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Biomedical subjects

J Cuthbert

Publications and source records attributed to J Cuthbert.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Some plasma constituents correlate with human cataract location and nuclear colour.

AIMS: To look for differences in levels of various plasma constituents between pair-matched controls and patients who had cataracts classified by location and appearance of lens opacity and nuclear colour in order to identify systemic risk factors. METHODS: One thousand patients were taken from the cataract waiting list of a specialist eye hospital. For each patient, a matched control of the same sex and half-decade of age but without cataract was taken from the patient-list of the family doctor of the patient; the control was the next alphabetically after the patient on the doctor's list. At an early morning visit to the homes of both patients and controls, fasting, a team of nurses performed venepunctures and collected information for a questionnaire. Eye examinations were performed by a team of ophthalmologists. RESULTS: Predominantly nuclear cataract was significantly associated with raised plasma alanine aminotransferase and bilirubin, posterior subcapsular cataract with increased calcium and urea, cuneiform with reduced potassium, mature/hypermature with raised potassium and reduced total carbon dioxide. The following were consistently significantly associated with all forms of cataract; diabetes and raised plasma glucose (not in non-diabetics), use of steroid medication, raised levels of cortisol (steroid users excluded), albumin, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, sodium and total protein and reduced levels of cholesterol and albumin/(total protein-albumin) ratio (an approximation for the albumin/globulin ratio). The multivariate analysis indicated that the most important non-specific cataractogenic effects were those of increased total protein, diabetes and use of steroid medication. CONCLUSION: This and other studies support, broadly, the conclusions that senile or age-related cataract is not merely caused by increasing age and also that various morphological types have different risk factors. The mechanisms underlying the biochemical associations with different patterns of lens opacification and the identification of the ultimate risk factors remain to be elucidated.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Human cataract risk factors: significance of abstention from, and high consumption of, ethanol (U-curve) and non-significance of smoking.

Current ethanol consumption and cigarette smoking were quantified by questionnaire in Edinburgh and suburbs, Scotland, UK. Stringently matched cataract-control pairs (n = 990 and 858, respectively) were included. For ethanol, 'light and infrequent' consumption and 'light and frequent' were associated with a significantly lower risk of cataract than were total abstention and 'occasional' consumption; the prevalence of cataract rose with further increases in consumption, suggesting a U-shaped curve. For nuclear cataract, white in particular, there is a significant trend with amount consumed. Smoking was not found to be a risk factor.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1996

Skin disease and age-related cataract.

Dermatological conditions and treatments were analysed in a study comparing cataract patients and stringently matched controls. One thousand patients were taken from the cataract waiting list of a specialist eye hospital. For each patient a matched control of the same gender, half-decade of age, and family doctor but without cataract was selected. Venepunctures and eye examinations were performed on both patients and controls; in addition, questionnaire information was obtained from each. Age-related cataract is significantly associated with dermatological abnormality and its treatment, the former association being more significant and more pronounced after 69 years of age. The association of hydrocortisone use after 69 years of age and cataract, however, remains significant even after adjustments for dermatological abnormality and steroid use, suggesting that even among steroid medications hydrocortisone is particularly strongly associated with cataract.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Some blood plasma constituents correlate with human cataract.

AIMS: To look for differences between matched pairs of patients and controls in concentrations of various plasma constituents which might indicate dysfunctions associated with cataract. METHOD: One thousand patients were taken from the cataract waiting list of a specialist eye hospital. For each patient a matched control of the same sex and half-decade of age but without cataract was taken from the patient list of the family doctor of the patient; the control was the next alphabetically after the patient on the doctor's list. The patients and controls were visited in their homes by a team of nurses who performed venepunctures and collected information for a questionnaire. Eye examinations were performed by a team of ophthalmologists. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the cataract and control groups in 10 of the 18 examined plasma constituents. A constellation of three--bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase--was significantly higher in the cataract group, suggesting subclinical liver dysfunction as a risk factor. Steroid treatment and diabetes increased cataract risk. Endogenous basal plasma cortisol levels were raised in the cataract group, irrespective of steroid use and diabetic status. Alkaline phosphatase, calcium, glucose, and sodium were all raised in the cataract group. Given the raised total protein and albumin also found in the cataract group, the lower albumin/(total protein-albumin) ratio (an approximation for albumin/globulin ratio) may imply an increase in globulin, suggestive of possible (chronic) infection. Total cholesterol was lower in the cataract group. CONCLUSION: Human cataract in older age groups seems to be due to an accumulation of risk factors, even if individual mean concentrations are well within normal limits but, of course, differing significantly from the corresponding means in the control population.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Glasgow Council on Alcohol: trends and developments in a community based voluntary organisation (1968-1989).

