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Biomedical subjects

B J Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to B J Taylor.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Results from the first year of the New Zealand cot death study.

New Zealand's high mortality rate from the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) prompted the development of the New Zealand cot death study. This report of the preliminary analysis of the first year of the data gives the major identified risk factors. One hundred and sixty-two infants who died from SIDS were compared with 589 control infants, who were a representative sample of all hospital births in the study region. Obstetric records were examined and parental interviews were completed in 96% and 89% of subjects respectively. Data were available for all the variables in this study in 95% of those interviewed, thus 128 cases and 503 controls make up the subjects of this report. As expected we confirmed many risk factors for SIDS including: lower socioeconomic status, unmarried mother, young mother, younger school leaving age of mother, younger age of mother at first pregnancy, late attendance at antenatal clinic, nonattendant at antenatal classes, Maori, greater number of previous pregnancies, lower birth weight, shorter gestation, male infant, admission to neonatal intensive care unit. In addition, however, we identified three risk factors which are potentially amenable to modification. These were the prone sleeping position of baby (odds ratio = 3.53, 95% confidence interval 2.26, 5.54), maternal smoking (1-9 cigarettes/day OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 0.98, 3.54; 10-19/day OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.47, 4.74; 20+/day OR = 5.06, 95% CI = 2.86, 8.95) and breast feeding (OR = 2.93, 95% CI = 1.84, 4.67).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

A review of epidemiological studies of sudden infant death syndrome in southern New Zealand.

The rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Southern New Zealand has been very high with an apparent real increase in incidence from the early 1970s. Recent research is reviewed and the results of specific interventions aimed at preventing SIDS summarized. The intervention consisted of strongly advising new parents that their babies sleep on their back or side and that they avoid over-heating, especially during infections. For the Otago area, child-care practice has been documented and prone sleeping of 1 month old babies has declined from 41.8% in 1986 to 2.4% in 1989-90. There is also evidence that parental control of infants' thermal environment has improved, maternal smoking during pregnancy has slightly decreased and the number of babies breast fed at 1 month of age has increased by 11%. In Southern NZ there has been a decline in post-neonatal SIDS mortality from 6.3 deaths per 1000 live births 1979-84 to 1.3 per 1000 live births in 1990. There are grounds for supposing that the intervention has been causative of this change, a possibility being addressed by on-going studies.

Breast Feeding↗
PubMed1991

Elements of the fruitless locus regulate development of the muscle of Lawrence, a male-specific structure in the abdomen of Drosophila melanogaster adults.

A genetically defined element of the fruitless (fru) locus in Drosophila melanogaster regulates the development of a male-specific muscle spanning the fifth abdominal segment in adult males, the 'muscle of Lawrence' (MOL). The region is defined by two cytological deletions, each with a breakpoint that co-maps with previously described mutant courtship phenotypes at cytogenetic interval 91B on the third chromosome. Flies that carry both of these deletions are viable, and males express abnormalities of courtship similar to those caused by the fru inversion breakpoint at 91B. In addition, these double-deletion males show the complete absence of the MOL, suggesting that they have little or no gene expression of a postulated MOL determinant; the musculature in the fifth abdominal segment of these mutants to indistinguishable from that of a normal female. Other mutant combinations that produce fruitless courtship phenotypes--including deletion and inversion breakpoints, and a marked transposon inserted at 91B--produce intermediate forms of the MOL. A new genetic variant, induced by imprecise excision of the marked transposon, is homozygous lethal and disrupts fru functions related to courtship and the MOL. The MOL is shown to be dispensable for fertility and is therefore not the causative factor of fru-induced behavioral sterility. These genetic variants and their phenotypic results are discussed with regard to a model for the organization of the fru locus.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Aortic thrombosis after umbilical artery catheterization in neonates: prevalence of complications on long-term follow-up.

