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Biomedical subjects

A Spiro

Publications and source records attributed to A Spiro.

67 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

The fate of transposed immature muscle and its clinical application.

Transposition of muscles with their intact neurovascular bundles is a well-accepted procedure in the adult with a predictable outcome. The fate of transposed immature muscle, however, has not been studied. For this reason, muscles were transposed in three 6-week-old puppies and harvested when the puppies were 6 months old. The developing normal and transposed muscles were studied using serial biopsies, electromyography, and histochemical methods, and the growth in bulk was assessed by serial radiography and measurements of length, breadth, height, and weight of the muscles at death. As judged by these criteria, the transposed muscle developed normally. A patient with prune-belly syndrome, treated by muscle transpositions from thigh to abdomen with satisfactory results, is also described.

Aging↗
PubMed1985

Distribution of forced expiratory volume in one second and forced vital capacity in healthy, white, adult never-smokers in six U.S. cities.

As part of a longitudinal study of the respiratory health effects of air pollution, we measured the lung function of 2,454 white adults 25 to 74 yr of age who had never smoked and who reported no respiratory symptoms. These measurements were analyzed to develop a simple model for the cross-sectional dependence of pulmonary function on height, sex, and age. Both forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) can be effectively standardized for body size by dividing each pulmonary function measurement by the square of the standing height (HT2). The age-specific distribution of these standardized measurements is approximately Gaussian, with variance that is independent of age. Plots of FEV1/HT2 and FVC/HT2 against age showed a nonlinear relationship consistent with an increase in the rate of pulmonary function loss with age. On the basis of these graphic analyses, both pulmonary function measurements were fitted to a four-parameter normative model including sex and linear and quadratic terms in age as dependent variables. This model gave predictions that were very close to those from more complicated models currently in use. Predicted percentile levels were calculated for each sex and age, and shown to describe the observations well. The estimated annual change in height-standardized lung function based on the cross-sectional model was compared with the observed change between the first and second examinations of these adults 3 yr later. The observed changes were close to predicted values, except for subjects younger than 35 yr of age at their first examination. The observed change was larger for men than for women. Such simple longitudinal comparisons are subject to selection bias. In this study, subjects in the lowest quartile of FEV1/HT2 for their age and sex at the first examination had a lower probability of providing a lung function measurement 3 yr later.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Effects of passive smoking on health of children.

Analysis of data on the effects of passive smoking obtained in preadolescent children from the Harvard Six-Cities Study demonstrates an exposure-response relationship between the number of smokers in the household and the reporting rates for doctor-diagnosed respiratory illness before age 2, history of bronchitis, wheeze most days and nights apart from colds, and a composite of symptoms defined as the lower respiratory index. Similarly, when only the amount currently smoked by the mother was used, the data indicated a relatively uniform increase in each of the reported diseases and symptoms. FEV1 was lower in children with smoking mothers compared to children of nonsmoking mothers. Rate of increases in FEV1 after adjusting for normal growth was significantly smaller in children of smoking mothers and was related also to amount smoked. Notably the effect on level of FVC was not seen and this finding, consistent in several studies, remains unexplained. Although children of smoking mothers were shorter on the average than children of nonsmoking mothers, no on-going passive smoking effect on height growth can be ascertained. All these differences are small and their medical significance remains to be defined.

Body Height↗
PubMed1984

Passive smoking, gas cooking, and respiratory health of children living in six cities.

As part of a longitudinal study of the respiratory health effects of indoor and outdoor air pollutants, pulmonary function, respiratory illness history, and symptom history were recorded at 2 successive annual examinations of 10,106 white children living in 6 cities in the United States. Parental education, illness history, and smoking habits also were recorded, along with the fuel used for cooking in the child's home. Maternal cigarette smoking was associated with increases of 20 to 35% in the rates of 8 respiratory illnesses and symptoms investigated, and paternal smoking was associated with smaller but still substantial increases. Illness and symptom rates were linearly related to the number of cigarettes smoked by the child's mother. Illness rates were higher for children of current smokers than for children of ex-smokers. The associations between maternal smoking status and childhood respiratory illnesses and symptoms were reduced but not eliminated by adjustment for parental illness history. Levels of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) were significantly lower for children of current smokers than for children of nonsmokers at both examinations and highest for children of ex-smokers. Levels of forced vital capacity (FVC) were lower for children of nonsmokers than for children of current smokers at both examinations, but the difference was statistically significant only at the first examination. Both the increase in mean FVC and the decrease in mean FEV1 among children of current smokers were linearly related to daily cigarette consumption. None of the respiratory illnesses and symptoms studied was significantly associated with exposure to gas cooking in the child's home.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1978

Sensory neuropathy with onion-bulb formation. Report of a case with onset in infancy.

