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Biomedical subjects

H Campbell

Publications and source records attributed to H Campbell.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

The measurement of urinary steroid glucuronides as indices of the fertile period in women. World Health Organization, Task Force on Methods for the Determination of the Fertile Period, special programme of research, development and research training in human reproduction.

The concentrations of various estrogen glucuronides and pregnanediol-3 alpha-glucuronide have been measured in daily samples of early morning urine (EMU) and 24 h pooled collections throughout a total of 70 menstrual cycles (58 subjects). The immediate objective was to identify and assess the potential value of measuring hormone metabolites to locate the fertile period in women, with the ultimate aim of developing a non-invasive immunochemical test. The project was undertaken in five centres and the results showed that: (i) there was good agreement in the patterns and mean concentrations of metabolites between the centres; (ii) estrone-3-glucuronide should be the estrogen glucuronide selected for further study; (iii) the analysis of EMU provided information that was as useful as the corresponding measurements on pooled collections for 24 h; (iv) a rise in the concentration of estrone-3-glucuronide (50% over the mean of three preceding values) could be used to locate the start of the fertile period in greater than 90% of the ovarian cycles (from day LHmax -- 3 to day LHmax -- 7); attempts to locate the end of the fertile period by a threshold value or a defined rise in the level of pregnanediol-3 alpha-glucuronide were disappointing. A 50% rise over the mean of three preceding values in the derived concentration ratio of estrone-3-glucuronide/pregnanediol-3 alpha-glucuronide could be used to indicate the start of the fertile period, and a 50% decrease plus two days the start of the infertile period in greater than 80% of the ovarian cycles. The limitations, implications and future developments are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Double-blind randomised controlled trial of folate treatment before conception to prevent recurrence of neural-tube defects.

A randomized controlled double-blind trial was undertaken in south Wales to prevent the recurrence of neural-tube defects in women who had had one child with a neural-tube defect. Sixty women were allocated before conception to take 4 mg of folic acid a day before and during early pregnancy and 44 complied with these instructions. Fifty-one women were allocated to placebo treatment. There were no recurrences among the compliant mothers but two among the non-compliers and four among the women in the placebo group. Thus there were no recurrences among those who received supplementation and six among those who did not; this difference is significant (p = 0.04). It is concluded that folic acid supplementation might be a cheap, safe, and effective method of primary prevention of neural-tube defects but that this must be confirmed in a large, multicentre trial.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1981

Relation between progressive massive fibrosis, emphysema, and pulmonary dysfunction in coalworkers' pneumoconiosis.

The correlations between progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), emphysema, and impairment of ventilation were studied in 108 dead coalminers, all of whom had suffered with complicated coalworkers' pneumoconiosis (radiological category B or C) during life. The findings indicated that both factors were contributing to impairment of ventilation in proportion to their size or extent, but these contributions were in the main independent of one another. A joint opinion on the types of emphysema found to be present in a random 50 out of the 108 cases was given by two pulmonary pathologists. They found that most of the emphysema was of the centrilobular variety, which appeared to be unrelated to the PMF. The distribution of the PMF throughout the lungs both radiologically and anatomically is shown.

Coal Mining↗
PubMed1980

Increased risk of recurrence of pregnancies complicated by fetal neural tube defects in mothers receiving poor diets, and possible benefit of dietary counselling.

One hundred and seventy-four women who had previously had a child with a neural-tube defect were assessed retrospectively on the quality of their diets during the first trimester of that pregnancy, between pregnancies, and during the first trimester of other pregnancies. They were then studied prospectively during the first trimester of 186 following pregnancies and the outcome of these was recorded. One hundred and three women (with 109 pregnancies) were given dietary counselling before the pregnancy, the remaining 71 (with 77 pregnancies) not being counselled. Seventy-eight (72%) of the counselled women improved their diet compared with only nine (12%) of the uncounselled women. The difference was significant (p < 0.001). There were three recurrences of neural-tube defects in the counselled women (3%) and five recurrences in the uncounselled (7%). Although this difference was not significant, the relative risk in the counselled group was reduced to less than half of that in the uncounselled group. All eight recurrences occurred in the 45 pregnancies in women taking poor diets (18%), whereas there were no recurrences in the 141 other pregnancies. This difference is significant (p < 0.001). It is concluded that women receiving adequate diets have a lower incidence and recurrence of fetal neural-tube defects than women receiving poor diets and that dietary counselling may be effective in reducing the incidence of fetal neural-tube defects.