We previously reported the early natural history of aortic thrombosis occurring after umbilical artery catheterization in 21 neonates. Ten of those neonates were reevaluated at 36-42 months of age for evidence of hypertension, renal abnormalities, and leg-growth disturbances. They were compared with an age-matched control group of seven infants. Blood pressures were greater than the 95th percentile in three infants and between the 50th and the 95th percentile in six of the 10 infants. Height was less than the fifth percentile for age in four infants with aortic thrombosis. One child had a 1.0-cm discrepancy in leg-length measurements, and seven of nine patients exhibited a 0.5-2.0 cm discrepancy between legs in either thigh or calf circumference. Sonography showed no evidence of residual clot in the aorta or renal vessels. Doppler flow was normal in all cases. Despite resolution of neonatal aortic thrombosis, complications resulting in renovascular hypertension (three of 10 patients) and leg-growth abnormalities (eight of nine) can occur. Hypertension (one of seven) and leg-growth discrepancy (four of seven) were less frequent in the 3-year follow-up of the seven matched control infants. We suggest that infants with known aortic thrombosis receive long-term follow-up to detect these potential problems.

Aortic Diseases↗
PubMed1991

Hairline design and placement.

A simple, straight forward, almost mechanical method of drawing the hairline is presented. It is amazing to see how this method, when followed closely, consistently produces a natural, aesthetically pleasing result on all sizes and shapes of heads. It is recognized by the authors that there are a lot of individual variations among hair transplant surgeons and most will be very attractive and quite natural. However, we believe that the following description will provide a good starting point in designing hairlines, and if the basic points are followed, unnatural hairlines will be avoided.

Alopecia↗
PubMed1990

Plunket contacts in the first year of life.

In New Zealand, routine infant health surveillance is carried out by the nurses of the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society. The full scheduled number of contacts for the first year of life was 15. The pattern of these nurse contacts was examined during the first year of life for babies born between 1979 to 1984. Data was available for 492 randomly selected infants. There was no record of any Plunket contact in 102 (20.7%). Of those infants who had some Plunket contact, only 71 (19.4%) had the full number of contacts or more, and 51 (13.9%) had only seven or fewer contacts. Infants with a high Christchurch-Invercargill-Dunedin (CID) birthscore were more likely not to have any contacts, and when contact was made these infants were seen less often than compared to the low risk group, during this period. More stringent efforts are needed to engage those infants who are at present not being seen, as they appear to be the infants who are most at risk.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1990

Anti-GD3 monoclonal antibody analysis of childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: detection of a target antigen for antibody-mediated cytolysis.

We have demonstrated in previous studies significant quantitative differences in the ganglioside content of leukemia cell membranes within immunological subclasses of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL): The disialoganglioside GD3 (disialolactosylceramide) is increased in lymphoblasts with a T-cell immunophenotype compared to non-T-ALL blasts. Utilizing an indirect immunofluorescence assays with a monoclonal antibody to GD3(R24), pretreatment leukemic lymphoblasts from 80 children with ALL were assayed for GD3 expression. GD3 was observed in 75% of leukemic samples in which lymphoblasts exhibited a T-cell phenotype, whereas none of the 33 non-T-ALL samples tested exhibited GD3. Correlation between the expression of GD3 and various antigenic determinants of T-cell differentiation was restricted to CD2; 75% of CD2-negative T-cell ALL blasts failed to express GD3. Anti-GD3 immunoreactivity to T-ALL samples was not restricted to R24 in that two other monoclonal anti-GD3 antibodies were similarly reactive to T-ALL blasts. In vitro incubation of T-cell lymphoblasts with the anti-GD3 antibodies, R24 and C281 and human serum resulted in significant cytotoxicity, and R24 also mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity by normal effector cells. Cytotoxicity was specific for those T-ALL blast cell populations which reacted with anti-GD3 as assessed by immunofluorescence microscopy. Since immunoreactivity with monoclonal antibody to GD3 was exclusively observed in a large population of immunophenotypically defined T-cell leukemic lymphoblasts, these studies suggest a possible immunodiagnostic and immunotherapeutic potential for anti-GD3 monoclonal antibodies in T-cell lymphoblastic malignancies.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1990

Splanchnic prostanoid production: effect of hemorrhagic shock.

