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Biomedical subjects

D Jennings

Publications and source records attributed to D Jennings.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Injury in summer rugby league football: the experiences of one club.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the movement of the playing season from winter to summer would alter the risk of injury to players taking part in first team European professional rugby league. METHODS: The study design was a historical cohort design comparing winter and summer seasons in first team European rugby league, which recorded injuries received by players during match play. Each injury was classified according to site, type, player position, activity at the time of injury, and time off as a result of injury. RESULTS: The risk of injury when playing summer rugby league was higher than when playing winter rugby league (relative risk = 1.67 (95% confidence interval 1.18 to 2.17)). Both forwards (1.08 (0.28 to 1.88)) and backs (2.36 (2.03 to 2.69)) experienced an increased risk of injury. CONCLUSIONS: Summer rugby may have resulted in a shift of injury risk factors as exhibited by a change in injury patterns. This may be due to playing conditions, but there were also some law changes. Changes in playing style, team tactics, player equipment, fitness preparation, and the reduced preseason break may also have had confounding effects on injury risk.

Athletic Injuries↗

Use of electromyography in seven injured wild birds.

Seven wild birds with traumatic injuries affecting the peripheral nervous system were evaluated with the aid of electromyography. Initially, electromyography was performed on these birds because of loss of motor control and muscle atrophy that could not be explained by clinical signs alone. It can be difficult to assess postural reactions and reflexes in these birds. Use of electromyography to provide prognostic information for rehabilitation potential had not been reported. Reviews in the literature indicate that electromyography in human beings helps when assessing prognosis in sports-related injuries. Because wild birds require nearly total function for complete rehabilitation, electromyographic findings of functional motor units or evidence of axonal degeneration can assist in determining their potential for release.

Animals↗

Central levodopa metabolism in Parkinson's disease after administration of stable isotope-labeled levodopa.

We report the use of a new stable isotope-labeled form of levodopa (LD) to examine in vivo central LD metabolism in Parkinson's disease (PD). Eight patients representing a wide spectrum of disease severity were administered 50 mg of carbidopa orally followed in 1 hour by an intravenous bolus of 150 mg of stable isotope-labeled LD (ring-1',2',3',4',5',6'-(13)C6). Serial blood samples were taken every 30 to 60 minutes and a lumbar puncture was performed 6 hours after the infusion. The average percentage of labeled homovanillic acid (HVA) in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was 54% (SD, 9%; range, 34-67%). The mean CSF labeled HVA concentration was 34.7 ng/ml (SD, 20.2 ng/ml; range, 11.3-67.9 ng/ml). Area under the curve for labeled serum LD closely predicted CSF labeled HVA concentrations (r = 0.747, p = 0.033). Labeled CSF HVA levels did not significantly correlate with either quality or duration of response to the labeled LD dose. In a similar manner, labeled CSF HVA concentrations were not influenced by duration of disease or previous daily LD dosage. These findings support the hypothesis that levodopa-induced benefit in PD is not severely limited by a defect in central levodopa metabolism.

Adult↗

Prevention of duodenal ulcer recurrence with 15 mg lansoprazole: a double-blind placebo-controlled study. The Lansoprazole Study Group.

Although eradication of Helicobacter pylori cures duodenal ulcer, some patients are not infected and others are treatment failures. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessed the value of treatment with low-dose lansoprazole in preventing duodenal ulcer recurrence. One hundred eighty-six patients with endoscopic documentation of healed duodenal ulcer received 15 mg/day lansoprazole or placebo for 12 months or until ulcer recurred. Endoscopy results, symptom assessment, and fasting serum gastrin levels were obtained at multiple time points. Densities of E, EC, and G cells were assessed by biopsy when the ulcer recurred or at the final visit. Time to ulcer recurrence was significantly longer (P < 0.001) in the lansoprazole group (median >12 months) compared to placebo (median <3 months), and patients taking lansoprazole were asymptomatic longer (P < 0.05). Maintenance therapy with lansoprazole 15 mg/day suppresses acid and controls recurrence of duodenal ulcer disease.

2-Pyridinylmethylsulfinylbenzimidazoles↗

Earth-Based Observations of the Galileo Probe Entry Site

Earth-based observations of Jupiter indicate that the Galileo probe probably entered Jupiter's atmosphere just inside a region that has less cloud cover and drier conditions than more than 99 percent of the rest of the planet. The visual appearance of the clouds at the site was generally dark at longer wavelengths. The tropospheric and stratospheric temperature fields have a strong longitudinal wave structure that is expected to manifest itself in the vertical temperature profile.

