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Biomedical subjects

H Murphy

Publications and source records attributed to H Murphy.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Effects of in-utero exposure to oral hypoglycaemic drugs.

The observation that several Mexican-American women were taking oral hypoglycaemic agents while pregnant led to a study to confirm reports of associations between these agents and congenital abnormalities. 20 non-insulin-dependent (NIDDM) pregnant diabetic women with exposure to oral hypoglycaemic drugs during embryogenesis and 40 pregnant NIDDM women matched for age, race, parity, weight, and glycaemic control but not exposed to oral hypoglycaemic drugs were followed up. 10 infants (50%) in the exposed group had congenital malformations, compared with only 6 (15%) in the control group (p less than 0.002). 5 (25%) infants in the exposed group had ear malformations, anomalies not commonly described in diabetic embryopathy. Hyperbilirubinemia (p less than 0.04), polycythaemia, and hyperviscosity requiring partial exchange transfusions (p less than 0.03) were commoner among babies in the exposed than in the control group. 3 babies in the exposed group but none in the comparison group had severe prolonged neonatal hypoglycaemia lasting 2, 4, and 7 days; 2 of the 3 had been exposed for 22 and 28 weeks during gestation, whereas the third had been exposed throughout the first trimester. Although exposure to oral hypoglycaemic drugs during fetal life seems to be associated with congenital malformations and neonatal hypoglycaemia, a large, prospective study is needed to exclude the confounding effect of maternal metabolic derangement secondary to diabetes.

Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗
PubMed1991

rhlB, a new Escherichia coli K-12 gene with an RNA helicase-like protein sequence motif, one of at least five such possible genes in a prokaryote.

A newly recognized gene we name rhlB, after RNA helicase-like genes, has been found in the 85-minute region of the Escherichia coli chromosome. This gene encodes protein sequence motifs similar to those known for "D-E-A-D box" gene products. Proteins in this gene family occur in eukaryotes as well as prokaryotes, and, as far as tested, have been found to participate in ATP-dependent RNA helicase or RNA-dependent ATPase activities. The functions of these enzymes are poorly understood. In yeast, mutant phenotypes of various D-E-A-D genes suggest that they function in RNA splicing, processing, or translation. We find that rhlB is necessary for viability only in some genetic backgrounds. Conditional rhlB lethality is not complemented by another E. coli RNA helicase-like gene (srmB). Using primers with homology to consensus sequences in D-E-A-D box proteins, we have recovered DNA fragments amplified from E. coli genomic DNA by polymerase chain reactions. Sequence analysis of these fragments suggests that E. coli possesses at least five RNA helicase-like (rhl) D-E-A-D box genes at widely separated chromosomal locations. The multiplicity of such genes in a prokaryote raises the possibility of important roles for the corresponding class of biologically widespread proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Intrahospital relocation of psychiatric patients and effects on aggression.

Aggression is a recurring problem with psychiatric patients and can pose special problems on inpatient units. The purpose of this study were to identify changes in patients aggression as a consequence of routine individual relocation and to identify the relationship of certain variables with patterns of aggression. Using an adaptation of the Overt Aggression Scale (Yudofsky, Silver, Jackson, Endicott, & Williams, 1986), data were collected from the patient records of 201 individuals who had been admitted to a state hospital and subsequently transferred to another ward in the same hospital. There was a phase by day interaction with the day-to-day pattern of aggression in the pretransfer phase differing significantly from that in the posttransfer phase. The highest mean aggression for a single day was the day following transfer; the second highest was the day before transfer. There were main effects for age and number of hospital admissions.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Forced relocation of hospitalized psychiatric patients.

By virtue of their disability and hospital program requirements, severely and chronically mentally ill patients are subject to involuntary transfer from the community to hospitals, within hospitals, between hospitals, and from hospitals to the community. These forced relocations, no matter how humanely they were initially conceived to be, have become highly routine. The consequence is loss of the sense of the patient as a human being with individual needs. This research elicited the patients' own descriptions and the meanings they attached to the experience of forced relocation. The findings point to the need for greater success of programs designed to keep patients in their home communities to the greatest extent possible. The findings also suggest the need for hospital staff to eliminate or reduce intrahospital transfers and to develop and maintain humane transfer procedures when forced relocation becomes necessary.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Obstetrics without an on site paediatrician.

A ten year review (1980-89) of Wexford perinatal statistics is presented. Particular emphasis was placed on neonatal deaths and transfer rates of normally formed infants. Increased visits by paediatricians in the last two years have been associated with an increased neonatal transfer rate to a regional unit 40 miles away. Neonatal mortality rates have not improved, though any beneficial effects on infant morbidity was not assessed. The case for on site paediatric expertise with at least two consultants to provide a continuous service is argued.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1989

Signal for induction of aldose reductase in renal medullary cells by high external NaCl.

