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Biomedical subjects

A Miles

Publications and source records attributed to A Miles.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

A preliminary study of factors that influence children's sense of competence to manage their asthma.

This study identifies several factors that appear to influence children's sense of competence to manage their asthma. The study examined a consecutive series of 62 children and adolescents who had been admitted to hospital for management of their asthma. Self-reports rating their sense of competence to manage their asthma were obtained from all the children. In addition, reports were obtained of the children's motivation to achieve healthy functioning, their sense of control over their health, and parental knowledge of childhood asthma management. Results from the study suggest that older children, children who are more intrinsically motivated to achieve healthy functioning, and children with parents who are knowledgeable about asthma management feel more competent to manage their asthma. It is suggested that the effectiveness of asthma self-management programs for children may be improved if there is a better understanding of the psychological factors that influence children's sense of competence to manage their asthma.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Genomes of diploblastic organisms contain homeoboxes: sequence of eveC, an even-skipped homologue from the cnidarian Acropora formosa.

We report the nucleotide sequence of eveC, a cnidarian eve-class homeobox; this is the first homeobox to be identified in any diploblastic organism, and is only the second eve-class in an invertebrate. Similarity between the predicted amino acid sequence of the eveC homeodomain and its insect and vertebrate equivalents was approximately 75-80% but, in the case of eveC, a role in segmentation can be ruled out. Our findings thus support the 'co-option' hypothesis: homeoboxes were an early feature of metazoan genomes, corresponding to the DNA-binding domains of more general transcription factors.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Effects of temperature on the anaesthetic potency of halothane, enflurane and ethanol in Daphnia magna (Cladocera: Crustacea).

1. The effects of temperature on the anesthetic potencies of halothane, enflurane and ethanol have been studied in the water flea Daphnia magna. 2. In the absence of anaesthetics, decreasing temperature resulted in decreased activity by the daphnids. 3. Potencies in the gas phase decreased with increasing temperature for all of the anaesthetics, while aqueous potency decreased for halothane and enflurane but increased for ethanol. 4. Enthalpy calculations suggest that the observed potency changes for the inhalational anaesthetics cannot be accounted for in terms of changing solubility in lipid bilayers but most likely reflect more specific interactions with animal target sites.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Chronic pancreatitis in Jamaica.

Thirty-five patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) treated over a 15-year-period were studied. There were 29 men and 6 women with a mean age of 47 years (range 21-67). Twenty-seven (77%) were chronic alcoholics, two (6%) had gallstones, one had stenosis of the Ampulla of Vater and in five (14%) no obvious cause was found. Thirty patients (86%) presented with abdominal pain. Chronic diarrhoea was present in 8 (23%), and steatorrhoea was documented in 6 of these. Fifteen (43%) had pancreatic calcifications. Five developed pseudocysts and 16 (46%) developed diabetes mellitus. Twelve patients required surgery. Three continue to have severe recurrent relapses of pain but the majority (91%) have had a relatively stable course with medical management.

Abdominal Pain↗
PubMed1991

Organ-specific cardiac antibodies: serological markers for systemic hypertension in autoimmune polyendocrinopathy.

Circulating organ-specific autoantibodies are serological markers of destruction or impairment of the relevant endocrine tissue cells and may be associated with abnormal hormone levels with or without clinical evidence of overt disease. We sought organ-specific cardiac antibodies in patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy because of increasing evidence that the heart has endocrine characteristics (secretion of atrial natriuretic peptide [ANP] and other peptide hormones). Serum samples from 166 patients with polyendocrinopathy, 80 with autoimmunity confined to one gland, and 200 healthy blood donors were tested for these antibodies by means of immunofluorescence on human heart. Skeletal muscle was used to identify cross-reacting antibodies. Organ-specific cardiac antibodies were detected in significantly more of the patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy (28 [17%]) than of those with autoimmunity confined to one gland (1 [1%]) or of normal subjects (7 [3.5%]; p = 0.0001). Among the patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy, the prevalence of systemic hypertension was higher in those with cardiac autoantibodies than in those without (5/28 [18%] vs 2/80 [3%]; p = 0.01); the same was true for a family history of hypertension (11 [42%] vs 5 [7%]; p = 0.0001). There were no significant differences in mean basal or stimulated ANP concentrations between patients with or without antibodies or between patients and controls. 5 of the 22 antibody-positive patients had ANP concentrations outside the normal range, but these disturbances were not associated with systemic hypertension or a family history of the disorder. Patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy can have organ-specific cardiac antibodies, which may represent novel serological markers for an autoimmune form of systemic hypertension in the absence of overt cardiac disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Nucleotide sequence of the histone H3-encoding gene from the scleractinian coral Acropora formosa (Cnidaria: Scleractinia).

