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Biomedical subjects

H M Anthony

Publications and source records attributed to H M Anthony.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1975

E and EAC rosetting lymphocytes in patients with carcinoma of bronchus I. Some parameters of the test and of its prognostic significance.

Using peripheral blood lymphocytes separated by a Ficoll method and suspended in saline, means of 77-1% (s.d. 5-2) E rosettes (T lymphocytes) and 20-1% (s.d. 6-7) EAC rosettes (B lymphocytes) have been obtained with normal healthy donors. Poorer E-rosette formation resulted from higher centrifugation speeds during the washing of lymphocytes or erythrocytes, insufficient chilling, or rough handling. The presence of 5% albumin in the final mixture stabilized the rosettes and brought a constant subpopulation of B lymphocytes into rosetting. In patients with bronchial carcinoma who, at the time of diagnosis, had E-rosette percentages below 1 s.d. of the mean for normal donors, the length of survival was significantly shorter than in those with normal or high values. The same was true for those in whom null cells were detected. In each case the correlation effect was mainly found in the group of patients with squamous carcinoma.

B-Lymphocytes↗
PubMed1975

E and EAC rosetting lymphocytes in patients with carcinoma of bronchus. II. A sequential study of thirty patients: effect of BCG.

T and B lymphocytes have been estimated in thirty patients with carcinoma of bronchus at monthly intervals. The patients have been treated by surgery, radiotherapy or no conventional antineoplastic therapy, with or without monthly intradermal BCG. Significant increase in T-lymphocyte percentages occurred in three out of six patients treated by BCG and no conventional therapy, and similar increases were observed in other BCG-treated patients. Patterns emerged suggesting that the T-lymphocyte percentage may be depressed, directly or indirectly, by tumour and recover after surgery or palliative radiotherapy; that high T-lymphocyte levels may accompany reactive lymphocytosis to tumour and that T-lymphocyte collapse was associated with, and appeared to precede terminal clinical deterioration in many patients.

B-Lymphocytes↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Some methodological problems in the assessment of complementary therapy.

The increased interest of the public and the medical profession in complementary forms of therapy introduces an urgent need for proper assessment of efficacy. This growth in popularity suggests that complementary therapies are effective in some circumstances, but without objective assessment neither the public nor the medical profession can be sure. Rigorous scientific assessment is required, but the nature of complementary therapy is such that double-blind randomized controlled trials, as usually conducted, are rarely applicable, and alternative approaches are needed. At its best, complementary therapy is designed individually for each patient, and few treatments can readily be applied 'blind'. These are the main problems in trial design but complementary therapists are also aware of the importance of body-mind interactions: they see the 'placebo effect' as an integral part of treatment which needs investigation, and they question the validity of clinical trials in which the patient's will is not fully engaged through lack of information, and of those not asking the patients if they feel better. The problems are examined and alternative approaches suggested. The paper raises the question of whether they are only problems for complementary medicine.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Reactive changes in the blood of smokers and the development of arterial diseases and COPD, a review: evidence of associations between changes and subsequent disease with implications for the evaluation of harmful effects of cigarettes, and for susceptibility to the chronic effects of inhaled pollutants.

The review examines the effects of smoking on blood parameters, concentrating on those seen as responses or reactions to the insult of smoking, and finds evidence that smoking causes chronic leucocytosis, macrocytosis and raised haematocrit, raised plasma fibrinogen concentration, reduction of the serum ratio of high to low density lipoprotein (HDL/LDL ratio), and platelet changes. Each of the changes resolved on "quitting", though for fibrinogen the evidence was indirect. Reports that elevations of the white cell count (WCC), and plasma fibrinogen and reduction of the HDL/LDL ratio each predict myocardial infarction, and that higher haematocrit increases the risk of cerebro-vascular incidents are reviewed, with reports of associations with other forms of arterial disease and COPD, and of their significance for the prognosis of established disease. After noting pathological mechanisms which implicate each of these factors, and platelets, in reactions likely to contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, infarction, arterial spasm, and/or lung damage, the author concludes that the evidence in man, backed up by experimental data, provides very strong support for the view that elevations of WCC, haematocrit, plasma fibrinogen and reduction of the HDL/LDL ratio represent (or are closely associated with) intermediate causal mechanisms through which smoking induces arterial disease and probably lung disease, and that experimental evidence indicates that platelet changes and macrocytosis also contribute. Differences in the extent of these responses to smoking could be valuable in differentiating the relative harmfulness of different types of cigarette (or of other inhaled pollutants) in terms of these diseases, and in predicting the susceptibility of individuals to these smoking-related diseases.

Arterial Occlusive Diseases↗