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Biomedical subjects

F Lam

Publications and source records attributed to F Lam.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Limb loss following the use of heparin. A lesson to be remembered.

The optimal method of prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism after total hip replacement (THR) remains uncertain. Most surgeons use some form of pharmacological prophylaxis, most commonly heparin. The precise balance of the benefits and risks is unclear, and serious complications can occur. We describe a case of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis syndrome in a 62-year-old woman after THR.

Amputation, Surgical↗
PubMed2001

Selection analyses of insertional mutants using subgenic-resolution arrays.

We describe a method of genome-wide analysis of quantitative growth phenotypes using insertional mutagenesis and DNA microarrays. We applied the method to assess the fitness contributions of Escherichia coli gene domains under specific growth conditions. A transposon library was subjected to competitive growth selection in Luria-Bertani (LB) and in glucose minimal media. Transposon-containing genomic DNA fragments from the selected libraries were compared with the initial unselected transposon insertion library on DNA microarrays to identify insertions that affect fitness. Genes involved in the biosynthesis of nutrients not provided in the growth medium were found to be significantly enriched in the set of genes containing negatively selected insertions. The data also identify fitness contributions of several uncharacterized genes, including putative transcriptional regulators and enzymes. The applicability of this high-resolution array selection in other species is discussed.

Culture Media↗
PubMed2001

Adherence to antibiotics prescribed in an accident and emergency department: the influence of consultation factors.

The objective of this study was to investigate the extent of non-adherence to prescribed antibiotics and the relationship of non-adherence to consultation and attitudinal factors. Self-completion postal questionnaires were sent to 202 consecutive adult attenders to an accident and emergency (A&E) department who had been given antibiotics to take home, within a week of the A&E attendance. The questionnaire included a detailed log of dosing, two sections of eight questions each on the patients' perceptions of the consultation and of their attitudes to medicines in general, which were marked on Likert scales; and questions inviting free text answers. Efforts were made to maximize the response rate, and to contact a random sample of 10 non-responders to assess any non-response bias. The response rate was 56%. The non-responders sampled reported similar non-adherence to that of the responders. Of the 113 responders, 10 (9%) indicated that they had taken none of their prescribed medicines, and 25 (22%) that they had taken less than 80%. The most common pattern of non-adherence was early cessation. Two aspects of the consultation (expectations about a prescription, and that there were too many tablets) were related to adherence. In conclusion, this study suggests that the effectiveness of some A&E consultations is reduced by inadequate exploration of patients' concerns and expectations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Traumatic asymmetrical bilateral hip dislocation in an adult.

Bilateral hip dislocation occurring as a result of trauma is a rare condition. Simultaneous anterior and posterior traumatic dislocation of both hips is even more unusual. A case is reported of asymmetrical bilateral traumatic hip dislocation without an associated fracture of the pelvis or femur occurring in a young adult with no previous history of hip abnormality or ligamentous laxity. An unusual mechanism for this injury is also described.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1999

Terbutaline.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Female↗
PubMed1999

Predicting BMI in young adults from childhood data using two approaches to modelling adiposity rebound.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the age of adiposity rebound and the value of its associated BMI and examine their association with BMI at ages 18 and 21 y for males and females. DESIGN: A longitudinal study of a large cohort of people born in Dunedin, New Zealand between 1972-1973. SUBJECTS: Four hundred and seventy-four males and 448 females aged between birth and 21 y. MEASUREMENTS: BMI was derived from measurements of weight and height made when the participants were born and at intervals from age 3-21 y. RESULTS: When a random coefficients model was fitted to the data for those who had five or more measures of BMI between age 3 and age 18y, adiposity rebound occurred at 6.0 y of age for boys and 5.6y for girls. The values of BMI associated with these were 15.7 kg/m2 for boys and 15.5 kg/m2 for girls. The correlations between age at adiposity rebound and BMI at ages 18 and 21 y were between -0.72 and -0.65 for boys and -0.59 and -0.47 for girls. These were higher than those derived from fitting individual curves or from deriving the adiposity rebound from data collected up to age 11 y. The correlation between BMI at age 7y and BMI at ages 18 and 21 y were 0.70 and 0.61 for boys and 0.56 and 0.52 for girls. The correlations between measures of skeletal maturity at age 7y and adiposity rebound were statistically significant for boys but not for girls. CONCLUSIONS: BMI in early adulthood was associated with both age of adiposity rebound and BMI at that age. As the correlations between BMI at age 7 y and BMI at ages 18 and 21 y were similar in magnitude, BMI at age 7 y may be a more practical way of predicting BMI in early adulthood.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1998

