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Biomedical subjects

J C Wright

Publications and source records attributed to J C Wright.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Tear film osmolality determination: an evaluation of potential errors in measurement.

The technique of tear film osmolality determination using a nanoliter freezing point depression type osmometer was studied to determine what factors affect the accuracy of the technique. Reflex tearing during microcapillary sampling of the tears caused a 5% decrease in tear film osmolality. Evaporation effects of sampling, retrieval and osmolality determination of samples resulted in an increase of 0.2% for one microliter volumes and 1.2% and 1.3% for 0.50 and 0.25 microliter volumes of samples, respectively. Evaporation of the sample during storage between layers of immersion oil resulted in increasing osmolalities of 0.5, 0.2 and 0.2%/day for sample volumes of 0.25, 0.50 and 1.0 microliter respectively over 14 days. Samples (1.0 microliter) stored at 4 degrees C showed an increase in osmolality of 1.25 mos/kg/day. These results suggest that reflex tearing is one major source of variation in tear film osmolality determinations and that avoidance of reflex tearing is critical to the accuracy of the technique.

Drug Stability↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: gastrointestinal cancer--colorectal cancer, Part 2.

An update of the state of the art of cancer chemotherapeutic treatment of gastrointestinal tract cancer is described in a multi-part series. Part 1 surveyed colorectal cancer and the use of single-agent chemotherapy in the April issue of the Journal. Part 2 of colorectal cancer will describe combination chemotherapy, preoperative and postoperative radiation, and combinations of chemotherapy and radiation, and adjuvant chemotherapy.In advanced gastrointestinal tract cancer, chemotherapy is only of palliative value with response rates generally under 50 percent and survival rates of several months to one year or more. Combination chemotherapy often produces higher response rates, yet there is no acceptable evidence that survival is improved. While some adjuvant chemotherapy trials suggest improvement, major survival gains remain to be demonstrated. Uncertainty as to the role of chemotherapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers may be due to lack of data.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: gastrointestinal cancer, cancer of the pancreas.

An update of the state of the art of cancer chemotherapeutic treatment of gastrointestinal tract cancer is described in this multiple-part series. A review of cancers of the colon, rectum, and anus was published in the April and May issues of the Journal. In this section, cancer of the pancreas and its treatment with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and adjuvant chemotherapy are discussed.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: gastrointestinal cancer, cancer of the stomach and carcinoid tumors.

Cancer chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer provides only palliation with perhaps increased survival time in some patients. The primary treatment of gastric carcinomas is surgical, as this is the only hope for cure. It is estimated that 80 to 85 percent of patients with newly diagnosed cases of stomach cancer will be dead of their disease within five years. Radiation therapy alone is seldom employed, except as a palliative measure to control hemorrhage or pain. There are no data to suggest that postoperative radiation increases survival rates.Single-agent chemotherapy is of temporary palliative value in 20 to 30 percent of cases with a duration of response from three to five months. Combination chemotherapy has shown a somewhat higher response rate than single-agent therapy. In advanced gastric cancer, there is no evidence of improved long-term disease-free survival rates with any combination yet reported.The treatment of carcinoid cancer of the intestinal tract is surgical removal, as this offers the only hope of cure. Radiation therapy is of little benefit, except for moderate palliation in cases of extensive liver metasasis. Carcinoid cancers are moderately sensitive to chemotherapy.While some adjuvant chemotherapy trials suggest improvement, major survival gains remain to be demonstrated. Uncertainty as to the role of chemotherapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers is probably due to lack of data.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: gastrointestinal cancer, cancer of the small intestines, gallbladder, liver, and esophagus.

This article updating cancer chemotherapy of gastrointestinal cancer completes the fivepart series begun in the April issue of the Journal. Treatment of cancer of the small intestine, the gallbladder and bile duct, primary cancer of the liver, and the esophagus are reviewed in this concluding article.Treatment of choice of cancer of the small intestine is surgical resection. Small bowel cancer is less responsive than gastric cancer to chemotherapy. While chemotherapy may produce temporary partial remissions in patients with gallbladder and bile duct cancer, there is no evidence that it produces longterm survival time. In primary liver cancer, surgery is the only curative treatment, but only 30 percent of patients are diagnosed with resectable lesions, and the surgical mortality rate is high. The most active single agents appear to be doxorubicin, fluorouracil, and neocarcinostatin. Data on combination chemotherapy are limited.With carcinoma of the esophagus, 95 percent of patients die of the condition. The standard treatment for locoregional disease is surgical resection and/or radiation therapy. Chemotherapy has been slow to develop; single-agent chemotherapy has been reported to be active in 15 percent of cases with durations of 2 to 5 months. Combination chemotherapy is so recent that data are incomplete as to long-term results of disease-free and total survival times, but polychemotherapy appears to be more effective than single agents.With earlier detection, prompt surgery, earlier chemotherapy, improved dose scheduling, and further exploration of combination therapy, better overall results with a major impact years later may be expected. Because of the lack of data, there remains uncertainty as to the place of chemotherapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: gastrointestinal cancer--colorectal cancer, Part 1.

