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Biomedical subjects

G M Bull

Publications and source records attributed to G M Bull.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1980

The weather and deaths from pneumonia.

Changes in the weather are highly significantly correlated with changes in death rate from pneumonia but the association is not a simple one. Two apparently separate periods of weather change are negatively correlated with pneumonia. Both are centred around a time approximately a week before death but one is associated with periods of changed weather of about a week's duration and the other with long-term, probably seasonal, change. Both are almost certainly related to the onset or acquisition of the disease. In addition there is an immediate positive correlation of high humidity and temperature with deaths. This occurs at a time when the patients have had the disease for a week or more and points to the need to avoid these conditions when nursing patients with pneumonia. All three associations are more marked in the elderly and all three operate at all temperatures and humidities met with in Britain. Control of the microenvironment of the elderly is necessary throughout the temperature range.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1979

Relationship of air temperature to various chemical, haematological, and haemostatic variables.

Results for biochemical and haematological variables have been correlated with data on atmospheric temperature in order to identify possible mechanisms through which low environmental temperature may increase mortality from myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular disease. With the exception of cholesterol, there were no associations in the case of several clinical chemistry variables, or of haemoglobin and related indices. With varying degrees of consistency among the sex and age groups studied, temperature was positively correlated with factor VII, antithrombin III, and cholesterol, and negatively correlated with fibrinolytic activity. The correlations were all low but may offer some clues to mechanisms whereby air temperature influences ischaemic heart and cerebrovascular disease mortality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Environment, temperature and death rates.

Analysis of recorded monthly deaths in England and Wales shows a close association of death rates with external temperature in most diseases other than the cancers. Analysis of daily deaths in England and Wales and in New York shows the following relationships between temperature and deaths from myocardial infarction, strokes and pneumonia. Between -10 degrees and +20 degrees C mimimum temperature there is a nearly linear fall in deaths as the temperature rises. Above 20 degrees C deaths rise steeply as the temperature rises and below -10 degrees C rise steeply as temperature falls. These associations of deaths with temperature are much stronger in the elderly than in younger subjects. Detailed analysis of the daily deaths in England and Wales from myocardial infarction, strokes and pneumonia show that short-term (1--2 days) temperature changes have little effect on death rates but medium-term (7--10 days) and longer-term (three or more weeks) changes associated with very significant changes in death rates. The three diseases vary in the time relations between temperature change and change in death rates. In all three there is an interval between the change in temperature and death and this is shortest in the case of myocardial infarction (1--2 days before death), longest in the case of pneumonia (about a week before death) and intermediate in the case of strokes (about 3--4 days before death). At low temperatures death rates increase as the duration of temperature change increases, while at high temperatures (but below +20 degrees C) death rates decrease as the period of temperature change is longer. The implications of these findings are discussed and it is postulated that there is probably causal relationship between temperature change and deaths from a wide variety of diseases. A proximal link in the chain is probably a failure of autonomic control of body temperature in the elderly leading to a change in body temperature and some humoral change which in turn leads to death. It is not appropriate to concentrate on hypothermia as the relationship between temperature and death is seen at all temperatures.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Seasonal and short-term relationships of temperature with deaths from myocardial and cerebral infarction.

In subjects over 60, changes in temperature lasting two or more days are associated with highly significant changes in death rates from myocardial infarction and cerbral vascular accidents. In both cases, the lower the temperature the higher the death rate and vice versa. Moreover the temperatures one to four days prior to the clinical onset of infarction are more relevant than that on the day of onset, a fact which may have a bearing on prophylaxis. In the case of strokes, a high temperature on the day of onset is also associated with an increase in deaths on that day. The relevance of these findings to possible mechanisms and prophylaxis is discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Relationships of temperature with death rates from all causes and from certain respiratory and arteriosclerotic diseases in different age groups.

Changes of temperature of short duration (2-10 days) and of longer duration (15 and more days) are associated with inverse changes in death rates in both respiratory infections (pneumonia and bronchitis) and in vascular diseases (myocardial infarction and cerebral vascular accidents). These relationships are less or absent in younger subjects and marked in the elderly. The temperature on the day of death is less relevant to the death rate than that on earlier days and the particular days which are most relevant differ in the different conditions. In the case of myocardial infarcts the temperature 1 to 2 days before death is the most relevant, in strokes 3 to 4 days before death and in the respiratory infections more than 5 days before death is the most relevant.

Age Factors↗