Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Barr.
The prevalence of spontaneous lingual-facial-buccal movements was determined in 661 patients between the ages of 50 and 79 without neuroleptic exposure or known CNS disease. The prevalence was 0.8% between ages 50 and 59, 6% between ages 60 and 69, and 7.8% between ages 70 and 79.
Polystyrene beads coated with pasteurised polyethylene glycol-precipitated HBsAg were used to detect anti-HBs by a solid phase inhibition assay employing unreacted 125I-anti-HBs which had previously been "processed" by polyethylene glycol precipitation and used to test for the HBsAg. A weak anti-HBs (approximately 0.1 IU/ml) positive control was used to establish a target level of reactivity. 16,035 freshly donated units of blood, a 90-sample coded anti-HBs panel and a selection of hyperimmune globulins were investigated. All positive results were confirmed by a standard commercial assay. Antibody content of selected samples was quantitated in international units. A target level of anti-HBs activity is suggested for donor plasma to be fractionated for the production of hepatitis B immune globulin.
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Selected blood donors, antenatal patients, and hospital patients with a history of jaundice were investigated for evidence of prio exposure to hepatitis A and B viruses. Two markers of hepatitis B-infection were sought--surface antibody (anti-HBs) and core antibody (anti-HBc). The prevalence of both markers was low in jaundice history donors and antenatal patients and was no different from the prevalence in random populations of both groups. In contrast, the prevalence of antibody to hepatitis A-virus (anti-HAV) was very much higher in donors and antenatal patients with a history of jaundice than in random groups of the same age and ethnic origin. Similarly, hospital patients with a history of jaundice showed a very low prevalence of prior hepatitis-B infection and a very high prevalence of prior hepatitis-A infection. The findings suggest that in a country with a low incidence of hepatitis-B carriage a history of jaundice is much more likely to equate with prior hepatitis-A infection than B infection. There is no evidence to support the practice of regarding blood donors or patients with a history of jaundice as a special group with more prior exposure to hepatitis-B virus and thus more likelihood of being long-term carriers of hepatitis-B virus.
A sensitive radioimmunoassay method for HBeAg and anti-HBe allowed 98.4% of HBsAg positive blood donors to be classified. HBeAg was more prevalent in blood donors under 30 years of age and anti-HBe was more prevalent in those over 30 years. The mean HBsAg concentration was four times greater in donors with HBeAg than in those with anti-HBe. No significant associations were found with sex, blood groups, or HBsAg subtypes. It is likely that this test system will be extremely useful to blood transfusion centres and hepatitis reference laboratories in the future.
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The ranges of spinal movement in 390 healthy children aged from 10 to 15 years have been recorded. These measurements are in two planes, anterior and lateral; they are quick and easy to perform and require no special equipment, just a tape measure. Many conditions occurring in childhood can lead to limitation of spinal movement: these include juvenile ankylosing spondylitis, spondylolisthesis, Scheuermann's vertebral osteochondritis, discitis and vertebral fractures, the latter being not uncommon in children receiving prolonged corticosteroid therapy. The purpose of the present paper is to define the normal range for anterior and lateral spinal flexion in adolescents and to correlate these with sex, age, height and weight.
A study has been made of the changes in refraction as a sample of 148 children grew between the ages of 1 and 3 1/2 years. There was no decrease in hypermetropia, but there was a significant decrease in the incidence of astigmatism. Study of the changes in the refraction in the horizontal and vertical meridia of individual eyes gave clear evidence of a trend towards emmetropia if the initial refraction in either meridian was myopic or less than +2.50 D. Above that level the refraction became more or less hypermetropic.
Cyclopentolate 1% is significantly less effective than atropine 1% at producing cycloplegia in 1-year-old children. If cycloplegic refraction is to be used for investigation or screening children for visual defects during the sensitive period, the more prolonged and profound cycloplegia following atropine could potentially have a disastrous effect on the development of vision. Cyclopentolate 1% would have to be used, and allowance made for its inadequacy as a cycloplegic.
In a study of 105 asymptomatic HBsAg positive blood donors, 9 (8.6%) were found to have HBeAg, 38 (36.2%) anti-HBe, and the remaining 58 (55.2%) neither marker detectable by gel diffusion. There was no correlation between HBeAg/anti-HBe status and HBsAg sub-types, Glm allotypes, the presence of anti-Gm, red cell antibodies, or rheumatoid factor. Rheumatoid factor activity could be removed from anti-HBe positive sera without removing anti-HBe activity, indicating that separate entities were involved. HBeAg was found only in donors under the age of 30 (P less than 0.005), while anti-HBe did not show an age-related trend. HBeAg was also found less commonly in donors of blood group A than in the total carrier population (P less than 0.05), indicating an apparent protection in carriers of group A. The blood group distribution for the 105 HBsAg positive donors was similar to that of the general population.
A case of fulminant disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in a 51-year old man, presenting with bleeding gastric adenocarcinoma, is reported. In spite of initial hematologic improvement by replacement therapy the patient died on the fifth day after admission. The rare association of DIC with adenocarcinoma of the stomach is discussed.
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Specific procedures are described for the determination of fenbufen and its metabolites in serum and urine using high-pressure liquid chromatography. Serum or urine extracts were chromatographed on a bounded reversed-phase partitioning column. The sensitivity of the assay for fenbufen was 0.5 microgram/ml in serum with 2-ml samples and 1.0 microgram/ml in urine with 1-ml samples. The procedures are suitable for bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies.
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A study was performed to determine the extent to which patients of all types were receiving inappropriate levels of care. The needs of patients in acute and supporting hospitals, people in residential homes, and patients cared for at home were assessed. A sixth of the hospital inpatients did not need hospital care, while 5% of those in residential homes and 5% of those at home did need hospital services. These findings indicate that a realistic provision of hospital beds would be 4 per 1000 population for all specialties except regional specialties, psychiatry, mental subnormality, obstetrics, and paediatrics. About a third of these beds need to be acute, while the rest may be in supporting or community hospitals. Thus the current provision of acute beds (2-0 to 2-5 per 1000 population) exceeds actual need.
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