Journal Article↗

Injury in rugby league: a four year prospective survey.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of injury in English professional rugby league over a period of four playing seasons. METHODS: All injuries that were received by players during match play were recorded. Each injury was classified according to site, type, player position, team playing for, activity at the time of injury, and time off as a result of injury. RESULTS: The overall injury rate was 114 (95% confidence interval 105 to 124) per 1000 playing hours, the most frequent type of injury were muscular injuries [34 (29 to 40) per 1000 playing hours], while the most frequently injured site was the head and neck region [38 (16 to 25) per 1000 playing hours]. Players received the largest percentage of injuries when being tackled [46.3% (41.9 to 50.7)], most injuries required less than one week away from playing and training [70.1% (66.1 to 74.2)], and forwards had a higher injury rate than backs (139 v 93 injuries per 1000 hours). CONCLUSIONS: The high rates of injury in rugby league are undoubtedly due to the high amount of bodily contact in the game. Being tackled has the highest risk of injury, because of being hit forcibly by other players. Forwards suffer higher injury rates than backs, probably because they are involved in a larger number of physical collisions.

Craniocerebral Trauma↗

Double-blind comparison of lansoprazole, ranitidine, and placebo in the treatment of acute duodenal ulcer. Lansoprazole Study Group.

OBJECTIVES: To study in a double-blind controlled manner the effects of lansoprazole 15 mg or 30 mg daily compared with ranitidine 300 mg once daily and placebo in the relieving of symptoms and healing of acute duodenal ulceration. METHODS: Two hundred eighty patients with duodenal ulcer entered in to the study from 30 centers. They were randomized in a double-blind manner into four groups with 80 patients entered into each active treatment group and 40 patients into the placebo group. Endoscopy was performed at 2- and 4-wk intervals to assess healing. Symptom relief was recorded, serum gastrin levels were measured, and gastric mucosal biopsies were obtained to evaluate for the presence of acute and chronic inflammation, the presence of neoplasia, and the extent of gastric endocrine growth at the time of endoscopy. RESULTS: After 4 wk of treatment using per protocol analysis, 19 of 40 (47.5%) patients receiving placebo had healed compared with 55 of 78 (70.5%) receiving ranitidine (p < 0.05 vs. placebo), 61 of 76 (80.3%) receiving lansoprazole 30 mg (p < 0.05 vs. placebo), and 72 of 78 (92.3%) receiving lansoprazole 15 mg (p < 0.05 vs. placebo and ranitidine). In patients with evaluable data, lansoprazole 30 mg and ranitidine produced greater relief of night-time symptoms and lansoprazole 15 mg produced greater relief of both day- and night-time symptoms than did placebo after 4 wk of treatment. Ranitidine increased fasting serum gastrin levels (22%; p < 0.05 vs. placebo), whereas both lansoprazole regimens produced more marked rises in serum gastrin (54% and 60%; p < 0.05 vs. placebo and ranitidine). Lansoprazole 15 mg and 30 mg also increased the density of antral G-cells (105.8% and 128.80%; p < 0.05 vs. baseline) and greater curvature Grimelius-positive cells (20.33% and 28.8%; p < 0.05 vs. baseline); there were no increases in the density of antral EC- or D-cells, and there was no alteration of gastric endocrine growth as judged by the Solcia classification. Both ranitidine and lansoprazole were associated with decreased antral Helicobacter pylori density accompanied, in the lansoprazole groups, by decreased antral inflammation scores. All antisecretory regimens were associated with increased inflammatory scores in the greater curvature. CONCLUSIONS: In acute duodenal ulceration, treatment with lansoprazole 15 and 30 mg produced 4-wk healing rates and symptom relief superior to those produced by placebo and the 15-mg dose similar to those produced by placebo. The 15-mg dose of lansoprazole was also superior to ranitidine in healing duodenal ulcer after 4 wk of therapy.

2-Pyridinylmethylsulfinylbenzimidazoles↗

Comparison of nuclear grade and DNA cytometry in breast carcinoma aspirates to histologic grade in excised cancers.

Histologic grading of breast carcinomas is an important prognostic indicator of survival. An increasing number of patients, however, receive definitive therapy based on a fine-needle aspiration cytologic (FNA) diagnosis. This may limit standard grading techniques. Nuclear grade and DNA image cytometry in 35 FNA specimens taken from 34 patients were compared to DNA flow cytometry and histologic grade of the excised carcinoma using the Bloom system, as modified by Elston. Seven histologic grade I, 14 grade II, and 14 grade III infiltrating ductal carcinomas were studied. All histologic grade I carcinomas were diploid on the FNA specimen, and six showed nuclear grade 1. Twenty-seven of 28 histologic grade II and III cancers had nuclear grades of 2 or 3. Twenty-five showed aneuploidy (19 cancers) or tetraploidy (6 cancers). The other three showed diploidy with increased S/G2M (17-20%). Most of the tetraploid tumors were histologic grade II. Interobserver variability was greatest for nuclear grade (31%). Concordance between DNA studies by image analysis on the FNA and flow cytometry on the excised specimen was 80%. Both nuclear grade and DNA cytometry on FNAs can be used to distinguish most histologic grade I carcinomas from grade II and III cancers. DNA cytometry is more time-intensive but is less influenced by interobserver variation, and usually correlates with DNA flow cytometry on the excised specimen.