The effect of hemorrhagic shock on rat splanchnic prostanoid synthesis was examined in vitro. Male rats were bled to a mean pressure of 30 mm Hg for 30 min. At that time a midline laparotomy was performed and the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) was cannulated and removed in continuity with its end organ (SV + SI). The SV + SI was perfused at 3 ml/min with oxygenated Krebs-Henseleit buffer at 37 degrees C. Venous effluent (3 ml) was collected at 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 min and frozen for analysis of basal prostanoid release. Levels of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha (6-keto), PGE2, thromboxane B2 (TxB2), and PGF2 alpha were analyzed by radioimmunoassay and compared in the shock (SK) and sham-operated control (SM) animals. SK 6-keto and TxB2 increased significantly at 15 min of perfusion and then decreased to a lower baseline from 60 through 120 min of perfusion. The major prostanoid released at all time periods was 6-keto (2 to 20 times higher than other prostanoids). One-way ANOVA (pooled times) showed that 6-keto significantly increased in the SK group compared to the SM group (P less than 0.02). These data suggest that the splanchnic bed attempts to compensate for hemorrhagic shock by the marked release of the endogenous vasodilator prostacyclin. Release of the other prostanoids (including TxB2) from the splanchnic bed was modest in our model.

6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha↗
PubMed1990

Reperfusion inhibits elevated splanchnic prostanoid production after hemorrhagic shock.

The effect of reperfusion following hemorrhagic shock on splanchnic prostanoid release was studied. Anesthetized male rats were bled to a mean arterial blood pressure of 30 mmHg for 30 minutes and either killed or treated with shed blood for 60 minutes and then killed. The superior mesenteric arterial bed was cannulated and perfused in vitro with oxygenated Krebs. Collected venous effluent (up to 180 minutes) was analyzed for 6-keto-PGF1 alpha (PGI2 metabolite), PGE2, PGF2 alpha, and thromboxane B2 by radioimmunoassay in shock, shock plus reperfusion, and sham groups. The major prostanoid released was 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and was three times higher in the shock group compared to the sham group (p less than 0.05). Reperfusion of shed blood abolished the increase in 6-keto-PGF1 alpha found in the shock group (p less than 0.05). These data show that the attempt of the rat splanchnic bed to compensate for hemorrhagic shock by increasing release of PGI2 (potent vasodilator) was abolished during reperfusion of blood.

6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha↗
PubMed1990

Prediction of possibly preventable death: a case-control study of postneonatal mortality in southern New Zealand.

The postneonatal mortality rate in three southern regions of New Zealand was 8.1 per 1000 live births for 1979-1984. The possibly preventable postneonatal mortality rate was 7.1 per 1000 live births and data on 377 possibly preventable deaths and 936 randomly selected controls were used to develop a two-stage risk-scoring system. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken separately on two sub-samples of the total sample. The data were used to evaluate three other previously published scoring systems. The four variables used in our birth score (mother's age, parity, marital status, and birth weight) have all appeared in other scoring systems, and this score could identify a group of infants in southern New Zealand with an estimated 1.7% mortality rate in the first year of life. It is suggested that currently the only valid use of risk-scoring in this region is for the definition of a high-risk population for the purpose of evaluating potential intervention strategies.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1990

Hair transplant surgery: innovative designs.

Two new designs for hair transplant surgery are presented. Both designs are safer and will provide a more natural appearance in some patients than standard designs. The advantages are listed for both.

Alopecia↗
PubMed1990

Growth velocity before sudden infant death.

Weight velocities of 136 infants who died from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) were compared with those of 136 controls matched for sex, birth weight, and type of feeding. It was found that the SIDS infants gained weight more slowly overall and that the differences were significantly different for infants who were not breast fed in the last two weeks in which it was possible to estimate their growth velocity. Breast fed infants had more periods of growth below the 25th centile than expected. These differences are unlikely to be useful in the prediction of which babies are likely to die from SIDS as there are frequent episodes of poor growth in infants who do not die.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1990

Characterization of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor gene patterns in B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia of childhood.

