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Biomedical subjects

E Clark

Publications and source records attributed to E Clark.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Evaluation of splenectomy in large granular lymphocyte leukaemia.

We performed splenectomy in four patients with severe neutropenia (less than 0.5 X 10(9)/l), recurrent infections, and splenomegaly associated with large granular lymphocyte leukaemia. Prior to splenectomy, elevated levels of neutrophil-reactive IgG were detected in sera of all three patients tested. In all patients, enlargement of the spleen was due to a characteristic lymphoid infiltration of red pulp cords. Splenectomy resulted in an increased neutrophil count greater than 0.5 X 10(9)/l in all patients; this response was sustained in two patients who benefited clinically by a dramatic reduction in frequency of infections. Poor clinical response was associated with elevated levels of antineutrophil antibody post-splenectomy. All four patients had an increase in number of circulating large granular lymphocytes post-splenectomy; one patient who had attained a sustained neutrophil response died of an accelerated lymphoproliferative disorder 19 months post-splenectomy. We conclude that splenectomy may be of value in correcting severe neutropenia and reducing infections in some patients with large granular lymphocyte leukaemia. However, splenectomy appeared to be of no value in treatment of the underlying lymphoproliferative disorder.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1987

Characterization of some new insect-derived acholeplasmas.

Further analysis of three sterol-nonrequiring Mollicutes (strains PS-1, TAC, and YJS) isolated from gut fluids of insects confirms their similarity to Acholeplasma. They are serologically distinct from acholeplasmas of vertebrates and several other sterol nonrequiring Mollicutes isolated from plant surfaces. The PS-1 strain had a DNA G + C content of 31 mol % and a genome size of 1,030 megadaltons (MDa). Optimum temperature is in the range of 23 to 30 C. Thirty-two new nonhelical Mollicutes isolated from a much wider range of insect hosts were examined for acholeplasmas. Twenty-five of the insect isolates were grown consistently in serum-free broth, with or without Tween 80 supplements. Two of the acholeplasmas were serologically related to Acholeplasma florum, 13 strains were serologically identical to the TAC isolate reported earlier, and 10 of the putative acholeplasmas could not be identified with current reference antisera. Seven of the new nonhelical insect isolates appeared to be sterol-requiring Mollicutes. One sterol-requiring isolate (ELCN-1) was recovered from the hemolymph of a firefly, and is the first report of nonhelical Mollicutes in the insect hemocoel. Two of the seven sterol-requiring Mollicutes, which were nonhelical in earlier passages in broth, later reverted to typically helical spiroplasmas. Confirmation of sterol-requiring, nonhelical Mollicutes in insects would provide an important ecological finding that insects constitute an important reservoir for both acholeplasmas and mycoplasmas.

Acholeplasma↗
PubMed1984

Potential impact of a predictive test on the gene frequency of Huntington disease.

Fifty-five individuals at 50% risk of inheriting Huntington disease (HD) were given in-depth structured interviews to survey attitudes toward use of a predictive test and to assess the possible impact of such a test on the number of gene carriers born. Three-quarters of the sample said they would take predictive test. Given a positive predictive or prenatal test, the number of individuals choosing to have children is reduced from 80% of the total sample to 42%, or by almost one-half. The large proportion of at risk individuals who say they would use a predictive test underscores the importance of developing guidelines for its administration prior to implementation.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Increased rate of suicide among patients with Huntington's disease.

The proportion of deaths attributed to suicide was examined among 506 deceased individuals with diagnosed or suspected Huntington's Disease from New England USA. Comparison of this proportion with that of the general population indicated that the odds of a death being due to suicide in the Huntington's disease group is 8.2 times that of the Massachusetts population for persons aged 50 to 69 yr, but no difference appears in the 10 to 49 yr age group. Among the 157 Huntington's disease patients for whom cause of death was known, the corresponding odds estimates are 23.0 for the 50 to 69 yr age group and 2.7 for the 10 to 49 yr age group. More than half of the suicides occurred in individuals who showed early signs of the illness but who had not been diagnosed, suggesting that suicide may occur more frequently in the early stages of the illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Attitudes toward marriage and childbearing of individuals at risk for Huntington's disease.

Huntington's Disease (HD), a mid-life onset inherited neurological disorder, can have a profound social and psychological impact on affected individuals and relatives. This paper discusses the attitudes of 45 individuals at risk for inheriting HD toward marriage and childbearing. Social and demographic variables influencing these attitudes were also examined. Subjects who had graduated from college were found to be more likely to be deterred from having children than those with less education. Current childbearing status was also found to influence attitudes toward hypothetical situations dealing with having children. Knowledge of the factors influencing attitudes in these areas can aid health professionals involved in genetic counseling for Huntington's Disease and other inherited mid-life onset disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Primary culture media for routine urine processing.