An update of the state of the art of cancer chemotherapeutic treatment of gastrointestinal tract cancer is described. A review of cancers of the colon, rectum, anus, pancreas, stomach, small intestine, biliary passages, liver, and esophagus will be published in a multiple-part series. Part 1 will survey colorectal cancer and the use of single-agent chemotherapy.In advanced gastrointestinal tract cancer, chemotherapy is only of palliative value with response rates generally under 50 percent and with duration of several months to one year or more. Combination chemotherapy often produces higher response rates, yet there is no acceptable evidence that survival is improved. While some adjuvant chemotherapy trials suggest improvement, major survival gains remain to be demonstrated. Uncertainty as to the role of chemotherapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers may be due to lack of data.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: head and neck cancer, Part 1.

Squamous cell tumors of the head and neck are sensitive to a variety of chemotherapeutic agents, of which the most consistently active are methotrexate, bleomycin, and cisplatin. In recurrent disease, active single agents or combination chemotherapy can provide important yet temporary palliation of the disease in from 30 to 60 percent of patients with a duration of months. In previously untreated disease, however, a variety of effective combinations of drugs, mostly platinum-based combinations, are providing high response rates ranging from 60 to 90+ percent and are often associated with complete remissions.When induction chemotherapy is followed by definitive surgery and/or radiation therapy, there are beginning to appear evidences of increased disease-free survival and improved survival rates in some uncontrolled trials. Further appropriate randomized studies are necessary to establish whether polychemotherapy combined with surgery and/or radiation therapy will bring cancer of the head and neck further upon the horizon of cure.Part 1 of this study will review single-agent chemotherapeutic agents; Part 2, to be published in the November issue of the Journal, will evaluate polychemotherapy combined with surgery and/or radiation therapy.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Update in cancer chemotherapy: head and neck cancer, Part 2.

Until further controlled trials demonstrate a clear advantage for combination chemotherapy, single-agent chemotherapy will be considered the standard palliative therapy for recurrent squamous cell tumors of the head and neck. The most consistently active of the single agents include methotrexate, bleomycin, and cisplatin, which have produced important, but temporary, responses in 30 to 60 percent of patients. Part 1 describing single-agent chemotherapy was published in the October issue of the Journal.There are suggestions in some trials that disease-free intervals as well as increases in survival time are achieved when combination chemotherapy is administered as a first-line therapy before standard surgery and/or radiation therapy. Further randomized studies are needed to establish the final role of chemotherapy in the multimodal treatment of cancer of the head and neck.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1985

Site-selective laser spectroscopy of lanthanide-binding sites in calmodulin.

Site-selective laser spectroscopy has been used to resolve the spectral features of lanthanide fluorescence probe ions in calcium-binding proteins. The capabilities and characteristics of this technique are studied using bovine brain calmodulin where the calcium-binding sites are very similar. Two distinct spectral features are identified. These features were followed during a Eu3+ titration and were found to fill successively, showing they correspond to the high- and low-affinity sites. One set of spectral features is assigned to domains I and III, which are the high-affinity domains, while the other set is assigned to domains II and IV. Additional nonspecific binding is observed after the domains are filled. Tb3+ titrations confirmed earlier results that the tyrosine-containing domains fill second and third (R. W. Wallace, E. A. Tallant, M. E. Duckter, and W. Y. Cheung, 1982, J. Biol. Chem. 257(4), 1845-1854). Site-selective laser spectroscopy was also used to identify the presence of ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether) N,N'-tetraacetic acid contamination that could cause interference in titrations.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Postmortem interval estimation from body temperature data only.

One of the most consistently used methods of postmortem interval estimation (PMIE) is by means of body temperature measurements. Several variations of this method exist, from simple 'rules of the thumb' to quite complex equations requiring a knowledge of body mass and height. All of these methods employ a certain degree of approximation and perhaps the use of standard values and tables, and all of them are susceptible to some degree of error. The present study, at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Leeds, was initiated by the Home Office to investigate the extent of the errors which might be encountered in the use of these methods, and to devise a more simple and accurate method. The method devised is called the time-dependent-z equation, for purely theoretical reasons. It will be referred to as the TDZE method. The TDZE method requires the measurement of two rectal temperatures, about 1 h apart, a little mental arithmetic and reference to a single standard curve. The method is valid for all bodies, obese or emaciated, clothed or naked, in all environmental conditions, without modification. Results of the use of the method on data collected from 67 coroner's cases compare favourably with the results obtained by the use of other methods on the same data.

Body Temperature↗
PubMed1985

The theoretical aspects of the time dependent Z equation as a means of postmortem interval estimation using body temperature data only.

