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Biomedical subjects

A Hart

Publications and source records attributed to A Hart.

124 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1974

Propylene oxide as sterilizing agent.

Liquid propylene oxide added to a variety of disinfectant solutions resulted in a significant reduction of the bacterial spore content of these solutions.

1-Propanol↗
PubMed1972

Multiple sclerosis associated with defects in neuromuscular transmission.

Three patients with multiple sclerosis characterized by exacerbations and remissions of nervous system signs and symptoms disseminated in time and space also had the kind of easy fatiguability seen in myasthenia gravis. In each case abnormal decrements to repetitive stimulation were electromyographically demonstrated and treatment with ephedrine or anticholinesterase drugs increased the patient's functional capacity while improving the electromyographic abnormality. The suggestion is that these patients represent an overlap syndrome, analogous to the overlap syndrome existing between systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis where clinical and laboratory features of two diseases coexist in the same patient at the same time. Presumably some patients with multiple sclerosis have deficient production of acetylcholine, just like patients with myasthenia, and treatment with agents useful in myasthenia is able partially to correct the symptoms caused by the deficiency. The cases illustrate how in neurology greater attention to the more immediate cause of clinical symptoms, in the absence of a known aetiology, may result in benefit to the patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1970

Treatment of obese non-diabetic patients with phenformin. A double-blind cross-over trial.

The effect of 50 mg. of sustained release phenformin capsules administered twice daily was compared with a placebo as an aid to weight reduction in obese non-diabetic patients. Phenformin and placebo were administered alternately in two three-month periods.Weight loss on a 1,200-calorie diet was greater in the first three months than in the second three months regardless of treatment. There was no difference in weight loss between the phenformin and placebo groups in either the first or second three-month period. Serum cholesterol levels tended to fall in association with weight loss, but not apparently in relation to the size of the weight loss or to the treatment.

Body Weight↗
PubMed1969

Capillary fragility studies in diabetes.

A new method for the measurement of capillary fragility based on the time of appearance of petechiae under standardized conditions has been used to study 88 non-diabetics and 211 patients attending a diabetic clinic. In the former the capillary fragility increased with age. In the diabetic group 78 out of 195 patients had complications, and in all age groups these latter patients had more fragile capillaries.In general the capillary fragility was greater in patients taking insulin than in those taking antidiabetic tablets or on diet alone, and in the first group capillary fragility was greatest in those receiving more than 50 units daily and least in those receiving less than 25 units daily.Capillary fragility measurement by this method may be of value in assessment, prognosis, and studying the response to treatment in diabetes.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluating black-boxes as medical decision aids: issues arising from a study of neural networks.

The rigorous evaluation of medical decision aids will be critical to promoting their development, establishing their clinical value and legalizing their use. Many decision aids are transparent in the sense that their internal structure and function can be examined and verified. Some decision aids, however, use complex models of associations in training data to construct 'black-box' systems whose workings are largely impenetrable and inexplicable. The issues surrounding the evaluation of such systems, as exemplified by connectionist (neural network) models, are discussed. For such systems the two major aspects that can be evaluated are the training data from which the system is derived, and its performance on test data. A number of questions about the use of black-box systems as medical decision aids are posed which require consideration by the medical informatics community.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted↗