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Biomedical subjects

G Laszlo

Publications and source records attributed to G Laszlo.

59 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Defense style and the perception of asthma.

Approximately 15% of patients with bronchial asthma are unable to sense marked changes in airway obstruction. We have investigated the hypothesis that inability to sense changes in the severity of bronchial asthma varies with insensitivity to emotional arousal, which in turn is associated with repressive defense styles. Nine asthmatic patients were studied comparing actual changes in peak flow rate using a coded peak flow meter and in arousal during a stress-inducing psycholinguistic protocol with perceived changes. Our hypotheses were confirmed. Ability to perceive changes in asthma could be predicted from performance on the psycholinguistic stress test (Spearman's rho = +0.733, p less than 0.01). Repressors performed significantly worse on the asthma perception task (Spearman's rho = -0.650, p less than 0.05). The results suggest a role for defense pathology in the psychomaintenance of asthma.

Adult↗

Localised Wegener's granulomatosis presenting as an orbital pseudotumour with extension into the posterior cranial fossa.

Pseudotumour has rarely been reported to invade the intracranial cavity. We present a case of pseudotumour which extended intra-cranially into the posterior cranial fossa. The patient had circulating antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in titres diagnostic for Wegener's granulomatosis. In the absence of clinical renal or respiratory tract disease, the case may represent a newly recognized sub-type of "localised" Wegener's granulomatosis.

Adult↗

Measurement of single-breath carbon monoxide transfer factor (diffusing capacity) during progressive exercise.

The transfer factor (diffusing capacity) for carbon monoxide (TLCO) is known to rise with increasing levels of work, but uncertainty remains as to the exact relationship of TLCO and the transfer coefficient (KCO) to oxygen uptake (VO2). We have studied the effects of increasing levels of work on TLCO and KCO in 22 normal male subjects using the single-breath technique and a standardized protocol. Additionally, we have investigated whether young people were different from a middle-age group, the need for carboxyhaemoglobin corrections in current smokers and non-smokers, and the variations of cardiac frequency during breath-holding. Our results show that TLCO and KCO increase in a curvilinear manner up to maximal VO2, a quadratic equation describing the relationship. There was no effect of age up to 50 years. There was no significant increase in the carboxyhaemoglobin levels, and therefore this correction is unnecessary. Cardiac frequency showed no significant variation during the breath-holding manoeuvre, except at rest and at low levels of exercise.

Adult↗