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Biomedical subjects

D Howard

Publications and source records attributed to D Howard.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Why don't Broca's aphasics cue themselves? An investigation of phonemic cueing and tip of the tongue information.

This study investigates whether Broca's aphasics have the information processing abilities necessary to generate and use their own phonemic cues. Twenty patients were studied; ten benefited from phonemic cues given by the therapist. Phonemic cues were most effective with the patients whose naming was most severely impaired. Six patients could indicate the initial letter of words which they could not produce; three of these patients had no knowledge of any relationship between orthography and phonology, so information about the initial letter must be orthographic and not phonological. Only two patients had any success in giving the sounds of written letters. None of the 20 patients had all three abilities needed to use their own cues: giving the first letter of the name, sounding the letter, and utilizing a phonemic cue. The possibility of relearning letter-to-sound correspondences is considered.

Aphasia↗

Incantations in the dark: Medicaid, managed care, and maternity care.

Public program reforms in the 1980s have substantially increased the numbers of poor pregnant women potentially eligible for Medicaid coverage. Structural deficiencies in the Medicaid program, together with inadequate arrangements in managed-care plans, however, have not led to generally acceptable levels of maternity care. Demonstration projects indicate that Medicaid can be modified cost effectively to underwrite early, continuous, and comprehensive care delivery. Recommendations are suggested for eligibility guarantees, enrollment safeguards, benefit and treatment protocols, provider recruitment, quality control, and sufficient payment rates to overcome barriers to adequate levels of material health care.

Delivery of Health Care↗

A monoclonal antibody to exfoliated surface vesicles that recognizes a membrane-associated erythroid burst-promoting activity.

A monoclonal antibody (MoAb) recognizing a membrane-associated erythroid burst-promoting factor was prepared by immunizing BALB/c mice with plasma membrane-derived vesicles exfoliated from lymphocytes under serum-free conditions. Hybrids secreting antibody reactive with lymphocyte plasma membranes were formally cloned and IgG was purified from monoclonal supernatants or from BALB/c mouse ascites fluid. Two clones (D3-E4 and D3-G9) were found to suppress burst forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E) proliferation when added directly to serum-free human marrow culture. Inhibition to a level of 100% was observed in a dose-dependent fashion over a wide range of antibody concentrations (0-200 micrograms/mL). Neither antibody altered the proliferation of colony forming unit-granulocyte macrophage (CFU-GM) or colony forming unit-granulocyte-erythroid-monocyte-megakaryocyte (CFU-GEMM) progenitor cells in human bone marrow culture. The D3-E4 clone was found to produce an IgG1 antibody which adsorbs an erythroid burst-promoting activity (BPA) from supernatants of, and octylglucoside extracts of shed vesicles present in, serum-free, lymphocyte conditioned medium (LCM), and which recognizes a vesicular protein of Mr approximate 30,000 on immunoblots of membrane proteins electrophoresed on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/polyacrylamide and transferred to nitrocellulose. In contrast, the D3-G9 clone was found to produce an IgG1 cytotoxic antibody. These antibodies will be important to the study of cell-cell and growth factor-cell interactions in vitro.

Animals↗

Paragrammatisms.

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Adult↗

Organizational resources in support of patient education programs: relationship to reported delivery of instruction.

Two studies of patient education programs tested hypotheses regarding the relationship between structural, attitudinal, and resource variables and reported receipt of instruction by patients and delivery of instruction by providers. Three predictor variables--degree of structure for implementation, provider perception of reinforcement for doing patient education, and perceived payoffs from the program, were significantly related to measures of the dependent variable. Age of the program, administrator support for social change and staff support for the program, did not show significant relationships with receipt/delivery of instruction. Future studies might investigate: how coordinative functions are carried out rather than whether a coordinator for the program has been named, the relationship between financial condition of the hospital and ability to deliver patient education services, and the relationship between patient education resources and outcome variables such as health care services used and cost. Research about resources necessary to ensure adequate delivery of instruction to patients is as important as is research about resources necessary to ensure adequate delivery of instruction to patients is as important as is research about the design of instruction.

Data Collection↗

Amitriptyline and hydroxylated metabolite plasma levels in depressed outpatients.