Clinical issues surrounding the use of terbutaline sulfate for preterm labor.

beta-mimetics have been prescribed by physicians to arrest or prevent premature labor for more than 20 years. Although not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for tocolytic use, terbutaline sulfate has been the most widely prescribed beta-mimetic in the United States. Recently, the role of terbutaline in the treatment and prevention of preterm labor has been questioned by the FDA. Because the off-label use of drugs is a formally accepted practice in medicine when scientific studies support such use, we reviewed the currently available clinical literature on terbutaline use in various routes of delivery: intravenous, oral, and subcutaneous via infusion pump. This review describes the clinical evidence that supports the safe and effective use of terbutaline as a tocolytic agent in certain patient populations. Practicing physicians should continue to have unrestricted use of terbutaline for tocolysis as one of the few remaining therapeutic options remaining in the fight against preterm birth.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1997

Regulation of amyloid precursor protein catabolism involves the mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction pathway.

Catabolic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is subject to regulatory control by protein kinases. We hypothesized that this regulation involves sequential activation of the enzymes mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK). In the present investigation, we provide evidence that MEK is critically involved in regulating APP processing by both nerve growth factor and phorbol esters. Western blot analysis of the soluble N-terminal APP derivative APPs demonstrated that the synthetic MEK inhibitor PD 98059 antagonized nerve growth factor stimulation of both APPs production and ERK activation in PC12 cells. Moreover, PD 98059 inhibited phorbol ester stimulation of APPs production and activation of ERK in both human embryonic kidney cells and cortical neurons. Furthermore, overexpression of a kinase-inactive MEK mutant inhibited phorbol ester stimulation of APP secretion and activation of ERK in human embryonic kidney cell lines. Most important, PD 98059 antagonized phorbol ester-mediated inhibition of Abeta secretion from cells overexpressing human APP695 carrying the "Swedish mutation." Taken together, these data indicate that MEK and ERK may be critically involved in protein kinase C and nerve growth factor regulation of APP processing. The mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade may provide a novel target for altering catabolic processing of APP.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1996

The incidence of post dural puncture headache in children.

One hundred and five children with malignant disease attended for lumbar puncture which was performed under general anaesthesia. A questionnaire was answered over the next three days to determine the incidence of post dural puncture headache Ninety-seven questionnaires were returned and the results show that no child aged under ten years developed a headache. Of the children aged 10-12 years, two out of seventeen developed a headache (11.8%). In children aged 13-18 years, five out of ten developed a headache (50%).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Growth suppression by p16ink4 requires functional retinoblastoma protein.

p16ink4 has been implicated as a tumor suppressor that is lost from a variety of human tumors and human cell lines. p16ink4 specifically binds and inhibits the cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6. In vitro, these kinases can phosphorylate the product of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene. Thus, p16ink4 could exert its function as tumor suppressor through inhibition of phosphorylation and functional inactivation of the retinoblastoma protein. Here we show that overexpression of p16ink4 in certain cell types will lead to an arrest in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. In addition, we show that p16ink4 can only suppress the growth of human cells that contain functional pRB. Moreover, we have compared the effect of p16ink4 expression on embryo fibroblasts from wild-type and RB homozygous mutant mice. Wild-type embryo fibroblasts are inhibited by p16ink4, whereas the RB nullizygous fibroblasts are not. These data not only show that the presence of pRB is crucial for growth suppression by p16ink4 but also indicate that the pRB is the critical target acted upon by cyclin D-dependent kinases in the G1 phase of the cell cycle.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Reversed-phase ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of fluoroquinolones in human plasma.

A simple and sensitive method is described for the determination of fluoroquinolones by HPLC on a C-18 column using fluorescence detection. Using a mobile phase of 25% (v/v) acetonitrile phosphate buffer (pH 2.0), adequate retention and separation among the solutes norfloxacin, amifloxacin, enoxacin, and pipemidic acid have been obtained using sodium lauryl sulphate as the pairing ion and tetrabutylammonium bromide as the counter ion. The chromatographic conditions selected have been used for the quantitation of norfloxacin, amifloxacin, and enoxacin in human plasma using pipemidic acid as the internal standard. A simple single-step protein precipitation procedure has been employed for pretreatment of plasma samples. The detection limits of the assay for enoxacin, amifloxacin, and norfloxacin are approximately 100, approximately 10, and approximately 20 ng/mL, respectively. The method has been employed for the determination of amifloxacin in plasma samples from a healthy volunteer following oral administration of a 400-mg amifloxacin capsule.

Anti-Infective Agents↗