A 27-month-old girl suffered from severe sensory neuropathy with minimal motor dysfunction. The CSF protein level was increased and nerve conduction was severely impaired. Sural nerve biopsy specimen showed increased endoneurial connective tissue. An onion-bulb pattern with concentric interdigitations of Schwann cell cytoplasmic processes and redunbant basal laminae were prominent features under electron microscopy. Degress of myelination in individual fiber was far less than expected. Although the clinical manifestations of onion-bulb neuropathy with onset in infancy have been reported to resemble infantile progressive spinal muscular atrophy, the present case demonstrates that the condition can also appear as severe sensory ataxia.

Ataxia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relations of bone and blood lead to cognitive function: the VA Normative Aging Study.

The relationship between performance on cognitive tasks and circulating levels of lead in blood and accumulated levels of lead in bone was examined in 141 middle-aged and elderly men from a longitudinal study of aging. The mean (SD) blood lead level was low [5.5 (3.5) micrograms/dl], and mean patella and tibia lead levels were 31.7 (19.2) and 22.5 (12.2) micrograms/g bone mineral, respectively. Cognitive tests measured attention, perceptual speed, memory, language, and spatial copying. Regression models, adjusted for age and education, demonstrated that men with higher levels of blood lead recalled and defined fewer words, identified fewer line-drawn objects, and required more time to attain the same level of accuracy on a perceptual comparison test as men with the lowest level of blood lead. Men with higher levels of blood and bone (tibia) lead copied spatial figures less accurately; men with higher levels of bone (tibia) lead had slower responses for pattern memory. These findings suggest that low levels of lead contribute to impairments in cognitive function among elderly men.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hostility and the metabolic syndrome in older males: the normative aging study.

OBJECTIVE: Several studies have shown that hostility, as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-derived Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Ho), is positively associated with several cardiovascular risk factors, possibly accounting for the relationship between Ho scores and cardiovascular mortality. This study was undertaken to examine associations between hostility and cardiovascular risk factors representing the metabolic syndrome in 1,081 older men who participated in the Normative Aging Study. METHODS: Subjects included men who completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in 1986 and who participated in a subsequent laboratory examination within 1 to 4 years. Total and subscale Ho scores were computed, and associations with anthropometric data, cigarette smoking, dietary information, serum lipids, blood pressure, and fasting glucose and insulin levels were examined. RESULTS: The total Ho score was positively associated with waist/hip ratio, body mass index, total caloric intake, fasting insulin level, and serum triglycerides. The Ho score was inversely related to education and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration. Path analysis also suggested that the effects of hostility on insulin, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were mediated by its effects on body mass index and waist/hip ratio, which, in turn, exerted their effects on lipids and blood pressure through insulin. CONCLUSIONS: The results are consistent with those of prior research and also suggest that, in older men, hostility may be associated with a pattern of obesity, central adiposity, and insulin resistance, which can exert effects on blood pressure and serum lipids. Furthermore, effects of hostility on the metabolic syndrome appear to be mediated by body mass index and waist/hip ratio.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A longitudinal study of the association between tooth loss and age-related hearing loss.

The purpose of this study was to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between hearing acuity and tooth loss in 1156 US veterans taking part in the Veterans Affairs' Normative Aging (NAS) and Dental Longitudinal (DLS) Studies in the Boston, MA, area. The mean age was 48 years (SD = 8.9), 5.3% were edentulous, and 15.4% had < 17 teeth at baseline. Hearing acuity was determined by puretone, air- and bone-conduction audiometry, and speech discrimination tests at triennial examinations over a 20-year follow-up period. Hearing decline was defined as a change from baseline in the average puretone air-conduction thresholds of > or = 20 dB at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz. The explanatory variables of interest were change since baseline in dentate status (cut points at < 1, < 17, and < 20 teeth), and in the number of teeth lost (linear). Linear and logistic regression models--which controlled for baseline audiological status, age, air-bone gap, and otoscopic examination at current visit--showed that subjects who went from having > or = 17 to < 17 teeth had 1.64 times (95% CI, 1.24-2.17) as high odds of having hearing decline as those with no change in their dentate status. For every tooth lost since baseline, there was a 1.04 times as high odds (95% CI, 1.02-1.06) for hearing decline, when additional baseline and time-varying covariates were taken into account in the model.

Adult↗