GRB-PAP1 is a continuous line of epithelial cells derived from rabbit renal inner medulla. These cells accumulate large amounts of sorbitol when extracellular NaCl concentration is elevated. The accumulation involves an increase in aldose reductase, an enzyme that catalyzes production of sorbitol from glucose. The purpose of the present studies was to investigate the mechanism by which high NaCl triggers an increase in aldose reductase activity. When NaCl was added to increase medium osmolality from 300 to 500 mosmol/kg, enzyme activity began to increase after 12-24 h, was half-maximal in 2 days, and was maximal by 4 days. To test the effect of other solutes, medium osmolality was increased to 500 mosmol/kg by adding raffinose, urea, or glycerol. Raffinose increased aldose reductase activity as much as NaCl did. In contrast, neither urea nor glycerol affected the enzyme activity. NaCl and raffinose caused a sustained decrease in cell water content and an increase in cell sodium and potassium concentration, but urea did not. In some experiments, ouabain was added either with or without an increase in osmolality. Taking into account all of the experiments, with and without ouabain, we found that aldose reductase activity did not correlate with either cell sodium concentration or cell water content alone. It did correlate, however, with cell potassium concentration and even more strongly with the sum of cell sodium plus potassium concentration. We conclude that the signal by which hyperosmolality triggers an increase in aldose reductase activity most likely involves an increase in intracellular ionic strength.

Aldehyde Reductase↗
PubMed1989

Ovarian cancer in a county hospital.

Forty two cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed and treated over a ten year period (1975-1985) are reviewed. The mean age at presentation was 59.3 years and mean parity 1.9. Abdominal pain and distension were the commonest clinical symptoms. Twenty three patients had total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with or without partial omentectomy. All patients had at least diagnostic laparotomy. There were no post-operative deaths. Thirty two patients had adjuvant chemotherapy. Two patients had false negative "Second Look" procedures. Histology in all cases was of epithelial origin. Survival at one year was 52.4% and 35.3% in those patients followed for five years. Good prognosis was related to extent of disease and surgical excision. Cisplatinum post-operative chemotherapy replaced other cytotoxic drugs in the latter years and it's use was associated with less morbidity and longer survival in patients with extensive disease than earlier regimes. We feel that national co-ordination in gynaecological oncology surveillance and treatment would be beneficial.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The levamisole receptor, a cholinergic receptor of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

We describe a glass fiber filter binding assay for the levamisole receptor, a putative acetylcholine receptor of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and we show that receptor detected in vitro binds both levamisole derivatives and cholinergic agonists with the pharmacological specificity expected of the physiologically functional nematode receptor. The receptor is detected by the binding of tritiated meta-aminolevamisole ([3H]MAL, 27 Ci/mmol). In extracts of the wild-type nematode, there is a saturable, high affinity binding activity for [3H]MAL (Kd approximately 5-10 nM). Well fed wild-type worms contain as much as 3 fmol of high affinity binding activity per mg of extract protein (0.14 pmol/g of wet weight of worms) and dauer larvae, a special juvenile stage, contain as much as 15 fmol of activity per mg of protein. Specific binding activity per mg of protein is highest in larval stages and decreases severalfold in the adult worm. The rates of formation and dissociation of the [3H]MAL-receptor complex are relatively slow (dissociation half-life, 17 min), in agreement with physiological studies of levamisole on Ascaris muscle strips. Levamisole derivatives and cholinergic agonists have the same relative potencies in inhibiting [3H]MAL binding as they do in causing nematode muscle contraction. Vertebrate cholinergic antagonists do not inhibit [3H]MAL binding, but several antagonists (mecamylamine, alpha-bungarotoxin, and cobra venom) potentiate the binding of [3H]MAL and can be used to demonstrate more clearly the presence of a second, lower affinity binding activity whose ligand-binding affinity is also potentiated by these agents. Both high and low affinity wild-type binding components are missing in the extremely levamisole-resistant mutant unc-74(x19).

Age Factors↗
PubMed1986

Molecular diversity of HLA-DR4 haplotypes.

Complementary DNA (cDNA) clones encoding beta chains of the DR and DQ regions and alpha chains of the DQ region were isolated and sequenced from four homozygous DR4 cell lines of different HLA-D types: GM3103(Dw4), FS(Dw10), BIN(Dw14), and KT3(Dw15). When compared with each other and with a previously published sequence from a DR4 (Dw13 cell line), the variability of DR beta 1 gene products is generally restricted to the region around amino acid position 70, with an additional polymorphism at position 86. Many of these differences, including an unusual amino acid substitution at position 57 in the Japanese cell line KT3(Dw15), may be due to gene conversion events from the DR beta 2 or DX beta genes. In contrast, DR beta 2 molecules are identical in Dw15, Dw10, and Dw4 cell lines. DQ beta chains isolated from GM3103(Dw4), FS(Dw10), and BIN40(Dw14) are also identical. However, the DQ beta sequence from cell line KT3(Dw15) differs substantially from all other previously reported DQ beta alleles, consistent with its serological designation, DQ "blank." The first domain sequences of DQ alpha chains were identical in all four cell lines. The data suggest that relatively circumscribed amino acid changes in the DR beta 1 molecule are responsible for the HLA-D typing differences between some haplotypes.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1979

Factor M as a correlate of physical fitness: imagination or just more energy.

Determined whether 16PF scale scores could contribute significantly to the prediction of a measure of fitness. Sixty-three firemen from a large metropolitan area in the Southeast were Ss. Factor M contributed significantly to the prediction of one measure of fitness (i.e., treadmill time). The assumption cited in the literature that Factor M reflects "imagination" in individuals who score high on fitness measures was questioned. The article concluded that Cattell's earlier work relating high Factor M to high energy and endurance suggests a more logical interpretation of Factor M vis à vis measures of fitness.

Adult↗