Serological evidence of subclinical Rocky Mountain spotted fever infections in Texas.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B Taylor.
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The haematological changes in early years following neonatal diagnosis have been observed in representative groups of children with sickle cell-haemoglobin C (SC) disease, sickle cell-beta(+) thalassaemia, and in sickle cell-beta(0) thalassaemia. Most haematological indices in SC disease were intermediate between previously published values in SS disease and in AA controls, generally being closer to values in normal children. Exceptions were microcytosis which may be genetically determined and a striking elevation of mean cell haemoglobin concentration from age 2 months to 4 years. The combination of a raised MCHC and a lowered MCV is unusual and may be characteristic of SC disease. Features in sickle cell-beta thalassaemia generally differed according to the type of beta thalassaemia gene. Sickle cell-beta(0) thalassaemia had lower levels of haemoglobin, MCHC, red cell count, MCV, and higher reticulocytes, most differences being significant before 1 year. No differences between S beta(0) thalassaemia and S beta(+) thalassaemia were apparent in HbF levels (which resembled those in SS disease) or in HbA2 levels (which exceeded those in SS disease by 1 year of age).
Haematological indices were studied from birth to 9 years in a representative sample of 195 children with a normal haemoglobin (AA) genotype subdivided according to the number of alpha globin genes. These were 5 homozygotes for alpha-thalassaemia 2 (two-gene group), 60 heterozygotes for alpha-thalassaemia 2 (three-gene group), and 130 with a normal alpha globin gene complement (four-gene group). HbF and HbA2 showed no differences between the groups. Compared to the four-gene group, the three-gene group tended to have significantly lower levels of total haemoglobin, MCHC, MCV, and MCH, and higher levels of red cell count. These differences became apparent with increasing age in the order of MCV, RBC, MCHC, and total haemoglobin. The data suggested that haematological differences were more marked in the two-gene group but with the small numbers available, the differences were not significant.
Development and behaviour at five years were assessed in children from a national cohort; comparisons were drawn between those living in one-parent families, in step-parent families and with both natural parents. On average, children from one-parent families scored worst and children from two-parent families best on tests of behaviour, vocabulary and visuomotor co-ordination. The differences remained significant after allowing for associated influences. The behaviour of children from one-parent families and step-parent families was perceived on average as more 'anti-social' than that of children from two-parent families. Children in one-parent families were seen on average as marginally more 'neurotic' than children in two-parent families.
We measured purine degradation products of ATP in plasma after ischemic exercise in eight normal subjects, one patient with myophosphorylase deficiency (McArdle's disease), and one with carnitine palmityltransferase deficiency. Normal subjects increase hypoxanthine and inosine, but not xanthine. Plasma purine levels were elevated above the normal range after ischemic exercise in McArdle's disease and in carnitine palmityltransferase deficiency after fasting. Those changes implied abnormally accelerated ATP degradation in these two myopathies.
Using a computer-based 32-hour esophageal pH system with a small patient-worn digital recording computer, outpatient studies are performed in the physiologic environment of the patient's workplace and home. Samples are taken at 15-s intervals, and the pH data stored in this computer are then fed into the main computer in the Central Esophageal Laboratory for analysis, scoring, printing out, and storage. Satellite esophageal laboratories located in regional hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices conduct pH studies by telecommunication, using antimony electrodes, a recording computer, and a modem to transmit data to the main computer for high-quality computer analysis. One main computer and associated personnel serve multiple satellite stations. This maintains patient-physician relationships and is highly cost-effective.
Rates of reported eczema during early childhood were studied in 3 national cohorts of children born in 1946, 1958, and 1970. Overall rates rose from 5.1% in children born in 1946, to 7.3% in those born in 1958, to 12.2% in the 1970 cohort. In the 1958 and 1970 cohorts there was a positive association between eczema and breastfeeding. This relationship remained significant after allowing for parental history of allergy and socioeconomic status. Social classes I and II children born in 1946 were less likely to be reported as having eczema, compared with children from lower social classes, whereas children born into higher social classes in 1958 and 1970 had higher rates. These findings may reflect secular changes in the diagnosis of eczema or may represent a real increase in the disorder. The positive association with breastfeeding in the more recent cohorts suggests a new environmental agent may be crossing in breast-milk. The agent(s) may well be in other infant foods, since the rate of reported eczema in non-breastfed children rose from 5.7% in the 1946 and 1958 cohorts to 11.1% of children born in 1970.
