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Biomedical subjects

H Gross

Publications and source records attributed to H Gross.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Age, resource consumption, and outcome for surgical patients at an academic medical center.

Many changes are under way in the payment for physician and hospital care of the surgical patient. Relatively little data have been analyzed on resource consumption for hospitalized surgical patients. The purpose of this study was to characterize hospital resource consumption and outcome by age for surgical patients. All surgical admissions at a large academic medical center from Jan. 1, 1985, through March 31, 1986, were analyzed by means of the diagnostic related group (DRG) format. Total costs (exclusive of physician fees) for the 7341 surgical patients studied were $58,206,815. Mean cost per patient, length of stay, percent of outliers, and mortality increased with age. DRG case-mix index and the number of procedures per patient peaked at age 69 and then decreased. Emergency admission was high for the young (i.e., aged 18 to 24 years) and for very elderly patients (i.e., aged over 75 years). Blood transfusions increased steadily as the age of the patient increased; use of surgical intensive care units increased until age 64 years, then plateaued. This study demonstrated a number of trends in surgical patient age and use of resources. Under prospective payment systems (i.e., DRG reimbursement) financial risk increased with the age of the patient. Length of hospital stay and mortality increased with age; however, DRG case-mix index and the number of procedures per patient peaked at age 69, which suggests that elderly surgical patients (i.e., those above 70 years of age) may be more severely ill on average than younger patients.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed1988

Image interpretation of metal shadowed specimens with the aid of Monte Carlo simulation of the shadowing process.

Rotary shadowing is investigated by means of an adapted shadowing model, which has been used for relief reconstruction of unidirectionally shadowed specimens. The metal layer geometry is calculated for a simple geometric object. In order to elucidate the metal accumulation process on the surface, a Monte Carlo simulation of shadowing is applied to synthetic reliefs and to experimental relief reconstruction data of a paracrystalline membrane. For rotary shadowed specimens, no linear relationship between local metal thickness and surface height can be established as in the unidirectional case. Low spatial frequencies of the surface relief contribute very little to the information content of the observed metal film. Contrast produced by rotary shadowed films is lower compared to unidirectionally shadowed ones. The main effects are due to the steep slopes which give rise to the considerable amount of metal viewed in the normal projection, and due to the shadow casts. A further contrast enhancing effect is self-shadowing, an artifact introduced primarily by rotating the specimen during evaporation. The Monte Carlo simulation shows that low elevation angles favor self-shadowing effects. This results in a pronounced granularity that is caused by the random incidence of the atoms and the accumulation at previously deposited atoms or grown clusters. On real surfaces, small decorating clusters can be enlarged by self-shadowing. This explains the increased decoration tendency of rotary shadowed specimens. The Monte Carlo method can be used as a means to differentiate shadowing information from these effects.

Image Processing, Computer-Assisted↗
PubMed1985

Baclofen for the treatment of acute low-back syndrome. A double-blind comparison with placebo.

The efficacy and safety of baclofen (30-80 mg daily) for the treatment of acute low-back syndrome were evaluated in a 14-day, double-blind, randomized study of 200 patients (100 baclofen, 100 placebo). Patients with initially severe or extremely severe symptoms (as opposed to moderate symptoms) benefitted most from treatment with baclofen. The incidence of adverse effects was significantly higher in the baclofen group; however, most were mild to moderate and disappeared in all but two patients who required a reduction in dosage, without reduced drug efficacy. Baclofen was shown to be effective, safe, and well-tolerated for the treatment of patients with acute low-back syndrome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

[Synthesis and antibacterial activity of perchlorylchloramphenicol].

Starting from p-perchloryl acetophenone we have synthesized the perchloryl analogue of chloramphenicol. The new compound is the first chloramphenicol analogue possessing a higher antimicrobial activity as chloramphenicol itself. It showed an about twofold activity against 18 different microbes in the hole plate diffusion test, compared with the parent compound.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1981

A comparative analysis of primary anorexics and schizophrenics on the MMPI.