Biopsy, Needle↗

Essential hypertension: a sign in search of a disease.

The concept of disease is of cardinal importance in medical practice. The current definition has developed over more than 200 years. It includes a distinctive natural history and identifiable cellular changes. Pickering proposed a fundamental alteration to the definition when he suggested that essential hypertension is a quantitative disease without causative cellular change distinguishing normal from abnormal. The nature of essential hypertension has been confused from the beginning because of a category error. Injury is conceptually distinguished from disease. Essential hypertension, defined as elevated blood pressure together with its cardiovascular consequences, is found to be neither an injury nor a disease according to current definitions. Instead, essential hypertension refers to a treatment group just as "the fevers" did in an earlier century. One effect on patients of the failure to resolve this diagnostic paradox is the burden of suffering from the label of "disease" rather than from a state that may be substantially due to their own behavior. A theoretical consequence of importance for psychiatric theory is that the disease status of functional disorders can no longer be defended by an appeal to the existence of a quantitative disease of blood pressure.

Blood Pressure↗

Electron microscopic characterization of neonatal platelet ultrastructure: effects of sampling techniques.

Detailed ultrastructure of 720 neonatal platelets was systematically examined in 200-300 microliters cord blood samples from four normal term infants. There were no differences in platelet organelles between samples collected into standard sodium citrate anticoagulant and minimally heparinized samples collected into sodium citrate. Samples collected into EDTA showed significant differences from the other two solutions. There were also differences in organelle characteristics within a solution group, as time from sample collection to EM fixation varied. These results verify utilization of small minimally heparinized blood samples for examination of platelet ultrastructure. This system can now be expanded to the premature infant, where small blood sample requirements are essential, and minimally heparinized blood may be more readily available.

Anticoagulants↗

Effect of cyclic estrone sulfate treatment on lipid profiles of postmenopausal women with elevated cholesterol levels.

The effects of two doses of cyclic unopposed estrone sulfate therapy on the lipid profiles of 153 healthy postmenopausal women with baseline total cholesterol levels above 219 mg/dL were compared in a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Patients were assigned randomly to one of three treatment groups: estrone sulfate 0.625 mg (N = 59) or 1.25 mg (N = 43), or placebo (N = 51). The median baseline total cholesterol levels of the three treatment groups were 262, 269, and 262 mg/dL, respectively. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and the HDL/LDL ratio were assessed after 6, 9, and 12 months of treatment. There was a significant monotonic dose-response relationship of estrone sulfate in raising HDL levels, lowering LDL levels, and raising the HDL/LDL ratio at all intervals measured. These results indicate that estrone sulfate is effective in creating a beneficial change in the lipid profile of postmenopausal women with elevated baseline total cholesterol.

Cholesterol, HDL↗

Propionate may mediate the hypocholesterolemic effects of certain soluble plant fibers in cholesterol-fed rats.

The effects of propionate on serum and liver lipid concentrations were studied in cholesterol-fed rats. Both serum and liver cholesterol levels were significantly lower in rats fed the cholesterol-propionate diet than in rats fed the cholesterol diet without propionate. Liver triglyceride levels were also significantly lower in the propionate-treated group. Serum triglyceride concentrations were not influenced by the propionate feeding. Propionate intake was not associated with histologic changes in liver tissue. This study indicates that 0.5% sodium propionate-supplemented diets slightly but significantly reduced cholesterol accumulation in both serum and liver of cholesterol-fed rats. Thus propionate, a metabolic product of fiber fermentation, may mediate some of the hypocholesterolemic effects of certain soluble plant fibers.

Animals↗

Progressive oropharyngeal dysfunction in a dog.

A dog with an acquired, progressive oropharyngeal dysphagia also had a myopathy-neuropathy. It was clinically similar to criocopharyngeal achalasia, and could easily have been confused with it, even with fluoroscopic evaluation. Conservative medical therapy was instituted since cricopharyngeal myotomy could have caused severe aspiration and death. Resolution was apparently due to anti-inflammatory therapy.

Animals↗