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Biomedical subjects

B O Williams

Publications and source records attributed to B O Williams.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1979

Levodopa/benserazide ('Madopar') combination therapy in elderly patients with parkinsonism.

A clinical evaluation was carried out in 20 elderly patients with parkinsonism to assess the effectiveness and acceptability of treatment with a combination preparation of levodopa and benserazide over a period of 9 months. Mean daily maintenance dosage was 612.5 mg levodopa and 140 mg benserazide. The effects of treatment on clinical features and activities of daily living were monitored at monthly intervals. Significant improvement occurred in the first month and optimal improvement was usually reached by the end of 3-months' treatment. Akinesia and rigidity were abolished or improved in the majority of patients but the effect on tremor was less satisfactory. The preparation was well tolerated and side-effects were not troublesome.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1978

Potential anticoagulant drug interactions in ambulatory patients.

Computer-generated prescription drug purchase records for ambulatory patients receiving oral anticoagulants (OAC) were studied for concomitant use of other drugs which have been reported to induce clinically significant interactions. One third of 479 patients taking OAC were exposed to a potentially interacting drug at some time during this 6-month period. The percentage of patients with drug interaction exposure correlated directly with total drug use (p less than 0.0005). There were no significant differences when interaction exposure rates were compared in the cases of single : multiple pharmacy and single : multiple physician-patient groups. Warfarin was the most common anticoagulant (greater than 95%) and barbiturates the most common interacting drug.

Anticoagulants↗
PubMed1977

Who needs speech therapy?

Assessment of communication by a patient with a speech disorder by clinicians is often dependent on whether the patient makes an appropriate response to an instruction. The speech therapist concerned with language usage and the over-all ability to communicate has developed skills and investigational techniques to identify subgroups within the broad categories of speech pathology appreciated by the clinicians. This prospective study of 100 patients with neurological disease referred for speech therapy, examined in detail in good working conditions and with ample therapy time, is intended to clarify for the clinician a method of assessment, and to illustrate the value of therapy, and establish a prognosis for the variety of speech and language disorders encountered.

Aged↗
PubMed1976

Metabolic changes during exercise testing of patients with ischaemic heart disease.

Nineteen patients who had recovered from a mild to moderately severe myocardial infraction 6--18 months previously were studied in order to investigate the relationship between the severity of myocardial insufficiency and metabolic changes developing during and after exercise. The patients were compared with six controls by means of a graded exercise test on a treadmill. Electrocardiographic records were made and blood pressure measured during and after the exercise and venous blood samples were taken for measurement of lactate, pyruvate, glycerol and free fatty acids. In five patients with moderate or advanced ischaemic electrocardiograph changes the blood lactate and pyruvate mean concentrations continued to rise up to a further 50% after they stopped exercising. The other patients, including some who developed symptoms suggestive of myocardial ischaemia, and all the controls, failed to show these marked increases in blood concentrations after the exercise. We conclude that the development of myocardial insufficiency during exercise is associated with marked increases in lactate and pyruvate concentrations in the peripheral blood particularly after the exercise has ceased.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

The elderly in a coronary unit.

The clinical features of myocardial infarction were compared in 104 patients over the age of 70 and 399 younger patients admitted to a coronary care unit. Absence of an age bar at 70 years has increased the number of admission to the unit by 24%, and the number of patients with proved infarcts by 26%. Severe complications are more common and mortality is doubled in the elderly. Although immediate management of primary ventricular fibrillation is as successful in older as in younger patients, treatment of the elderly with less dramatic conditions is less successful. The elderly survivors tend to spend longer in the coronary unit and subsequently in the general medical ward.

Adult↗