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Biomedical subjects

G Chang

Publications and source records attributed to G Chang.

96 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Prenatal alcohol consumption. Self versus collateral report.

The reservations expressed about the accuracy of patient self-reports of drinking may be heightened when obtaining information about prenatal alcohol consumption, which may be subject to fears of social or medical disapproval. Thus, clinicians may seek collateral reports to confirm patients' reports during this critical time. The purpose of this study is to compare the self and collateral reports of antepartum alcohol consumption by 247 pregnant women, obtained shortly after the initiation of prenatal care, and again after delivery. Collateral reports of subjects were exceeded by the subjects' self-reports of alcohol consumption before pregnancy and in the antepartum.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A comparison of related and unrelated marrow donors.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this investigation is to test whether related bone marrow donors experience more distress from marrow donation than volunteer unrelated donors. METHOD: Participants in the study were 77 related and unrelated marrow donors who agreed to complete 11 pre- and 8 postdonation self report questionnaires. Related and unrelated donors were recruited from the Bone Marrow Transplant Programs at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Additional unrelated donors were recruited from the American Red Cross-Carolinas and the Heart of America Bone Marrow Donor Registry in Kansas City, MO. RESULTS: The 41 unrelated and 36 related marrow donors who participated in this prospective study had similar demographic backgrounds and predonation questionnaire results, although related donors endorsed more items on the Beck Depression Inventory, both before and after narrow harvesting. After narrow donation, related donors reported significantly more pain than unrelated donors (p = .0001). CONCLUSIONS: It is unlikely that intraoperative events alone could account for the increased pain experienced by related donors. Related donors were more likely to experience moderate to severe physical pain after marrow donation than unrelated donors, on the basis of logistic regression analysis (odds ratio = 7.63; 95% confidence interval 2.74, 23.01).

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Primary care: detection of women with alcohol use disorders.

There are several limitations to our knowledge of alcohol abuse and women. First, the efficacy for women of traditional alcohol screening instruments is unclear since most have been tested and normalized on male populations. The T-ACE and the TWEAK have been tested primarily in specialized populations, limiting their generalizability. Second, the efficacy of brief intervention among women who are moderate to heavy drinkers is also unclear. Reasons for this gap in our knowledge include exclusion of women from research studies, inadequate sample sizes of female subjects, limiting generalizability, and conflicting results from the studies focusing on women and brief interventions in the general medical setting. The barriers to early identification of problem drinking in women and subsequent intervention in the primary care setting may have application to psychiatric practice as well. Women with alcohol dependence are more likely to be seen in other mental health facilities than in alcohol treatment centers. Because of the high rate of comorbidity of alcohol use disorders among individuals with other mental disorders, a careful review of alcohol consumption should be part of every psychiatric evaluation. Psychiatrists therefore might play an important role in early identification of women problem drinkers and be able to intervene, educate, and work collaboratively with primary care providers to reduce the morbidity and mortality of alcohol-abusing women.

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relationship between V3 genotype, biologic phenotype, tropism, and coreceptor use for primary isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

OBJECTIVES: The predictive value of positively charged amino acids at positions 11 and 25 within the V3 loop region of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope gene for the syncytium-inducing (SI) phenotype was assessed. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS: Sequencing was performed on DNA extracted from primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and complementary DNA (cDNA) prepared from serial viral isolates from 10 HIV-1-seropositive subjects. Proviral DNA sequencing was also performed on biologic clones from most of these subjects. RESULTS: Positive charge at position 11 and/or 25 in 257 isolate cDNA, PBMC DNA, and biologic clone PBMC DNA sequences was compared with 69 phenotypic determinations, of which 62.3% were SI. V3 genotype was 51.2% sensitive and 85.8% specific for the SI phenotype, with positive and negative predictive values of 62.8% and 79.0%, respectively. Cellular tropism failed to correlate with V3 genotype, coreceptor use, or biologic phenotype. Exclusive use of CCR5 was associated with the nonsyncytium-inducing (NSI) phenotype. Overall, V3 loop charge was higher in SI than in NSI isolates (5.01 and 3.78, respectively; p = 0.0211). CONCLUSIONS: The predictive power of SI phenotype from V3 genotype is relatively weak, especially in a low SI prevalence population. The direct measurement of viral phenotype, cellular tropism, and coreceptor use in HIV-1 isolates is essential for accurate biologic characterization.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Facilitation of endothelial cell growth on hydroxylated ePTFE vascular grafts.

The authors have modified ePTFE by hydroxylating the surface using aluminum deposition and removal with sodium hydroxide. This process has no effect on the microfibrillar structure, but reduces the hydrophobicity of ePTFE. There were significantly greater numbers of rat aortic endothelial cells on the surface of modified as compared to control ePTFE after 14 days (469 +/- 44 vs. 4 +/- 3 cells/mm2, p less than 0.01, paired t-test). This simple chemical modification facilitates endothelialization, without using thrombogenic cell adhesives.

Animals↗