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Biomedical subjects

A Paton

Publications and source records attributed to A Paton.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Alcohol-induced hypertension.

Blood pressures of 132 alcoholic patients whose mean daily alcohol consumption exceeded 80 g where measured while drinking, during detoxification from alcohol, and after a period of abstinence. At the time of presentation blood pressure exceeded 140/90 in 51.5% of patients. There was a significant correlation between blood pressure and mean daily alcohol intake over the previous three months and also between the level of blood pressure and the severity of alcohol-withdrawal symptoms. There was no relation between blood pressure and degree of histological liver damage, but a correlation was found with serum gamma-glutamyl-transferase activity and with mean corpuscular volume. In most patients blood pressure fell to normal after detoxification, and remained so for at least a year in those who continued to abstain. However, blood pressure rose in those who started drinking again. Excessive alcohol consumption is an important and insufficiently recognised cause of hypertension and, although the exact mechanism is unknown, treatment is simple and effective if patients can be persuaded to abstain.U

Adult↗
PubMed1981

A 20-year prospective study of cirrhosis.

A total of 512 people from a defined population in west Birmingham served by a district general hospital were found to have cirrhosis in the period 1959-76. The annual incidence rose from 5.6 per 100 000 to a peak of 15.3 per 100 000 in 1974. This was due to an increase in the incidence of alcoholic cirrhosis, which in the last six years accounted for two-thirds of cases. The proportion of patients with decompensated cirrhosis when first seen (65%) did not alter during the 18 years. This was reflected in a death rate of 78% among the 468 patients traced up to the end of 1978. Liver failure, hepatoma, and gastrointestinal haemorrhage accounted for almost three-quarters of the deaths. The proportion of patients who survived for five years was 36% for alcoholic cirrhosis, 14% for cryptogenic cirrhosis, and 60% for chronic active hepatitis, and these figures too remained constant throughout the 18 years. Modern methods of treatment for decompensated cirrhosis did not improve prognosis and only abstention in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis had a beneficial effect on survival. Since alcoholic cirrhosis is now the most common form of the disease it is important to recognise those at risk and to encourage abstinence; also, more efforts are needed to identify the causes of cryptogenic cirrhosis. Whatever the cause, cirrhosis needs to be diagnosed before decompensation occurs, if treatment is to have any effect.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1980

Early diagnosis of alcoholic cirrhosis by the aminopyrine breath test.

The aminopyrine breath test was assessed as an indicator of liver damage in a consecutive series of 49 chronic alcoholics admitted for detoxification. Mean 14CO2 excretion for those with compensated cirrhosis was 1.6%, compared with 6.8% for those with histologically normal livers, 4.3% for those with fatty change, and 4.0% for those with fatty change and fibrosis. All patients with cirrhosis had a value below the lower limit of normal (3.2%), whereas only 6 of the other patients had a subnormal value. Repeat studies after 7-10 days' abstinence showed that 14CO2 excretion increased in patients with compensated cirrhosis. In view of the poor prognosis of alcoholic cirrhosis once decompensation occurs, early identification of those at risk is important. The aminopyrine breath test was found to be a conventient and sensitive method for detecting early cirrhosis and lends itself as a screening procedure in the management of alcoholic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Factors influencing blood pressure in chronic alcoholics.

1. Of 96 alcoholics admitted for detoxification, 48% were hypertensive (systolic blood pressure greater than 140 mmHg and/or diastolic pressure greater than 90 mmHg). 2. Elevation of both systolic and diastolic blood pressures was related to the severity of alcohol-withdrawal symptoms. 3. After these symptoms had abated only 9% of patients remained hypertensive. 4. Blood pressure remained normal if patients abstained from alcohol after discharge but rose in those who started drinking again. 5. Hypertension was not consistently related to the presence or severity of alcoholic liver disease. 6. Alcohol-related hypertension may be the result of the alcohol-withdrawal syndrome; increased noradrenergic activity is suggested as the likely mechanism.

Adult↗