury. Creatine kinase concentrations may also be high in acute spells in muscular dystrophy. For these rea.sons, when CK is used as an indicator of myocardial infarction. it is better to measure the MB... 

The mean GSH index in psychotic patients (schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, and involutional melancholia) ranges from 25 to 35 mg. per 100 cc. packed RBC (standard deviation 6.1) and the mean normal GSH index ranges from 63 to 93 mg. per 100 cc. packed RBC (standard deviation 11.3) as determined by six (56-61) groups of investigators during the past twenty years. Insulin and electric shock therapy raise the GSH content of the blood in these patients (61-63). 

Vitreous sihca has many exceptional properties. Most are the expected result of vitreous sihca being an extremely pure and strongly bonded glass. Inert to most common chemical agents, it has a high softening point, low thermal expansion, exceUent thermal shock resistance, and an exceUent optical transmission over a wide spectmm. Compared to other technical glasses, vitreous sihca is one of the best thermal and electrical insulators and has one of the lowest indexes of refraction. 

Perhaps the best site is that of Amnesty International at http //www.amnesty.org. Its page http //web.amnesty.orgAibrary/eng-313/index cites many dozens of case studies, a significant fraction of which involve electricity. Or type electricity into their search engine (almost hidden at the foot of the page), and be shocked at the number of so-called friendly and civilized countries that employ torture Israel, Indonesia, the USA, and many of the new countries of Europe. Be warned some of the details are horrific - electricity is a very efficient way of generating pain. 

Fever elevates the blood GSH index (17-20). The degree of temperature elevation and the duration of hyperpyrexia cannot be correlated with the level of the GSH concentration. The mechanism underlying this effect of fever is not known the coincident elevated metabolic rate is not responsible because experimental hjrperthyroidism in animals lowers the blood GSH index (21-25). Stress in a general sense is perhaps a factor since electric and insulin shock therapies both raise the index after 2 to 6 hr., as do injections of epinephrine and insulin following a similar time interval (26-29). However, ACTH injections in normal man may cause no change or may lower the GSH concentration (30-38). The elevating effect of fever might simply be related to accelerated protein catabolism. 

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