Immunoglobulin (Ig) and T-cell receptor (TCR) genes were examined in the lymphoblasts of 70 children with immunophenotypically defined B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The most frequent genes to rearrange were Ig heavy (H) chain (93%) and TCR delta (79%), followed by TCR gamma (49%), Ig kappa and/or lambda light (L) chain (46%), TCR alpha (46%), and TCR beta (29%). Thus, despite their putative "B-cell precursor" lineage, these leukemias manifest a remarkably high incidence of TCR gene rearrangements. While certain patterns predominate, there is considerable heterogeneity in Ig and TCR genotypes in this disease. No significant associations were found between Ig and TCR genotype and commonly used prognostic factors including age, sex, race, WBC, French-American-British (FAB) subtype, or cytogenetics. However, the lymphoblasts of three of six patients who failed to achieve initial remission had germline patterns of every Ig and TCR gene, a genotype not observed in the leukemic cells from any of the 64 patients who achieved complete remission (p2 = .0007). This study suggests that particular Ig and TCR genotypes may be of clinical relevance in childhood B-cell precursor ALL. The finding of rearranged TCR genes in a large proportion of cases raises fundamental questions about early lineage commitment and lymphocyte differentiation along B-cell and T-cell pathways.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Influence of carotid denervation on the arousal and cardiopulmonary responses to upper airway obstruction in lambs.

Experiments were done on five lambs to determine if carotid denervation influences the arousal and cardiopulmonary responses to upper airway obstruction during sleep. Each lamb was anesthetized and instrumented for recordings of electrocorticogram, electro-oculogram, nuchal and diaphragm electromyograms, and measurements of arterial blood pressure and arterial Hb oxygen saturation. A tracheotomy was done and a fenestrated tracheotomy tube placed in the trachea. During the study, a 5 F balloon-tipped catheter was inserted into the tracheotomy tube so that air flow could be obstructed by inflating the balloon. No sooner than 3 d after surgery, measurements were made in quiet sleep and active sleep during control periods when the animal was breathing room air and during experimental periods of upper airway obstruction. Carotid denervation significantly affected the arousal response to upper airway obstruction. Arousal occurred during 14 of 14 epochs in quiet sleep and during 12 of 13 epochs in active sleep before the arterial Hb oxygen saturation decreased to 30%. However, the time to arousal was increased and the arterial Hb oxygen saturation at arousal was decreased in carotid-denervated lambs compared with what we have previously observed in carotid-intact lambs. These data provide evidence that the carotid chemoreceptors and/or carotid baroreceptors play a major role in causing arousal from sleep during upper airway obstruction in lambs. Our results may have implications for sudden infant death syndrome, because it is possible that alterations in the arousal response to respiratory stimuli play a role in sudden infant death.

Airway Obstruction↗
PubMed1990

Chlorpromazine attenuates the pulmonary vascular response to isocapneic alveolar hypoxia in piglets.

We investigated the cardiovascular effects of chlorpromazine (CPZ) during normoxia and during alveolar hypoxia (HYP) in 9 chronically instrumented piglets aged 10-14 days. Each animal was instrumented for measurements of pulmonary and systemic arterial and left atrial pressures and pulmonary blood flow. Each piglet was studied three times: once during normoxia following infusions of normal saline (NS) and CPZ (1 mg/kg), once during established HYP (10% O2-2.5% CO2) following the infusion of NS and a third time during established HYP following the infusion of CPZ (1 mg/kg). CPZ did not alter any of the cardiovascular variables during normoxia but decreased the pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance during HYP. Thus, CPZ is a vasodilator in the pulmonary vascular bed of piglets, preconstricted by HYP.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Sleeping position and infant bedding may predispose to hyperthermia and the sudden infant death syndrome.

Southern New Zealnd has one of the highest postneonatal mortality rates in the developed world (8.1/1000 livebirths) and 77% of these deaths are attributed to the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Both hyperthermia and sleeping position have previously been implicated in SIDS. A theoretical model to estimate the thermal balance of infants used here shows that the head, and particularly the face, becomes the main route for heat loss when thick clothing and bedding are used. This thermoregulatory role could be compromised by the prone sleeping position. It is postulated that particular cultural combinations of infant care practices (sleeping position, clothing, bedding, and room heating) may facilitate hyperthermia and explain widely disparate rates of SIDS in different countries and ethnic groups.

Bedding and Linens↗