As part of a double-blind clinical trial comparing phenelzine and amitriptyline in outpatients with predominantly major depressive disorder, plasma tricyclic antidepressant drug concentrations were measured in 83 amitriptyline-treated patients. In 29 of these patients, hydroxymetabolites were also assayed. Patients were treated for 6 weeks at a fixed dose of 150 mg/day of amitriptyline after the first 5 days. Therapeutic outcome was assessed with a structured depression interview schedule, the Symptom Checklist-90, a side effects checklist, and a global improvement scale. Steady state plasma levels of 10-hydroxynortriptyline were in the same range as amitriptyline or nortriptyline concentrations. Clinical response did not relate significantly to plasma levels of either the parent drug, its metabolites, or the sum of all four pharmacologically active substances. Minimum threshold tricyclic antidepressant levels for therapeutic effect were not found. Assay of its active hydroxymetabolites does not appear to improve the clinical utility of routine amitriptyline level monitoring in patients with major depression in an outpatient setting.

Adult↗

Heterogeneity of erythropoietin-dependent erythrocytosis: case report in a child and synopsis of primary erythrocytosis syndromes.

To investigate the pathogenesis of polycythaemia in a child with isolated, primary erythrocytosis, we measured serum erythropoietin activity and in vitro erythroid progenitor cell responsiveness to erythropoietin. Unstimulated erythropoietin activity was markedly elevated (1.8 IU/ml), and isovolaemic phlebotomy induced a four-fold increment above this level. In contrast to findings in our index case with this syndrome, normal erythroid colony growth patterns were present in patient marrow cultures. The primary mechanism of polycythaemia in this individual is similar to that reported in the index case: an inappropriately elevated regulatory set point for erythropoietin production. Since an additional defect of progenitor cell hypersensitivity to erythropoietin is not always present, we conclude that abnormalities at single or multiple sites of the erythropoietic regulatory axis may occur in primary erythropoietin-dependent erythrocytosis.

Bloodletting↗

Response to phenelzine among depressed patients with features of hysteroid dysphoria.

A 21-item questionnaire eliciting features of hysteroid dysphoria was administered to 51 depressed outpatients. Of the 47 patients who completed a 6-week double-blind study comparing the efficacy of amitriptyline and phenelzine, 14 had questionnaire scores greater than or equal to 13 (high score) and 33 had scores less than 13 (low score). Nine of nine high-score patients responded to phenelzine; only three of five high-score patients responded to amitriptyline. Low-score patients responded equally well to either drug (79% improved). These findings suggest that some depressed patients have features of hysteroid dysphoria and that these patients respond preferentially to phenelzine.

Adult↗

Treatment of word retrieval deficits in aphasia. A comparison of two therapy methods.

The effects of two therapy methods in the treatment of picture naming problems are compared, using a within-patient design with 12 adult patients with chronic acquired aphasia. We contrast techniques that require the patient to process the meaning corresponding to the picture name (semantic treatment) with those that provide the patients with information about the phonological form of the name (phonological treatment). With each method, patients either had 4 sessions of treatment over one week, or 8 sessions over two weeks. Both methods caused day-by-day improvement that was specific to the actual items treated. Both methods resulted in significant improvement in naming when this was measured one week after the end of treatment, with a small, but significant advantage for the semantic treatment; this is mainly due to improvement that generalizes to untreated items. We conclude that specific and theoretically motivated treatment methods can cause significant improvement in the word retrieval ability of patients with chronic aphasia.

Adult↗

The semantic deficit in aphasia: the relationship between semantic errors in auditory comprehension and picture naming.

Thirty aphasic subjects were asked to point to pictures on auditory command both when the distractors came from the same semantic category as the target and when the distractors were unrelated to the target picture. The aphasics made significantly more semantic errors than non-aphasic brain-damaged controls; the incidence of semantic comprehension errors was unrelated to aphasic diagnostic groups but was related to the overall severity of aphasia. The subjects were subsequently asked to name the pictures from the comprehension task; pictures that had elicited semantic errors in comprehension were no less likely to be named than those that had not, but the incidence of semantic errors in comprehension correlated significantly with their incidence in naming. The implications of a semantic deficit common to both auditory comprehension and naming that is not specific to particular lexical items is discussed in relation to a number of information processing models of the lexicon.

Adolescent↗