It has been clearly demonstrated that the rectal cooling curve does not obey Newton's Law, which is exponential. The first success in modelling rectal cooling mathematically was achieved by Marshall and Hoare [1]. An amendment was made to the simple exponential curve which led to a good mathematical model, exhibiting the three main sections of rectal cooling, i.e. lag, linear and quasi-exponential. The resultant method of postmortem interval estimation required a knowledge of the body mass and height. The present study has led to a totally different amendment to Newton's Law, which provides a means of postmortem interval estimation from body temperature data only. The derivation of the method, with a background on Newton's Law follows.

Body Temperature↗
PubMed1985

Update in cancer chemotherapy, Part III: Lung cancer, Part 1.

An update in cancer chemotherapy that deals with the various therapies of lung cancer is described. At present, the stage of the disease and cell type are the major factors that determine the treatment. Important differences in the biological behavior and response to treatment exist between small cell and non-small cell cancers. The small cell type is sensitive to many chemotherapeutic agents. Differences in response to chemotherapy and survival have been less among the non-small cell types.The treatment of non-small cell carcinomas including squamous cell, large cell, and adenocarcinoma are reviewed in Part I of this paper. Small cell lung cancer will be described in Part II, which will be published in a future issue of the journal.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1985

Update in cancer chemotherapy, Part IV. Lung cancer, Part 2.

An update of cancer chemotherapy in 1985 that deals with the various therapies of lung cancer is described. At present, the stage of the disease and cell type are the major factors that determine the treatment. Important differences in the biological behavior and response to treatment exist between small cell and non-small cell cancers. Treatment of the small cell type, which is sensitive to many of the cancer chemotherapeutic agents, is discussed in this paper. Treatment of the non-small cell types was described in the October issue of the Journal.

Anticoagulants↗
PubMed1985

Update on cancer chemotherapy: general considerations and breast cancer. Part II.

An update of the state of the art of chemotherapeutic treatment of the late and early stages of breast cancer is described. Important progress has been made in the control of cancer of the breast since the introduction of effective cancer chemotherapy. Of the common tumors, breast cancer is the most responsive to a wide variety of cancer chemotherapeutic agents.Part I of this article (J Natl Med Assoc 77:8 639-647) reviewed the current use of cancer chemotherapeutic agents in general in the treatment of common types of cancer and the use of hormone therapy in the treatment of breast cancer. Part II describes the use of nonhormonal treatment of breast cancer.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1985

Update in cancer chemotherapy: general considerations and breast cancer, Part I.

A general review of the current use of cancer chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of common types of cancer and an update of the state of the art of chemotherapeutic treatment of the late and early stages of breast cancer in 1984 are described. Since the introduction of effective cancer chemotherapy, important progress has been made in the control of cancer of the breast. Of the common tumors, breast cancer is the most responsive to a wide variety of cancer chemotherapeutic agents.In this two-part paper, Part I reviews the use of hormone therapy in the treatment of breast cancer; Part II, which will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal, will describe the use of nonhormonal treatment.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1984

Conjunctival goblet cell densities in ocular surface disease.

Goblet cell densities were determined in the eyes of normal subjects and in the eyes of patients with various ocular surface diseases using an impression cytological technique. For normal eyes goblet cell densities on the interpalpebral bulbar and inferior palpebral ocular surfaces were 443 (+/- 266 [+/- SD]) and 1,972 (+/- 862) cells millimeter, per square, respectively. All patients in the ocular surface disease groups had decreased goblet cell densities compared with subjects with normal eyes. Compared with normal eyes, eyes with keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) demonstrated a 17% greater goblet cell loss on the interpalpebral bulbar compared with the inferior palpebral ocular surface, while eyes with blepharitis and secondary KCS demonstrated an 8% greater loss on the inferior palpebral surface compared with the interpalpebral bulbar ocular surface. Eyes with cicatricial ocular pemphigoid and Stevens-Johnson syndrome demonstrated greater than 95% goblet cell loss on both the interpalpebral bulbar and inferior palpebral ocular surfaces compared with normal eyes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Linkage analysis in a large kindred with autosomal dominant transmission of polyglandular autoimmune disease type II (Schmidt syndrome).

Schmidt syndrome (PGA syndrome type II) is a rare condition characterized by polyglandular failure. It is an autosomal dominant trait with variable expressivity that was inherited over four generations in an the Indiana kindred. Association of HLA-B8 has been reported with Schmidt syndrome. Our proband is a 12-year-old boy with Addison disease, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), and vitiligo. Two of his eight sibs had either IDDM (sister) or vitiligo and hyperthyroidism (brother). His mother had hypothyroidism. Seven members of earlier generations apparently were also affected. We obtained peripheral blood for HLA and genetic analysis from 21 relatives in a family with 8 Schmidt syndrome individuals in three generations. HLA studies on 15 affected and unaffected relatives showed only 2 of 7 persons with B8-containing haplotypes. Therefore, no association exists between the B8-containing haplotype and the syndrome. We identified informative marker loci. No evidence for linkage of the Schmidt locus to any of the 14 markers was found and close linkage to esterase D and adenylate kinase and possibly properdin factor B was excluded.

Addison Disease↗