Biomedical subjects

B Hill

Publications and source records attributed to B Hill.

161 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

College students with dyslexia: persistent linguistic deficits and foreign language learning.

The first of these two studies compared college students with dyslexia enrolled in modified Latin and Spanish classes and non-dyslexic students enrolled in regular foreign language classes on measures of foreign language aptitude, word decoding, spelling, phonological awareness and word repetition. The groups did not differ on age or grade point average. Analyses indicated that students with dyslexia performed significantly poorer on the foreign language aptitude measures as well as on both phonological tasks, reading and spelling. In the second study, students with learning disabilities who were enrolled in a modified Latin class were not significantly different from their peers in a regular Latin class on grade point average or on performance on a proficiency examination at the end of the second semester. The data suggest that while phonological processing deficits persist into adulthood, students with dyslexia are able to acquire appropriate skills and information to successfully complete the University's foreign language requirement in classes modified to meet their needs.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Secondary alexithymia: an empirical validation.

Alexithymia is described as both a primary personality trait and a secondary state reaction to medical illness. To empirically study secondary alexithymia, a series of medically ill patients seen in psychiatric consultation were compared with a healthy control population. Measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), the medically ill were more alexithymic than the healthy population. Alexithymia was best predicted by both depressed mood and lowered quality of life, rather than by the categorical ranking of the severity of the medical illness. Alexithymia did appear to be separate from self-reported mood. These data support the concept of secondary alexithymia.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Visits to home environments by emergency medical services: a statewide study.

UNLABELLED: Understanding out-of-hospital transport demographics would clarify the opportunities for injury surveillance and prevention. OBJECTIVE: To test the hypotheses that there are demographic differences in home vs. non-home emergency medical services (EMS) scene transports and that among age groups there are differences in demographics. METHODS: Data were extracted from the EMS State Ambulance Transport database of all reported during 1995. Transports from patient homes were compared with transports from all non-home scenes. Data extracted included age, gender, race, and type of complaint. Subgroup analysis was performed based on age groups in nonvehicular cases, safety problems, and interpersonal violence. Results were compared using a two-tailed chi-square with significance at p<0.05. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated for significant differences. RESULTS: The study included 118,131 transported patients: 13% were children, 49% were adult between 18 and 64 years, and 38% were elder; 13% were African American, 82% were white, and 5% were other; 47% were male and 53% were female. Fifty-eight percent of the transports were for safety problems, and 17% were for interpersonal violence. Of the 118,131 transports, 56,812 (48%) were from patients' homes and 61,319 were not. Compared with EMS transports from non-home scenes, fewer home EMS transports were for injury (p<0.01, OR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.17-0.19) and more home EMS transports were for illness (p<0.01, OR = 5.64, 95% CI = 5.49-5.79). There was no clinically significant difference in age, race, or gender. For all non-vehicular injury transports, the reason was more likely safety problems than interpersonal violence (58% vs. 17%); however, there was no difference in the percentages of type of call between the home and non-home transports. Home EMS transports were more likely interpersonal violence problems among adult patients less than 65 years old; however, among the old and young, the problems were more likely to be safety-related. CONCLUSION: Forty-eight percent of all EMS transports are from the home. Only 18% of these EMS home transports are for injury-related problems. In general, EMS injury transports are more likely related to safety than to interpersonal violence. Among the home EMS transports, more than 50% of transports for young and old patients are safety-related. A large proportion of the home EMS transports for adults less than 65 years of age, however, are for interpersonal violence.

Accidents, Home↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Skeletal muscle reperfusion injury: reversal by controlled limb reperfusion--a case report.

Despite successful surgical revascularization of ischemic limbs, a local and systemic reperfusion injury may occur after normal blood reperfusion. Recent experimental and clinical application of controlled limb reperfusion in Europe has demonstrated superior results, with lower morbidity and mortality. This new surgical technique includes modification of the reperfusate (calcium, pH, substrates, osmolarity, free radical scavenger) and the circumstances of initial reperfusion (time, temperature, pressure). This report describes the first application of controlled limb reperfusion after reperfusion injury. A 16-year-old boy underwent femoral access cardiopulmonary bypass for repeat cardiac repair with an ischemic time of 245 minutes. Postoperatively, severe ischemia/reperfusion syndrome developed with muscle contracture, immobility, and anesthesia of the right leg with a second ischemic time of about 6 hours. The systemic creatine phosphokinase level was 88,000 U/L; myoglobin was 27,000 ng/mL. He underwent controlled limb reperfusion by withdrawing blood from the aorta and mixing it with a crystalloid solution (calcium-reduced, hyperosmolar, hyperglycemic, alkalotic, glutamate- and aspartate-enriched, and containing a free radical scavenger) under controlled conditions (blood:crystalloid solution 6:1, for 30 minutes, reperfusion pressure < 50 mm Hg, and normothermia) before establishing normal blood reperfusion. Metabolic data from the central and femoral vein demonstrated a significant reduction of all previous elevated enzyme levels, avoidance of hyperkalemia, normalization of acidosis, and avoidance of systemic reperfusion injury with no multiorgan failure. Limb salvage was accomplished and functional recovery almost complete. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first application of controlled limb reperfusion reported in North America. With this surgical technique we were able to prevent metabolic local and systemic reperfusion changes after prolonged ischemia and also reduced previous reperfusion changes. This report confirms former experimental data, and further clinical studies are warranted.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied