Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

D Guthrie

Publications and source records attributed to D Guthrie.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Urine cyclic nucleotide concentrations in cancer and other conditions; cyclic GMP: a potential marker for cancer treatment.

Cyclic guanosine 3',5' monophosphate (cyclic GMP) and cyclic adenosine 3',5' monophosphate (cyclic AMP) have been determined in random urine specimens from 95 healthy individuals, 60 patients with non-cancerous conditions, 52 patients with benign tumours, and 74 patients with malignant tumours. Concentrations of cyclic GMP have also been determined in a number of other groups, including some undergoing cancer treatment. Ninety-three per cent of cancer patients had raised urinary cyclic GMP concentrations compared to the reference range for healthy subjects. For the non-cancerous and benign groups, 33% and 42% respectively had raised concentrations. The urine cyclic AMP concentrations were similar in all groups. Urine cyclic GMP appeared to rise early in the onset of malignant growth. Successful cancer treatment was accompanied by a dramatic fall in the urine cyclic GMP concentrations, whereas if the treatment was unsuccessful the level did not change. It is concluded that urine cyclic GMP may have important applications in the monitoring of cancer treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Levels of adenosine 3',5' cyclic monophosphate and guanosine 3',5' cyclic monophosphate in single urine specimens collected from a large population of healthy subjects.

The levels of adenosine 3',5' cyclic monophosphate and guanosine 3',5' cyclic monophosphate have been measured in random urine specimens provided by 95 healthy volunteers with a view to assessing the importance of the effects of certain physiological factors on the cyclic nucleotide levels in this type of specimen, and to establish suitable reference ranges for future patient monitoring studies. Of the factors investigated, only the stage of the menstrual cycle was found to have a significant effect; even this variation was still within the overall normal reference range. Measurements of urine cyclic nucleotides were also made in relation to the method of specimen collection, handling, and storage. From these studies it was concluded that if the specimen is placed in a refrigerator within a few hours of collection and then transferred to a deep-freeze within 48 hours, these factors do not present any major problems for the subsequent assay of the cyclic nucleotides.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Morphine, experimental pain, and psychological reactions.

This study examines the effects of morphine (10 mg/70 kg body weight) versus placebo (isotonic saline) on experimentally induced cold pressor pain threshold and tolerance, on self-reports of psychological states and drug effects, observer ratings of psychological states, and performance on timed cognitive-motor tasks in 20 non-drug using, normal male volunteers (21-28 years of age). Morphine increased both threshold and tolerance for cold pressor pain, and also increased "euphoric" and decreased "clear thinking" responses on the respective scales. Morphine, in contrast to placebo, increased scores on depression, fatigue, and cognitive loss-dysfunction scales and decreased scores on carefree and "friendliness" scales. Three sets of psychological variables were observed to covary significantly: Measures of anxiety and hostility; reports of fatigue and cognitive dysfunction; and reports of carefree feelings and perceptions of clear thinking. While measures of hostility, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction covaried positively, reports of carefree feelings and perception of clear thinking covaried negatively with increased pain threshold and tolerance. Anxiety, contrary to reports in the literature, also covaried positively with the pain measures. The results were interpreted as supporting a relationship between increased arousal of the nervous system and decreased pain sensitivity in conjunction with the known analgesic effects of morphine.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

The effect of carcinoma of the cervix on the L-lactate-nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide oxidoreductase activity in vaginal aspirates.

Lactate dehydrogenase (L-lactate-NAD+ oxidoreductase; EC 1.1.1.27) has been assayed in saline extracts of vaginal aspirates obtained from patients with carcinoma in situ and from patients with clinically detectable invasive carcinoma of the cervix. Taking premenopausal and postmenopausal patients separately, significant differences were found between the aspirate lactate dehydrogenase activities obtained from patients with carcinoma in situ and the activities obtained from patients with invasive carcinoma; generally higher activities were obtained from the latter. With the exception of postmenopausal patients with carcinoma in situ, aspirate enzyme activities obtained from both groups of patients were significantly different from those obtained from normal women. Significantly higher lactate dehydrogenase activity was found in aspirates from patients for whom histology showed the presence of an adenocarcinoma or certain highly malignant cell types. Treatment by radium insertion usually resulted in a fall total lactate dehydrogenase activity. Significant differences between groups were found for the proportions of single lactate dehydrogenase isoenzymes in a few instances but no significant difference in overall isoenzyme distribution was found.

Body Fluids↗
PubMed1981

Behavioral characteristics of high- and low-IQ autistic children.

The authors are developing the Behavior Observation Scale to objectively differentiate autistic, normal, and mentally retarded children aged 30--60 months. They describe operational definitions and procedures and report data on the frequency of selected behaviors among 114 children. Prior studies have revealed that to assess the clinical significance of behaviors in autistic children, both frequency of occurrence per subject and the number of children exhibiting the behaviors must be considered concurrently. This study confirms the hypothesis that it is critical to consider the IQ of the child when assessing the clinical significance of individual behaviors and groups of behaviors.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1981

Preoperative prognosis for cancer of the vulva.