The histone H3-encoding gene from the staghorn coral Acropora formosa has the 3'-hairpin structure which functions as termination/processing signal in nonpolyadenylated histone mRNAs. The predicted amino acid sequence is highly homologous with the major H3 histones of higher metazoans, and has least homology with the corresponding protist and fungal proteins. These data are inconsistent with the phylogenetic position which has been assigned to the Cnidaria by partial 18S rRNA sequence comparison.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Melatonin: perspectives in the life sciences.

The pineal gland hormone melatonin is now considered an important neuroendocrine component of animal physiology. Although the functional status of melatonin has been well described for subhuman species, there is a paucity of data concerning the physiological role of this hormone in man. This paucity of data has much to do with the limitations of experimental design imposed by the practical and ethical difficulties associated with the study of a nocturnally secreted hormone. The recent advent of salivary melatonin assay has provided a very practical means of monitoring melatonin secretion in long-term longitudinal type community based studies of pineal gland function in human health and disease. The efforts to describe key chronobiological changes in melatonin secretion of possible functional significance have been accompanied by a seemingly less enthusiastic search to describe the nature of the melatonin receptor, another highly important component of the 'melatonin message'. The functional relevance of specific chronobiological changes in melatonin secretion cannot be completely understood without an increased knowledge of melatonin action at the receptor level. The present work describes the recent methodological advance in the investigation of human pineal gland physiology represented by salivary melatonin assay, and discusses the present status of our knowledge of the melatonin receptor.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Melatonin and psychiatry.

The pineal methoxyindole melatonin remains the most widely studied of the "pineal principles," and in subhuman species, the neuroendocrine status of this hormone is now generally acknowledged. In humans, however, no definitive functional activity for melatonin has yet been convincingly demonstrated, despite the description in recent years of marked changes in the metabolism of this hormone in several clinical categories. Currently, much interest is focused on the role that melatonin may play in various psychiatric disorders, and pineal research now represents one of the active areas of current psychiatry research. Investigators in this field have encountered many technical and practical difficulties, but the advent of the impressively sensitive and specific assay systems for melatonin has done much to facilitate the progress of research. Present ideas suggest a positive involvement of melatonin in affective disorders, possible involvement in the schizophrenic psychosis, and potential involvement of this hormone in other psychiatric categories. The present review discusses the etiological significance, diagnostic potential, and clinical utility of melatonin in psychiatry.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Melatonin: perspectives in laboratory medicine and clinical research.

We are presently at a point in human pineal research where we have recognized through melatonin assay the presence of pineal dysfunction in a variety of disease categories. Melatonin may now be quickly and accurately quantified in a range of body fluids, and our well-developed knowledge of the basic biochemistry and neuroanatomical connections of the pineal enables us to see at least how abnormalities in melatonin secretion occur, if not why. The reported increases in melatonin secretion in early malignancy with a reduction in secretion during the neoplastic process is interesting, as is the great decline in the elevated melatonin level of oncological patients following institution of chemotherapy. The correlations between estrogen receptor status of breast cancer and melatonin level, and between neoplastic status of the prostate and melatonin secretion, points to interesting differential diagnostic utilities of melatonin analysis in these conditions. Furthermore, an etiological involvement of melatonin in neoplasia is suggested by experiments which have demonstrated the capacity of melatonin to induce mitotic arrest, and to increase the affinity of mammary carcinoma estrogen receptors for their substrate. These are important observations among many others of direct relevance to research and treatment in oncology, and warrant much further investigation. Melatonin assay may also prove useful in the prognostic monitoring of patients treated for melatonin-secreting pineal tumors, and in such cases may form a logical part of follow-up investigation in the screening for metastatic complication. In psychiatry research, melatonin analysis has functioned as a tool by which alterations in pineal function within specific psychiatric diagnoses have been demonstrated and assessed. Its uses in the assessment of the effects of antidepressant drugs on central beta-receptor function, as a tool in the investigation of light-induced alterations in pineal function in manic-depressive individuals, and as a tool in the investigation of the putative pineal-adrenocortical functional interaction have produced the fundamental building blocks of modern research into the pineal and psychiatry. The experimental clinical utility of melatonin assay is not localized to oncology and psychiatry, and significant alterations in melatonin secretion have been reported in several other disease categories. Indeed, the demonstration of markedly elevated melatonin secretion in patients with spina bifida occulta might suggest that assay of melatonin in amniotic fluid could be useful as an experimental adjunct in the prenatal diagnosis of this condition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Brain Neoplasms↗