MOLLER C, ODKVIST L, LARSBY B, THAM R, LEDIN T, BERGHOLTZ L. Otoneurological findings in workers exposed to styrene. Scand J Work Environ Health 1990;16:189-94. An otoneurological test battery was adm inistered to 18 workers with long-term exposure (6-15 years) to styrene at levels well below the current Swedish limit (110 mg/m'). The results were compared with those of a reference gro up. Disturbances were found in the centr al auditory path ways of seven wor kers. Tests reflecting central pr ocessing of impu lses from different sensory equilib rium organs were abnormal for 16 workers. Th e most relevant tests seemed to be static posturography and the rotatory visual suppression test. In the posturograph y the styrene gro up had a significantl y larger sway area than the reference group. In the visual suppression test , the styrene workers displayed a significantly poorer abilit y to suppress vestibular nystagmus than the reference group. It was concluded that styrene exposur e in industrial environments at moderate or low levels causes central nervous system disturbances which ar e not always diagnosable with psychometric tests but can be apparent in special otoneurological tests.

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We studied the effect of the ingestion of 400 mL regular coffee on plasma cholecystokinin (CCK) concentrations and of 165 mL regular and decaffeinated coffee on plasma CCK and gallbladder contraction in six healthy regular coffee drinkers. Plasma CCK concentrations rose 3.3 +/- 0.4 pmol/L after 400 mL and 2.8 +/- 0.9 pmol/L after 165 mL regular coffee compared with 1.8 +/- 0.6 pmol/L after 165 mL decaffeinated coffee. These plasma CCK increments were greater than those after 400 and 165 mL of an isosmotic and isothermic sodium chloride solution (0.6 +/- 0.2 and 0.4 +/- 0.1 pmol/L, respectively). An average gallbladder contraction of 33 +/- 7% was observed after 165 mL regular coffee and 29 +/- 10% after 165 mL decaffeinated coffee, whereas after 165 mL sodium chloride the contraction was only 10 +/- 12%. We conclude that both regular coffee and decaffeinated coffee give rise to increments in plasma CCK and contractions of the gallbladder.

The appearance of the pancreas in 17 adult patients with cystic fibrosis was evaluated with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. The pancreas was abnormal in 15 patients. Three patterns were observed: (a) lobulated enlarged pancreas with complete replacement by fatty tissue (n = 9), (b) small atrophic pancreas with partial replacement by fat tissue (n = 5), and (c) diffuse atrophy of the pancreas without fatty replacement (n = 1). Replacement of the pancreas by fat tissue was seen on T1-weighted images with, characteristically, a very high signal intensity. The sensitivity of MR imaging in depicting pancreatic abnormality in cystic fibrosis is 94%, which is comparable to that of computed tomography.

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