Fourteen preoperative variables were individually assessed on 408 patients with primary vulvar cancer to determine their effect upon survival. Age, clinical node involvement, secondary tumor spread, tumor size, and menses were found to be the best individual indicators of survival time. Further analyses explored the dependence of survival time on these 5 variables jointly. Age was followed for by dividing the patients into 4 age groups; in each of these strata 4 prognostic categories, based on the variables clinical groin node involvement and secondary tumor spread, were defined: category 1, impalpable nodes and no secondary tumor spread; category 2, palpable nodes and no secondary tumor spread; category 3, impalpable nodes and secondary tumor spread; and category 4, palpable nodes and secondary tumor spread. Survival curves for each of these categories were plotted and showed progressively worsening prognoses from group 1 through group 4. It is believed that such methods should be used preoperatively to produce staging criteria and estimates of prognosis more objective and informative than those in common use.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1980

Brain stem auditory evoked response development in the kitten.

The development of brain stem auditory evoked responses (BAERs), recorded from a surface electrode as short-latency, volume-conducted potentials, was studied in a series of kittens over a postnatal period ranging from birth to 60 days. Repeated, longitudinal observations on particular kittens were supplemented with observations on additional kittens during the first and second postnatal week to determine age of onset of the BAERs. The position of the animal and sound source within the recording chamber were held constant across recording sessions, as was click intensity except during recordings in which intensity effects were specifically studied. Click rates of 1, 10, 50 and 100/sec were routinely presented. Reference electrodes at the tongue, pinna and neck showed volume-conducted responses to the click stimuli and resulted in considerable distortion of the activity recorded by the vertex electrode; the forepaw, in contrast, showed no activity and a vertex-forepaw electrode configuration provided good resolution of the BAERs across development. A number of new observations were made. BAERs were first observed at 4 days of age, approximately the same age at which depth evoked potentials are first recorded in brain stem auditory nuclei. Initially the BAERs were diffuse, high threshold and fatigued rapidly, characteristics shared with depth evoked potentials in the early postnatal period. Over the first two weeks, the potentials showed marked decrease in threshold, increased resistance to fast click rates, and better definition of wave forms. All BAER components showed exponential decreases in latency. Because all of the brain stem evoked potentials could be recorded concurrently and longitudinally in the same subject a number of developmental comparisons were possible among the BAER components. Wave 1, related to the acoustic nerve in the adult cat, showed a developmental time course and adult latency similar to that reported for N1. Wave 2, related to the cochlear nucleus in the adult, showed a marked bimodality over the first month; wave 2a was a large amplitude clearly separated wave which gradually fused as an inconspicuous leading shoulder on wave 2b. Wave 2b developed with a time course and adult latency similar to that reported for the ventral cochlear nucleus. Wave 3, related to the region of the superior olivary complex in the adult, showed a clear but transient bimodality during the third week of development. Wave 5, related to the inferior colliculus in the adult, appeared later than waves 1-4 and showed a significantly slower rate of development than waves 1-4. These data indicate that differential developmental changes occur within the brain stem auditory pathway and that the BAERs provide a dynamic probe of concurrent maturational interactions.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

The effect of the menopause on the L-lactate-nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide oxidoreductase activity in vaginal aspirates.

Lactate dehydrogenase (L-lactate-NAD+ oxidoreductase; EC 1.1.1.27) activity has been assayed in saline extracts of vaginal aspirates obtained from patients attending a Well Woman Clinic and for whom exfoliative cytology was shown to be unequivocally normal. The majority (76 per cent) of premenopausal patients gave aspirate extracts containing less than 25 m units of enzyme while 71 per cent of postmenopausal patients gave aspirate extracts containing more than 50 m units of enzyme. This difference in distribution of activities was highly significant (P = less than 0.001). Analysis of the isoenzyme distribution showed that aspirates from postmenopausal patients contained a lower proportion of isoenzyme LDH-5 (P less than 0.01) and the M subunit (P less than 0.03) and a higher proportion of isoenzymes LDH-3 (P less than 0.001) and LDH-4 (P less than 0.01). There was no significant difference between the social class distributions of the pre- and postmenopausal patients. Lactate dehydrogenase activity was not related to social class or patients' multiparity. No difference in the distribution of enzyme activities was found between those premenopausal patients in the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle, those in the secretory phase and those receiving hormone therapy.

Body Fluids↗
PubMed1980

Outcome of pregnancies complicated by early vaginal bleeding.

Obstetrical and neonatal data were analysed for pregnancy outcome in 259 deliveries complicated by first or second trimester vaginal bleeding. There was a high incidence of low birth weight, low gestational age, perinatal death, asphyxia, breech delivery, placental infarcts and small-for-dates term infants. Fetal anomalies were slightly though not significantly increased. Combined suboptimal pregnancy outcome occurred in 29.7 per cent of these deliveries compared to 15.2 per cent of 25 118 concurrent deliveries without reported early pregnancy bleeding (p less than 0.0001). The combined risk remained approximately doubled even for primigravidae and for women without prior illness or pregnancy complications. The highest combined risk, 61.5 per cent, was for women with at least two prior abortions, premature births or perinatal deaths and no prior term births. These findings suggest that early gestational vaginal bleeding is one predictor of suboptimal pregnancy outcome.

Female↗