Although only a very small number of studies have described personality testing in primary anorexia nervosa (patients), they seem to suggest a deeper personality disturbance than commonly suggested by psychiatric interview. These results represent an attempt to define the contribution of psychological test data to differential diagnosis and personality organization in primary anorexia nervosa. Fourteen female schizophrenic and 14 female anorexic patients were compared on the MMPI. No significant differences were found on any of the validity or clinical scales. A product-moment correlation between the two profiles, obtained via a measure of distance between profiles, revealed remarkable similarities in their overall profiles (D2 = .83). The Depression, Psychopathic Deviate, Psychasthenia, Paranoia and Schizophrenia scales occupied the first five rankings for both groups (although in a different order) and were elevated over a T-score of 70 (for the anorexics, the Psychopathic Deviate scale score approached 70). The results are consistent with the few studies that utilized psychodiagnostic tests with anorexics and that point to extremely poor personality integration and to a more serious disorder than a neurotic disturbance.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Ice crystals specifically decorate hydrophilic sites on freeze-fractured models membranes.

Experiments with yeast plasmalemma fracture faces, produced at -196 degrees C and exposed to pure water vapor before replication, showed a "specific decoration" with ice crystals of those pits in the extraplasmatic face where the matching particles of the plasmatic face had been removed (H. Gross et al., J. Cell Biol. 79 (1978) 646). THe preferred growth of cubic ice crystals on the small depressions of the extraplasmatic face could be caused by the cavity-like character of the surface relief or by physicochemical surface properties which differ from those of the surrounding lipid fractures face. The following results suggest that not geometric or topographic but physicochemical surface properties are responsible for the trapping of water molecules in the regions of the depressions. Freeze-fractured multilamellar stearic-acid crystals and cardiolipin liposomes exhibit after fracturing hydrophobic faces and hydrophilic steps (bimolecular steps with two polar head groups in half of the step height) which act as preferential nucleation sites and lead to the formation of discrete ice crystals mainly along the steps. Multilamellar crystals of the paraffin n-octatriacontane (C38H78) exhibit after freeze-fracturing hydrophobic faces and geometrically identical, but hydrophobic steps. In contrast to stearic acid these steps do not act as preferential nucleation sites.

Alkanes↗
PubMed1981

Studies on the thermal degradation of the H and M antigens of lyophilized histoplasmin.

Lyophilized histoplasmin for the agar gel microimmunodiffusion test has been prepared as a candidate World Health Organization Biological Reference Reagent. It was subjected to elevated temperature for given periods of time and analyzed by the capillary precipitin test and the single radial immunodiffusion test to determine the stability of the H and M antigens. H antigen showed no fall in relative potency when incubated at 48 degrees C for 20 days. M antigen showed a fall in relative potency after storage at 37 degrees C and 48 degrees C, but the extent of the fall was greater in the radial immunodiffusion test than in the capillary precipitin test. Half-lives of the antigens could not be calculated from the Arrhenius equation because the response curves at each temperature followed different kinetics. However, as based on zero time data, M antigen of the lyophilized histoplasma showed a 20% drop in relative potency when stored at -20 degrees C for 2 years. Other analyses suggested that M antigen of liquid histoplasmin stored at 5 degrees C and of lyophilized histoplasma stored at -20 degrees C was degraded at equal rates.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Single bacteriorhodopsin molecules revealed on both surfaces of freeze-dried and heavy metal-decorated purple membranes.

The flat sheets of the purple membrane from Halobacterium halobium contain only a single protein (bacteriorhodopsin) arranged in a hexagonal lattice. After freeze-drying at -80 degrees C (a method that is superior to air-drying), shadowing with tantalum/tungsten, and image processing, structural details on both surfaces are portrayed in the range of 2 nm. One surface is rough and lattice lines are clearly visible, whereas the other is smooth and the hexagonal order seems to be absent. The optical diffraction patterns, however, indicate a hexagonal lattice for both surfaces. In addition, these diffraction patterns are characteristic and easily distinguished. The orientation of the two surfaces was identified by silver decoration: partial condensation of silver on purple membranes enabled the smooth surface to be identified as the plasmatic and the rough surface as the exoplasmic surface. After image processing, the exoplasmic surface shows a triplet structure which exactly fits the projected structure determined by Unwin and Henderson (1975. Nature(Lond.). 257:28-32) at molecular resolution, whereas, on the plasmatic surface, four image details per unit cell are visible. Three of them match the arrangement of bacteriorhodopsin, whereas the fourth must be located over a lipidic array. Summarizing these results, it is possible to show the part of each single bacteriorhodopsin protein that is present in the surfaces of the purple membrane. By "shadowing" the membranes perpendicularly, we prove that these components of the surfaces are mainly portrayed by a decoration effect of the tantalum/tungsten condensate.

Bacteriorhodopsins↗