The number of practices that run appointment systems has sharply increased recently. Such practices may have difficulty in fitting in urgent or extra consultations. A study was made of 639 patients who attended a practice whose surgeries are run on a mixed system of open access and by appointment. There were important differences in the type of patient and problem seen in the two types of surgeries, notably in age, social class, and presenting complaint. Some patients may be disadvantaged by surgeries that are run by appointment only.
Strategic planning is now a large and diverse activity practised in many different kinds of organizations. This article provides an overview of the field with a summary of the five main schools of thought each with its own business philosophy and a range of practical approaches and techniques. These basic styles are concerned with planning as a central control system, a framework for innovation, an organizational change process, a political activity, and a way of exploring the future. Most planning systems have a dominant style or focus and this emphasis needs to be adjusted in response to changes which are occurring continually in the organization and in the external environment. The article is designed to help the senior manager or corporate planner to assess the state of planning in his organization and to see where there are important gaps in the enterprise's capability for planning which might be filled by the launching of new initiatives. The article also offers an agenda of approaches for consideration by the executive who wishes to move his enterprise from a conventional 5-year planning and budgeting system towards a more comprehensive process of managing organizational change and development.
Developmental outcome at 5 yr was compared in 1031 singleton children of teenage mothers and 10,950 singleton children of older mothers in a national longitudinal study. Children born to teenage mothers and living with them through the first 5 yr performed less well than other children in tests of vocabulary and behaviour at 5 yr of age; they were also shorter on average and had a smaller head circumference. These differences remained significant after allowing for certain social and biological factors, whereas a difference on visuomotor coordination did not. Teenage mothering thus appears somewhat disadvantageous to children's development.
The influence of breast feeding on developmental tests at five years of age was assessed in a national study of 13,135 children. A positive correlation was found between duration of breast feeding and performance in tests of vocabulary and visuomotor co-ordination, behaviour score, and measurements of height and head circumference. The effect on vocabulary and visuomotor co-ordination persisted when allowance was made for intervening social and biological variables, but that on height and head circumference disappeared. The breast-feeding/behaviour score association remained significant but became non-linear after adjustment. Breast feeding had no discernable effect on speech problems during the first five years. It is concluded that breast feeding may have an effect on children's development at five years: the effect is relatively small but resistant to attempts at statistical control.
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There has been a resurgence of interest in injection sclerotherapy as a means of controlling and preventing variceal hemorrhage. This report reviews and evaluates the early experience with this procedure at the Toronto General Hospital. From May 1979 to January 1983, 39 patients underwent 73 separate treatment sessions (rigid 23, flexible 50), during active bleeding (3), during hospitalization for variceal hemorrhage but after cessation of bleeding (35) and during elective admission to hospital expressly for sclerotherapy (35). Follow-up was obtained for 38 patients (98%). The overall rate of rebleeding was 27%. Complications occurred in 13 patients (33%). Ten patients died; in 2, death was directly attributable to a complication of sclerotherapy. From this preliminary experience the authors conclude that complications of sclerotherapy are frequent and potentially life-threatening, so more prospective randomized trials are needed before its role in the treatment of bleeding varices is clear.
Thirty-six patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck were treated with doxorubicin and cisplatin. The overall response rate (complete + partial) was 30%, with a median duration of response of 4 months. Median survival durations for responders and nonresponders were 15 and 4 months, respectively. Nausea, vomiting, and alopecia were common. Neither grade 4 myelosuppression nor irreversible renal failure was observed.
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The degree of accuracy with which regenerating preganglionic parasympathetic fibers can restore their original connections was examined in the frog, Rana pipiens. The normal motor pool of the vagus nerve was determined by labeling the vagal cardiac branch fibers with horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Cardiac neurons form a relatively compact subgroup within the rostral half of the vagal motor column and represent less than 5% of the total vagal motor pool. Five to 14 weeks after crushing the vagus nerve, HRP labeling revealed that a more extensive population of vagal motor neurons has reinnervated the cardiac branch. The regenerated cardiac motor neuron pool is about twice as numerous as normal but is still centered in the rostral half of the vagal motor column. These experiments show that regeneration of the cardiac branch of the vagus nerve is neither a random process nor one which is completely accurate. Some degree of accuracy is maintained during regeneration following a crush lesion. Neurons nearer the original cardiac motor pool are more likely to reinnervate the cardiac branch than are vagal motor neurons located at some distance from the original cardiac pool.
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