Counseling↗
PubMed1980

Cancer mortality in Europe. Site-specific patterns and trends 1955 to 1974.

The age-standardized mortality for each sex for 24 countries in Europe for each year during 1955-1974 is recorded for the five sites of cancer--lung, stomach, large intestine (excluding rectum), prostate and breast. The trends in the changing rates are examined between countries and over time; the trends in the two sexes are compared and general patterns of cancer mortality for these specific sites throughout Europe are demonstrated. Lung cancer mortality has increased for both sexes, stomach cancer has decreased for both sexes, cancer of the large intestine has had a variable pattern, and mortality from cancer of the prostate and female breast has increased.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1979

Maternal smoking habits and congenital malformations: a population study.

Maternal smoking habits in 67 609 singleton pregnancies were examined. The overall incidence of congenital malformations was 2.8% in both non-smokers and smokers. On analysing congenital defects according to individual systems there was no significant difference in the incidence of malformations according to the number of cigarettes smoked, except for neural tube defects. Further analysis, taking social class into account, showed that neural tube defects were less common in non-smokers in social classes I and II. This study suggests that maternal smoking does not have teratogenic effects in the offspring, except in the case of neural tube defects, where the effect is at most modest.

Congenital Abnormalities↗
PubMed1977

Who is at risk of a coronary?

The Joint Working Party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Cardiac Society have recently given advice to medical practitioners about preventing coronary heart disease. We have formulated an easy method by which the medical practitioner may apply a rule to identify individuals who are at moderate to high risk of developing the disease. The simple arithmetic requires finding the product of four numbers and can be done with a pocket calculator costing less than pound 10. The four numbers correspond to known values of the four risk variables--age, systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol levels, and smoking--for a given individual. Tables of relative risk components for men aged 40 to 59 years for coronary heart disease defined by hard criteria (fatal or definite myocardial infarction) have been drawn up. The overall effect of the four risk variables is multiplicative so that some men aged 40 are at far greater risk than some of 55 year olds.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Obstetric practice and outcome of pregnancy in Cardiff residents 1965-73.

Trends in management and outcome of pregnancy in Cardiff residents from 1965 to 1973 were reviewed. The mean age and parity of parturients fell. Hospital delivery became almost universal, monitoring the fetus during pregnancy was introduced, and induction and acceleration of labour became commonplace. These developments were not associated with any striking change in either the total perinatal death rate or the timing or cause of perinatal death. Possibly a real change in perinatal mortality between 1965 and 1973 was masked by random fluctuation of small numbers, or possibly factors peculiar to the Cardiff population prevented a decrease in perinatal mortality that would otherwise have resulted from improved medical care. Only by large-scale randomised trials can the true value of induction and other medical developments be assessed.

Cesarean Section↗
PubMed1976

Evolution of disability in coalworkers' pneumoconiosis.

Retrospective analysis of the results of serial ventilatory capacity tests (FEV 1-0), which had extended over an average period of almost 15 years, has been carried out in 215 miners and ex-miners who suffer with coalworkers' pneumoconiosis. All were unselected previously diagnosed cases who attend the Cardiff Pneumoconiosis Panel at regular intervals for re-assessment examinations. They consisted of 68 miners and 147 ex-miners and they were divided into three groups according to their radiological category at their most recent examination, carried out in either 1973 or 1974. There were 90 cases of category B progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), 50 cases of category A PMF and 75 cases of simple pneumoconiosis. Findings for the 38 life-long non-smokers within the 215 were compared with those for the smokers. All three groups showed progressive impairment of ventilation over the whole period of observation. This was most marked in the category B cases but this group had already acquired a substantial proportion of their eventual impairment while still classified radiologically as category A or as simple pneumoconiosis. These findings are not compatible with the view that coalworkers' pneumoconiosis does not cause significant impairment of ventilation until the category B radiological stage is attained; they suggest rather that cases destined to progress to serious disablement show evidence of progressive impairment of ventilation at very much earlier radiological stages. Non-smokers showed a pattern of impairment similar to that of the smokers but were less disabled; the differences, however, were slight and not statistically significant.

Coal Mining↗