It has been recommended that routine microbiological processing of urine specimens include quantitative plating onto blood agar medium along with a selective and differential agar such as MacConkey agar for gram-negative organisms. Few data have been published to justify this combination. To evaluate the validity of this recommendation 2,553 midstream, clean-voided urine samples were quantitatively plated onto blood agar, MacConkey agar, and colistin-nalidixic acid agar, which is a selective medium for gram-positive organisms. The amounts of growth on each of the three media were compared. Results indicated that the best medium combination was colistin-nalidixic acid agar and MacConkey agar. The use of colistin-nalidixic acid agar instead of blood agar increased the detection of significant growth of enterococci, lactobacilli, and Torulopsis glabrata.

Bacteria↗
PubMed1981

Acquisition and retention of categorized material in normal aging and senile dementia.

The "shopping list task" is a new verbal learning task with a high degree of face validity for elderly subjects. Learning and delayed recall performance were examined for three groups of subjects: young normals (n = 63, median age = 21), elderly normals (n = 44, median age = 69) and mild to moderately impaired senile dementia patients (n = 60, median age = 70). The young normal subjects performed best of the three groups in both initial learning and delayed recall measures. The elderly normals showed significant decrements in learning and recalling the list items (p less than .01). The impaired elderly showed much greater performance decrements in both learning and recall. None of the subjects showed a deficit in delayed recognition. These results suggest that both storage and retrieval difficulties occur in normal aging and dementia. The recognition test results suggest that recall deficits evidenced by both elderly groups are in large part due to faulty retrieval mechanisms. Since the shopping list task discriminated well among the three groups, it has potential for memory assessment in clinical settings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Static transdiaphragmatic pressures in normal subjects and in patients with chronic hyperinflation.

Transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi) during static maximal inspiratory effort was measured in 11 normal subjects and in 4 patients with severe chronic hyperinflation (mean total lung capacity, 138% predicted). The Pdi varied widely among subjects, some production positive abdominal pressure (Pab) at all volumes and some producing Pab close to zero or negative. During modified maximal inspiratory efforts in which the abdomen was protruded, several subjects produced greater Pdi, but in none was pleural pressure (Ppl) more negative, possibly because of inhibition of diaphragmatic activation during spontaneous inspiratory efforts. In the hyperinflated patients, spontaneous maximal inspiratory inspiratory efforts produced smaller values of Pdi, but the diaphragm retained an inspiratory effect and Pdi could still be increased by abdominal protrusion during the effort. Although Pdi during such modified maneuvers probably gives a better index of the strength of the diaphragm, this may not be directly related to its effective capacity as an inspiratory muscle, which may be best assessed by comparing Pdi with Ppl during spontaneous maximal inspiratory efforts.

Abdomen↗
PubMed1981

Pulmonary strongyloidiasis and lung abscess.

We report a case of lung abscess associated with pulmonary strongyloidiasis which occurred in an asthmatic patient three years after migrating to Australia from Burma where strongyloidiasis is endemic. Thiabendazole was effective in eradicating the Strongyloides infection.

Humans↗
PubMed1980

Chronic pulmonary infection with Salmonella typhimurium.

The first report of a case of chronic sputum carriage of salmonella is presented. The patient was a 51-year-old male with pulmonary cavitation and mycetoma, who developed pulmonary infection with Salmonella typhimurium after rectal surgery, and subsequently has carried the salmonella in his sputum for 18 months to date.

Ampicillin↗
PubMed1980

Survey offers guidelines for social work.

Collection of hospital social work data is a step toward making the product of social work practice both measurable and quality controlled and can serve as a guide for all hospitals.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1980

Facial recognition memory deficits in normal aging and senile dementia.

Recognition memory for faces was studied in 167 subjects comprised of young normals, elderly normals and elderly senile dementia patients with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. A continuous recognition paradigm was used which required an "old-new" decision to be made for each facial stimulus. The design of the stimulus sequence produced delay intervals of .5, 1, 2, and 4 min between the first and second presentations of each face, and a long delay of 40 min was also evaluated. A signal detection analysis revealed large recognition memory deficits at all delay intervals for the two elderly groups as compared to the young normals, but no differences between the normal and impaired elderly groups. In addition, there were no group differences in response criterion. The results suggest a deficit in nonverbal encoding/storage due to normal aging but no further deficit due to mild to moderate senile dementia. The data also fail to confirm an age-related increase in "cautiousness" in recognition memory tasks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Regional profile data as basis for social work audit.

Profile data obtained in a regional survey of social work practice have been used by one social work department of a general hospital to identify three problem areas of practice with patients whose discharges are delayed beyond medical necessity. The authors describe the department's analysis of the data, its identification of a topic of concern, and the subsequent steps taken in a departmental audit.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1980

A very short version of the Minnesota Aphasia Test.

A very short version of the Minnesota Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia Test is described. It is standardized on 86 aphasics and reduces the original 43 subtests to just four; takes less than 15 minutes to give; correlates by over 0.9 with the total full test; and misclassified only 13 per cent of subjects. These four subtests are identifying objects named serially (A4), oral reading of words (B8), naming pictures (C13) and written spelling (D6). This extensive shortening is made feasible by the high degree of redundancy in the original full version. The test is designed to detect asphasia in general, and not to partition aphasics typologically, for which the full Minnesota is required.

Aphasia↗