Washing the blood.
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Education, Nursing, Continuing↗
Biomedical subjects
D Weeks
Publications and source records attributed to D Weeks.
Effect of prostaglandin, leukotriene, and arachidonic acid on experimental otitis media with effusion in chinchillas.
Although previous studies have shown that prostaglandins (PGs), leukotrienes (LTs), and other arachidonic acid (AA) metabolites play an important role in the pathogenesis of otitis media with effusion (OME), the exact role of each AA metabolite in OME is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of several individual AA metabolites alone or in combination and AA itself on experimental otitis media in chinchillas. Normal chinchillas were inoculated daily with normal saline, PGE2, LTC4, LTC4 + PGE2, and AA through the superior bullae over 7 days. Animals were followed by otoscopy and tympanometry, samples of middle ear effusion were collected for biochemical assay, and temporal bones were processed for histopathology. The highest number of ears that developed OME was in the group inoculated with PGE2 + LTC4. The degree of inflammatory change was more pronounced in groups injected with LTC4 than any other group. The findings of this study suggest that eicosanoids PGE2, LTC4, and AA alone or in combination inoculated into the middle ear can induce OME.
6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha↗
B-adrenergic receptor stimulation increases anti-DNA antibody production in MRL/1 pr mice.
To gain insight into a role for excessive B-adrenergic receptor stimulation in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, MRL/1 pr mice were chronically injected with isoproterenol. The mean change of serum antibody levels after one month of treatment was higher in the isoproterenol treated mice than in controls (anti-ssDNA, p less than 0.05; anti-nDNA, p less than 0.04; and antiguanosine antibodies, p less than 0.03) without significant differences in serum IgG levels. Additionally, mean serum creatinine levels were higher and glomerulonephritis more severe in the isoproterenol treated group. Our findings provide the first evidence linking aberrant B-adrenergic receptor activities, serum anti-DNA antibodies, and end-organ pathology in an animal model of lupus nephritis.
Animals↗
Programs for Pedigree Analysis: MENDEL, FISHER, and dGENE.
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Genetic Techniques↗
Elementary explanation of boundary shading in chaotic-attractor plots for the Feigenbaum map and the circle map.
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Journal Article↗
ECT: II: patients who complain.
Twenty-six subjects who complained of permanent unwanted effects following ECT were compared with two groups of control subjects on a battery of 19 cognitive tests. Many statistically significant differences were found in cognitive functioning, mostly attributable to the level of depression or medication in the complainers. However, after analysis of variance/co-variance some differences still remained, indicating impaired cognitive functioning in the ECT complaining group.
Adult↗
ECT: III: Enduring cognitive deficits?
Cognitive function was compared in carefully matched groups of ECT and non-ECT treated depressives and in matched normal volunteer controls on admission, at 4 months and at 7 months. ECT caused little impairment at 4 months and no impairment at 7 months on a comprehensive cognitive test battery. Severity of depression had a marked effect on cognitive function. Within the ECT group bilateral ECT caused more impairment than unilateral ECT one week after a course but 3 months later the differences had disappeared. They were equally antidepressant.
Adolescent↗
Rural areas face woes in health care delivery, try model systems.
Health planning such as consolidation and closure of facilities and services to contain costs often contradicts rural populations' needs for increased access to better or even basic services/Model programs to meet these needs are discussed.
Delivery of Health Care↗
A pilot program to evaluate pain assessment skills of hospice nurses.
A program was developed to evaluate pain assessment skills of hospice nurses in the home setting, utilizing standardized patients (SPs). Hospice nurses were sent on a routine visit to a "patient's" home to evaluate someone dying of pancreatic cancer. They were not informed in advance that the "patient" was actually an SP, who had undergone intensive training from the staff to prepare him for his role. They performed their usual evaluation and then reported back to the referring physician by telephone. The referring physician, who used a written series of evaluation criteria, graded their assessments. The SP also evaluated the assessment skills of each nurse. After the exercise, the nurses were informed of the "patient's" identity and were provided with the written critique prepared by the SP. A second part of the program included a written examination of their pain assessment and treatment skills, followed by a didactic presentation. This is the first report we know of that has utilized SPs in the home setting to evaluate pain assessment skills in a blind fashion. Our findings indicate that this can be an effective method for measuring pain assessment skills as well as a valuable teaching device.
Adolescent↗
A longitudinal study of pain in hospice and pre-hospice patients.
Pain continues to be a very formidable foe in the care of the hospice patient. The incidence among hospice admissions may range from 50 to 80 percent. With such a high initial incidence of pain, the rapidity with which pain can be controlled becomes a very high priority for the hospice effort. The assessment and management of pain in a home-based hospice program presents some unique problems--and opportunities, in that much of this work is done by hospice nurses on site, rather than by the physician, who might remain quite removed from the process. In the study described below, 250 consecutive admissions to either a hospice, or pre-hospice (bridge) program were assessed for pain on admission. Those with pain scores of 5 or greater (on a 1 to 10 scale) were followed daily for 15 days by phone to reassess pain and treatment effects. Of the 250 consecutive patients surveyed, 41 (16 percent) gave pain scores of 5 or greater. Mean pain scores for the 41 patients dropped to < 5 within 24 hours of admission.
Aged↗
In vitro translation analysis of integral membrane proteins.
A method of in vitro translation scanning was applied to a variety of polytopic integral membrane proteins, a transition metal P type ATPase from Helicobacter pylori, the SERCA 2 ATPase, the gastric H+,K+ ATPase, the CCK-A receptor and the human ileal bile acid transporter. This method used vectors containing the N terminal region of the gastric H+,K+ ATPase or the N terminal region of the CCK-A receptor, coupled via a linker region to the last 177 amino acids of the beta-subunit of the gastric H+,K+ ATPase. The latter contains 5 potential N-linked glycosylation sites. Translation of vectors containing the cDNA encoding one, two or more putative transmembrane domains in the absence or presence of microsomes allowed determination of signal anchor or stop transfer properties of the putative transmembrane domains by the molecular weight shift on SDS PAGE. The P type ATPase from Helicobacter pylori showed the presence of 8 transmembrane segments with this method. The SERCA 2 Ca2+ ATPase with this method had 9 transmembrane co-translational insertion domains and coupled with other evidence these data resulted in a 11 transmembrane segment model. Translation of segments of the gastric H+,K+ ATPase provided evidence for only 7 transmembrane segments but coupled with other data established a 10 membrane segment model. The G7 protein, the CCK-A receptor showed the presence of 6 of the 7 transmembrane segments postulated for this protein. Translation of segments of the human ileal bile acid transporter showed the presence of 8 membrane insertion domains. However, translation of the intact protein provided evidence for an odd number of transmembrane segments, resulting in a tentative model containing 7 or 9 transmembrane segments. Neither G7 type protein appeared to have an arrangement of sequential topogenic signals consistent with the final assembled protein. This method provides a useful addition to methods of determining membrane domains of integral membrane proteins but must in general be utilized with other methods to establish the number of transmembrane alpha-helices.
Amino Acid Sequence↗