Since 1968, Glasgow Council on Alcohol has steadily increased the scope and variety of its efforts to help problem drinkers and their families. Apart from a large increase in client numbers over the last 20 years, there has been a number of interesting developments in identifying 'at risk' groups and directing them into the helping process. Prevention of alcohol problems has also become a major issue for this agency.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1989

Antisperm antibodies and sperm motility: a study using timed exposure photomicrography.

This study examined the effect of antisperm antibodies on sperm motility. Antisperm antibodies present in seminal plasmas with different sperm agglutinating titres were transferred passively to normal donor sperm, and the effects on movement characteristics (velocity of forward progression, amplitude of lateral head displacement, percentage progressive motility and percentage non-progressive motility) were analysed using timed exposure photomicrography. There was no significant association between sperm movement characteristics and the presence of titre of antisperm antibodies in seminal plasma. Furthermore, no differences were detected between those samples that possessed sperm agglutinating versus sperm immobilizing activity. These findings do not support the common belief that antisperm antibodies are a cause of poor sperm motility in semen.

Antibodies↗
PubMed1989

Clinical characteristics of subfertile men with antisperm antibodies.

This study investigated the clinical features which could serve as markers to identify subfertile men with antisperm antibodies including age, duration of infertility, history of abdominal or perineal surgery and previous genital trauma. Of the 162 men studied, 43 had a positive test for antisperm antibodies. A significantly greater number of these patients had a history of genital trauma and appendicectomy. Whereas the aetiological role of genital trauma in spermatozoal autoimmunity is readily explicable, that of appendicectomy is not. It can only be postulated that inflammation of the appendix may sometimes affect the vas deferens or that there is some inadvertent injury to the vas deferens during appendicectomy.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Diuretic drugs as risk factors in cataractogenesis.

The use of diuretic drugs, which previously has been found to be associated with the incidence of cataract, is further investigated to elucidate the nature of the association. Diuretic drugs with different modes of action are considered separately. The degree of association of each correlates with the mean plasma urea level which itself is associated with cataract. However, the association is with cataract in general rather than with any specific type of lens opacity.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗
PubMed1985

The expression of chick alpha A2-crystallin RNA during lens development and transdifferentiation.

During development of the vertebrate lens, the lens epithelium undergoes a final stage of differentiation into lens fibre cells, during which the major lens proteins, the crystallins, are synthesised. Lentoids, comprising clusters of lens fibre cells can also be produced by transdifferentiation from certain non-lens tissues, including neural retina and pigmented retinal epithelium. We have isolated an alpha A2-crystallin genomic probe and used it to study the transcription and processing of alpha A2-crystallin mRNA both during lens development and transdifferentiation. We relate these results to earlier measurements in this laboratory of delta-crystallin transcription and alpha- and delta-crystallin protein synthesis, to compare the expression of these two sets of genes. Tissue specific differences in gene expression were found. delta-crystallin mRNA is transcribed before alpha A2-crystallin RNA in the lens, but after it in transdifferentiating neural retina and pigmented epithelia.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Epidemiological and other studies in the assessment of factors contributing to cataractogenesis.

Some problems of cataract epidemiology are briefly reviewed. Studies of the incidence and prevalence of cataract, and of economic status, measure social need but cannot, by themselves, point to possible causes. Information on geographical or regional distributions and medical, clinical and occupational studies permit the formulation of socially, medically or experimentally testable hypotheses concerning specific contributory factors. We have found several such factors to be significantly associated with cataract; they appear to be risk factors. Some risk factors are associated with subclinical deviations from the range of normal concentrations of certain plasma constituents, whereas clinically or experimentally acute deviations are known to be rapidly cataractogenic. Other risk factors include medical conditions and certain drugs. Although individuals may have several risk factors, controls have significantly fewer than cataract patients of the same age. This difference in the number of risk factors is also age-related, as is the degree of divergence from the normal range in the concentrations of several plasma constituents.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Studies of lens enzyme activities in relation to cataract type and plasma constituents.

