The bulk-milk quality of 98 Danish farms with automatic milking systems was analyzed from 1 yr before introduction of automatic milking until 1 yr after. Bulk-milk total bacterial count, spores of anaerobes, somatic cell count (SCC), and freezing point increased when automatic milking was introduced and the frequency of milk-quality failures almost doubled. Milk-quality failures were most frequent in the first 3 mo after the start of automatic milking. The increase in spores of anaerobes indicated that the increase in total bacterial count originated partly from contamination of milk from the teat surface and partly from lack of cleaning of the milking equipment or cooling of the milk. The increase in bulk-milk SCC indicated that milk from clinically infected cows and cows with high cell counts was not diverted to the same degree, milking automatically rather than milking conventionally. A self-monitoring program including survey of the bulk-milk quality was established to help farmers in the transition period going from conventional to automatic milking. The program was introduced on 84 farms. Farms on the self-monitoring program reduced bulk-milk cell count. Application of the program did not reduce the frequency of high total bacterial counts and freezing points of the bulk milk to the level of conventional milking. However, the program reduced the overall frequency of milk-quality failures.

In a prospective randomized study of 417 patients, side effects and complications of contrast media and the diagnostic quality of images obtained after hysterosalpingography (HSG) were evaluated after use of diatrizoate meglumine (104 patients), ioxaglate (105 patients), iohexol (105 patients), or ethiodized poppy-seed oil (103 patients). The authors detected no differences among these groups in the prevalence of pain during HSG. The prevalence of lower abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding after HSG was significantly lower in the group that received ethiodized poppy-seed oil than in the three other groups. The prevalence of pelvic infection or inflammation was significantly lower with ethiodized poppy-seed oil than with water-soluble media. All contrast media provided acceptable diagnostic image quality with regard to fallopian tubes, peritoneal spill, and intraperitoneal distribution. Visualization of the uterine cavity and ampullary rugae was significantly better with water-soluble media than with ethiodized poppy-seed oil, which was associated with a high conception rate and which the authors consider preferable for HSG.

In a prospective randomized study, the number of pregnancies after hysterosalpingography (HSG) was estimated in 398 patients who had been infertile for longer than 1 year. Iohexol was used in 101 patients, ioxaglate in 102 patients, diatrizoate meglumine in 97 patients, and ethiodized poppy-seed oil in 98 patients. Ten months after HSG, the patient, referring physician, and/or hospital department was consulted for information about pregnancies. Questionnaires were obtained from the patients who became pregnant during the waiting period of 3 months. No differences in demographic parameters, infertility status, or diagnosis made with HSG were detected among the four contrast media groups. Significantly more patients became pregnant after HSG in the ethiodized poppy-seed oil group than in the three water-soluble contrast media groups (P less than .01). When only intrauterine pregnancies resulting in full-term births were considered, significant differences in pregnancy rates between the oil-soluble and the water-soluble contrast media groups became more obvious. In the group that received ethiodized poppy-seed oil, almost one-third of the infertile women had normal pregnancies and childbirths after HSG.

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Iodixanol 270 mg I/ml causes significantly less injection-associated pain during femoral arteriography and is as safe and efficacious as iopromide 300 mg I/ml.