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Biomedical subjects

A Gold

Publications and source records attributed to A Gold.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Institutionalization and the defects of schizophrenia.

Patients conforming to the Feighner criteria for schizophrenia who had been discharged from hospital were traced after 5-9 years. They were assessed in terms of mental state and cognitive, behavioural and neurological functioning; the results of these assessments were related to information obtained from casenotes. The findings of this study of 120 discharged patients were compared with those of an earlier study of 510 in-patients with schizophrenia. When factors of age and duration of illness were taken into account, there was no difference between the two groups in terms of positive or negative schizophrenic features or behavioural performance, although the in-patients performed less well on cognitive tests. This study indicates that the deficits of chronic schizophrenia are an integral feature of the disease process, and that any effects of institutionalisation are relatively small.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Neurotic illness and its response to anxiolytic and antidepressant treatment.

Two hundred and forty neurotic out-patients were allocated to no diagnostic category but were rated in terms of observer and self ratings of both depression and anxiety at weekly intervals during a 4-week trial of amitriptyline, diazepam, amitriptyline and diazepam, and placebo. The sample could not be divided into anxious and depressed groups on the basis of the clinical picture. The outcome tended to be good irrespective of medication but the significant drug effects found were due to amitriptyline and concerned measures of anxiety as well as depression. It is concluded that a distinction between anxiety and depression in neurotic out-patients is of no practical value with regard to drug treatment.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1980

Air contaminants encountered by firefighters.

The concentrations of eight air contaminants suspected of causing acute and chronic health problems for firefighters were measured in over 200 fires in the City of Boston using a personal air sampler. Threatening concentrations of both carbon monoxide and acrolein were found in a small proportion of the fires. Less hazardous levels of hydrogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide were also noted. Benzene was found in most fires, but at concentrations well below those expected to cause acute injury. The air sampling data have application in treatment of smoke inhalation victims, development of firefighting strategies and selection of respiratory protection devices.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1980

Effects of prolonged starvation on plasma free fatty acid levels and fatty acid composition of myocardial total lipids in the rat.

Experiments were carried out on male rat fed ad libitum or starved for a period of 7 days. Plasma levels of free fatty acids (FFA) and the quantity and composition of fatty acids in total lipids of heart ventricular tissue in vivo were analyzed by gas liquid chromatography (GLC). In addition, FFA extraction ratios and uptake rates were determined in isolated perfused hearts using the classical Langendorff technique. After 7 days of starvation, distribution and concentrations obtained for total lipid fatty acids from heart ventricles of starved animals were substantially different from those of controls. In particular, 20:5 and 22:6 carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids were significantly elevated. Also, total plasma FFA level was elevated and FFA extraction ratios were increased as a result of prolonged starvation. Accumulation of 20- and 22-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids observed in ventricles of starved rats may have resulted from increased availability and extraction of FFA.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Metabolic activation of cyclopenta(cd)pyrene to 3,4-epoxycyclopenta(cd)pyrene by rat liver microsomes.

Cyclopenta(cd)pyrene (CPP), a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon without a bay region, is a potent bacterial mutagen. The experiments reported in this paper demonstrate that the major CPP metabolite generated by liver microsomes prepared from either phenobarbital or 3-methylcholanthrene pretreated rats is the optically active trans-3,4-dihydroxy-3,4-dihydrocyclopenta(cd)pyrene. Other experiments indicate that formation of the trans-3,4-dihydrodiol of CPP probably proceeds via enzymatic hydrolysis of 3,4-epoxycyclopenta(cd)pyrene by opening of the O--C(3) bond. (a) The racemic 3,4-epoxycyclopenta(cd)pyrene has been synthesized via the bromohydrin of CPP and shown to hydrolyze primarily to 3,4-dihydrocyclopenta(cd)pyrene-4-one and to mixtures of the trans- and cis-3,4-dihydrodiols. Detection of 3,4-dihydrocyclopenta(cd)pyrene-4-one as the major acid catalyzed rearrangement product indicates the opening of the epoxide at the C(3) position to yield a carbonium ion followed by an NIH shift. (b) The synthetic epoxide is potently mutagenic to bacteria with a similar spectrum of mutagenicity against Salmonella typhimurium strains carrying base-pair substitution or frameshift mutations as was seen with CPP in the presence of liver enzymes. These results indicate that 3,4-epoxycyclopenta(cd)pyrene is the major microsomal and mutagenic metabolite of CPP.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Mutagenesis and morphological transformation of mammalian cells by a non-bay-region polycyclic cyclopenta(cd)pyrene and its 3,4-oxide.

Cyclopenta(cd)pyrene, a constituent of environmental emissions, has been found to mutate and transform mammalian cells in culture. Cyclopenta(cd)pyrene 3,4-oxide, a presumed metabolite, was found to be a direct-acting mutagen and to transform mammalian cells. These results suggest that cyclopenta(cd)pyrene 3,4-oxide may be an ultimate mutagenic form of the parent hydrocarbon.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

The outcome of severe acute schizophrenic illnesses after one year.

Forty-five patients with acute schizophrenic illnesses (defined by PSE criteria) were assessed in clinical, cognitive and social terms before being entered in a four week study of the isomers of flupenthixol and placebo. At the end of one year they were re-assessed in the same terms. The clinical and psychological features of the acute illness and the drug treatment given did not predict outcome. Poor outcome in social terms was significantly related to severe social isolation in the initial assessment and to the presence of nuclear symptoms and negative schizophrenic features at follow-up.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1978

Cyclopenta[c,d]pyrene: a highly mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon recently isolated from carbon black and identified as cyclopenta[c,d]pyrene (CPP) is highly mutagenic. By the criteria of the Salmonella/mammalian-microsome mutagenicity test, the mutagenic potency of CPP is equalled by only two other naturally occurring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons--benzo[a]pyrene and dibenz[a,c]anthracene. The potent mutagenicity of CPP is noteworthy for two reasons: (i) CPP is a mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon without a "bay-region" and (ii) there is evidence that it is distributed widely in the environment. On the basis of experimental observations and perturbational molecular orbital calculations we propose that a mutagenic metabolite of CPP will be the 3,4-oxide. The carbonium ion derived from opening of CPP 3,4-oxide is identical to that derived from opening of benzo[a]pyrene 7,8-diol-9,10-oxide, the metabolite now thought to be an ultimate mutagenic and carcinogenic species.

Benzopyrenes↗
PubMed1978

Exposure of firefighters to toxic air contaminants.

A personal sampling apparatus for firefighters was developed to sample the fire atmosphere for CO, CO2, O2, NO2, HCI, HCN and pariculate content. Two fire companies made ninety successful sample runs during structural fires. CO presented a potential acute hazard and particulate concentrations were high. HCN was detected at low levels in half the samples. HCI was detected in only eight samples but on two occasions exceeded 100 ppm. CO2 and NO2 levels and O2 depression do not appear to represent significant hazards.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1973

Energy expenditure in animal locomotion.

A wide variety of data on the energy expended by animals in running, flying, or swimming can be accounted for by the simple hypothesis that all animals require the same quantity of energy to carry a unit of their own body mass one "step." For running locomotion this is approximately 3 x 10(-4) calorie per gram per step.

Animals↗