Heat production during sleep was studied by continuous indirect calorimetry with simultaneous electroencephalographic monitoring. Controlling for gross influences on heat production, comparisons of heat production during different sleep stages showed heat production in stage 4 sleep to be significantly lower than in other sleep stages. There appeared to be a gradation in heat production in non-rapid-eye-movement stages of sleep with stage 2 higher and stage 4 lower than stage 3. Heat production in stage 4 was less variable than in any other sleep stage. Both the level and variability of heat production was similar in stage 2 and rapid-eye-movement sleep. Heat production during the night was 9% lower than during resting wakefulness. The average heat production in stage 4 sleep was 14.4% lower than resting wakeful values.

A comparison has been made between themetabolic consequences of daily administration for 6 weeks of 1.0 micrograms and 0.5 micrograms 1 alpha hydroxyvitamine D3 (1 alpha(OH)D3) in twenty patients with senile osteoporosis. There was no significant difference in the increase of calcium absorption which occurred in the two treatment groups between the beginning and end of the trial period. Serum and urinary calcium rose significantly in those receiving 1.0 micrograms 1 alpha(OH)D3 but not in the lower dosage group. Serum parathyroid hormone levels were suppressed in the higher dosage group only. There was a significantly greater rise of serum inorganic phosphate, and fall of serum magnesium, on the higher dosage, but no significant change in serum creatinine occurred in either group. It is, therefore, suggested that in long term therapy regimes for osteoporosis incorporating 1 alpha(OH)D3, 0.5 micrograms may be a more suitable daily dose than 1.0 micrograms 1 alpha(OH)D3.

A comparison of 2 h and 4 h bone scan images obtained with technetium labelled H.E.D.P. in ten patients demonstrated no increase in lesion detection rate between the 2 h and 4 h scans. The 2 h bone scans were of sufficient quality to permit identification of tumours in all cases.

I . The effects on body composition, measured by direct techniques, of a controlled 25 % body-surface-2. The extent of weight loss in the animals was directly related to their energy deficit resulting from a 3. Body fat proved the most labile source of tissue energy, decreasing to a minimum of approximately 4. Relationships between water and fat, and water and protein seen in control animals were not significantly area thermal injury have been studied in two groups of forty male Wistar rats. combination of injury, food intake and rate of wound healing. Major injury in man is commonly followed by extensive weight loss associated with a negative nitrogen balance and an increase in the basal metabolic rate (Richards, 1977). In man only indirect methods can be used to determine changes in body composition during the period of weight loss after injury (Moore & Brennan, 1975). Recent long-term studies using these techniques were unable to fully explain the nature of the tissue fuels utilized after severe injury (Kinney et al. 1970).Direct chemical analysis of body composition has been carried out extensively on animals, primarily in the field of animal husbandry (Brozek, 1968).Similar direct methods of carcass analysis may be employed in the studies of changes in body composition after severe injury in experimental animals.The effects of serious burn injury were studied in rats using serial whole-body analyses. The response of the animals in closely controlled environmental conditions was studied at two levels of dietary intake. EXPERIMENTAL P R O C E D U R E Experimental animalsForty male rats (aged between 10 and 12 weeks and approximately 200 g in body-weight at the start of the experiment) were used in each of the two experiments (A and B). These rats were from the semi-inbred closed colony of the Institute of Physiology, Glasgow University.

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