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Biomedical subjects

A Pugh

Publications and source records attributed to A Pugh.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Oral rehydration therapy in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe national campaign for home treatment of diarrhoea with sugar-and-salt solution (SSS), introduced in 1980, has reduced the number of dehydrated children presenting for treatment. Some key aspects of this successful programme are outlined, namely choosing a home-made rehydration solution in preference to satchets, getting the support of all health workers (including pharmacists, traditional midwives and village health workers), mobilising effective implementation at district level, and ensuring acceptance by the community. The paper describes how community acceptance was facilitated by avoiding misconceptions about the need for medicine at every visit to the health service, about SSS as a treatment only for rural people, about the method of action of SSS and about the use of suspect water.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed1982

Pyridoxal complexes as potential chelating agents for oral therapy in transfusional iron overload.

Iron chelation therapy for patients maintained on a regular transfusion regime is at present best carried out by means of daily infusions of desferrioxamine (Hussain et al 1977; Pippard et al 1978) but this is onerous for the patient and has social and economic disadvantages. Many recent attempts to provide more effective drugs for iron chelation have been summarized by Jacobs (1979) and increasing attention is now being paid to the possibility of oral iron chelation therapy. Hoy et al (1979) showed that when isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INH) and pyridoxal are mixed in equimolar amounts a hydrazone is formed which chelates iron, and oral administration of this compound to rats results in an eightfold increase in faecal iron excretion. It is effective on repeated administration (Cikrt et al 1980), the main route of iron excretion being through the bile. Long term studies in the rat have not been successful in reducing the iron load of test animals and this appears to be related both to their high dietary iron content and instability of the hydrazone. Its effective shelf life at room temperature is no longer than one month and this is a considerable disadvantage from a therapeutic point of view. Pyridoxal is known to form a Schiff base with many amino acids and its reactivity has led us to examine complexes of pyridoxal with a number of substances in an attempt to find an alternative iron chelator of greater stability than the INH complex and of comparable effectiveness on oral administration. The screening procedures used were the effects on Chang cell iron metabolism (White et al 1976) and on iron excretion in the rat (Hoy et al 1979).

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Bovine embryo recovery by filtration of non-surgical flushings.

A simple filtration system has been developed for the rapid collection of bovine embryos from large fluid volumes such as non-surgical uterine flushings. The technique utilizes a nylon plankton net sieve of 56 mum pore size and was evaluated on the non-surgical flushings of 18 superovulated cows. Approximately 500 ml of flushings from each uterine horn was collected in sedimentation flasks and two aliquots of 20 ml removed from the bottom of the flask after standing for 20 min, and searched for embryos. The remainder of the flushings was passed through the sieve and the sieve examined for embryos. Seven days (Day 7) after insemination, 53.3% (40 75 ) of embryos were found on the sieve or 47.2% of all normal embryos. On Day 12,28% (7 25 ) of eggs were found on the sieve, all of which were unfertilized or degenerate. All embryos were located within 10 min of starting filtration.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1980

A microcomputer-based research system for the optical analysis of agar-cultured micro-organism colonies.

A system which has been developed for the automatic of agar-cultured microorganism colonies is described. A camera of the line-scanning type is used to scan the plates and details of the hardware and software development are explained. Flow diagrams are included which illustrate the operation of the system, but, as yet, no results are available. The prototype machine is undergoing evaluation testing.

Agar↗
PubMed1977

Role of in vitro and in vivo tests of hypersensitivity in beryllium workers.

The value of the beryllium macrophage migration inhibition (Be MIF) and Mantoux tests in the diagnosis of chronic beryllium disease and in the detection of hypersensitivity in healthy beryllium workers is demonstrated. In the absence of steroid treatment the Be MIF test is positive in chronic beryllium disease patients. Seven of 50 (14%) helathy beryllium workers were Be MIF positive, while all the control subjects, normal and sarcoidosis patients, were negative. Healthy beryllium workers tend to be more often Mantoux negative than a comparable group of non-exposed workers, and although not conclusive this finding correlates with a positive Be MIF test. Although the detection of hypersensitivity is not diagnostic of disease, the Be MIF test can be used as an additional method for monitoring the health of beryllium workers. The full significance of our results should be assessed by a long-term study.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Studies on the zona pellucida of sheep ova: immune lysis and localization of antibodies in ova with, and without, zonae.

The susceptibility of fertilized sheep ova and oocytes, with and without zonae pellucidae, to lysis by complement plus antibodies in antisera raised against sheep ovaries, oocytes and sperm was examined in vitro. The presence of the zona reduced the proportion of ova lysed (8% v. 57%) and a large proportion of ova with zonae continued development in culture following exposure to antisera. Antisera to ovary and to oocytes lysed a higher proportion of ova than did antisera to sperm (51 and 56% v. 29%). There was no effect of age of fertilized ova (day 2, 4, 6; day 0 = day of oestrus) on susceptibility to lysis. Fluorescein-labelled antibodies from high-titre antisera to ovary and oocytes traversed the zona and attached to blastomeres. Following absorption of the antibody conjugates with sheep serum, fluorescein staining of ova with intact zonae was confined to the zona, whereas with zona-free ova the blastomeres were stained. It appears that the zona may protect embryos from lytic antibodies and it is suggested that the zona may be important in protecting the embryo from immunological attack in vivo.

Animals↗