The specific activities of glutathione reductase (GR), EC 1.6.4.2, and aldolase, (ALD) EC 4.1.2.13, were determined in the homogenates of 60 cataractous lenses. Concentrations of certain plasma constituents and the morphological types of cataract of the patients were known. Investigations were aimed at establishing a possible correlation between enzyme activities and plasma constituents as well as between the specific activities of GR and ALD and type of cataract. A correlation between the specific activity of GR and the urea content of the blood could be identified. Results also indicated a relationship between the decrease in GR activity and the formation of cortical cataracts.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗
PubMed1982

Some risk factors associated with cataract in S.E. Scotland: a pilot study.

Problems of epidemiological studies of cataract are outlined. Some results are reported from a study on 931 cataract patients and 325 non-cataractous individuals. After correction by age and sex several single variables were found to have significant positive or negative correlations with cataract. Interactions between variables were found; these include age, diabetes, the use of diuretics and cataract, between age, sex, the level of alcohol consumption and cataract, and between age, sex, plasma urea levels and the use of different diuretic drugs, only some of which were found to have a positive association with cataract.

Aged↗
PubMed1978

Thyroid function in lung cancer.

Thyroid function was assessed at the time of initial diagnosis in 204 patients with lung cancer and compared with that of age and sex-matched patients with non-malignant lung disease. Abnormalities in thyroid function were found in 67 patients (33%). The most prevalent abnormality was a low T3 concentration; this was not associated with other clinical or biochemical evidence of hypothyroidism, but the short-term prognosis of these patients was worse than that of matched patients with lung cancer having normal T3 concentrations. Primary hypothyroidism occurred in three patients, low T4 concentrations and free thyroxine index (FTI) with normal thyrotrophin (TSH) concentrations in four patients, and moderately raised TSH with normal thyroid hormone concentrations in six patients; nine patients had a raised FTI with or without raised T4 concentration as the sole abnormality.Overall, the pattern of thyroid hormone metabolism in lung cancer was a tendency towards reduced T3 concentrations with significantly increased T4/T3 ratios and modestly increased 3,3',5'-triiodothyronine (rT3) concentrations. The altered T4/T3 ratio was particularly noticeable in patients with anaplastic tumours of small ("oat cell") and large cell types, but was not apparently related to detectable extrathoracic metastases.These data suggest that thyroid hormone metabolism is altered in patients with lung cancer by decreased 5'-monodeiodination of T4. The resulting low T3 concentrations and altered T4/T3 ratio may be partly responsible for the reduced ratio of androsterone to aetiocholanolone observed in lung cancer, which is known to be a poor prognostic sign.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1978

Serum biochemical markers in lung cancer.

The prevalence of elevated serum levels of 5 potential tumour-associated antigens was determined in patients with lung cancer sampled at the time of initial presentation, using age- and sex-matched patients with benign lung disease as controls. Elevated levels (greater than upper 95th centile of controls) were found as follows: carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), 17%; pregnancy-associated alpha-macroglobulin (PAM), 16%; casein 14%; human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) 6%; alpha-foetoprotein (AFP), 1.5%. The prevalence of elevated CEA levels (but not other markers) was higher in patients with evidence of extra-thoracic tumour spread (23%) mainly due to anaplastic tumours and adenocarcinomas. A degree of concordance of elevated marker levels occurred with CEA, HCG, casein and AFP, but there was a striking discordance of elevated CEA and PAM levels. Simultaneous assays of CEA and PAM will detect the majority of patients with elevations of any of the markers studied, and are likely to be the most useful biochemical markers in following the response of lung tumours to therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Effects of ultrasonication of the rabbit lens in situ as evaluated by analysis of crystallin composition.

Ultrasonication and aspiration is a recently developed method of lens extraction. We have attempted todetermine whether extraction by this procedure is total or partial and, if so, whether certain regions or components are preferentially removed, and also whether the contents of the lens are physico-chemically modified by the process of extraction. The water-soluble and urea-soluble protein fractions from the ultrasonicated lenses and the contra-lateral intact lenses of six rabbits were analysed by isoelectric focusing. Differences are found in the crystallin content which indicate that extraction is frequently non-representative and that beta- and gamma- crystallins are modified by the process.

Animals↗