Biomedical subjects
J Hayman
Publications and source records attributed to J Hayman.
Mycobacterium ulcerans infection; is the "Bairnsdale ulcer" also a Ceylonese disease?
Mycobacterium ulcerans infection produces progressive skin ulceration in man and other mammalia. The disease was first described in 1984 in patients from the Bairnsdale district in Australia, but was known in Africa well before this time. It has since been reported from many, mostly tropical countries in Africa, central and south America, and south-east Asia. The infection characteristically occurs in closely defined areas which are related to river or lacustrian systems draining tropical or warm temperate rain forest. Like the flora to which it relates, the mycobacterium shows a Gondwanian distribution which is evidence of its great antiquity. There is evidence that cases of the infection have occurred on the Indian subcontinent. Infection if it does occur would support the theory that the mycobacterial infection is related to tropical or warm temperate rain forest plant species with a Gondwanian distribution.
Mycobacterium ulcerans infection.
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Postulated epidemiology of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection.
Mycobacterium ulcerans infection occurs in closely defined areas throughout the world, mostly in the tropics. Whenever it occurs there is a relationship with rain forest and this relationship is apparent in Gippsland, Australia which is not tropical but which contains isolated pockets of relict warm temperate rain forest. Human infection follows rain forest disturbance; it is postulated that the mycobacterium is carried into draining lacustrine systems where it multiplies over a period of months or years and is then disseminated in aerosol from to re-infect its ancestral home and incidentally to infect man.
Parathyroid hormone-related protein of malignancy: immunohistochemical and biochemical studies in normocalcaemic and hypercalcaemic patients with cancer.
Immunohistochemical staining for parathyroid hormone-related protein was performed in 27 tumours from 19 normocalcaemic and eight hypercalcaemic patients with cancer. All the tumours from hypercalcaemic patients stained positively for the protein, as did 17 tumours from normocalcaemic patients. Only hypercalcaemic patients had biochemical evidence of increased bone resorption and abnormalities of renal tubular reabsorption of calcium and phosphate, consistent with the presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein. While tumour mass was higher in hypercalcaemic patients, only one of the initially normocalcaemic patients with positively staining tumours subsequently went on to develop hypercalcaemia and more advanced disease. These data confirm the importance of parathyroid hormone-related protein as a mediator of humoral hypercalcaemia in patients with solid tumours and suggest that low tumour mass may be one reason why serum calcium values are not increased in all patients with tumours containing parathyroid hormone-related protein. None the less normocalcaemia, despite tumour progression in patients whose tumours stained positively for parathyroid hormone-related protein, suggests that other factors may also be important, such as differences in the rate of secretion of the protein by different tumours, or the production of different forms of parathyroid hormone-related protein with varying biological effects.
Identification of parathyroid hormone-related protein in canine apocrine adenocarcinoma of the anal sac.
The presence of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) in the apocrine adenocarcinoma tumor line (CAC-8) derived from a hypercalcemic dog was demonstrated by western and northern blot analyses. Western blots of CAC-8 tumor extracts revealed a major protein with a molecular weight of approximately 18,000 daltons that cross-reacted with antiserum to human PTHrP. Northern blots demonstrated multiple-sized messenger RNA transcripts in CAC-8 that hybridized to a full-length cDNA probe to human PTHrP. Adenocarcinomas derived from apocrine glands of the anal sac also were stained immunohistochemically for antigens that cross-react with antiserum to human PTHrP. The tumor line (CAC-8) maintained in nude mice stained positively for PTHrP in 13 of 24 tumors. Three of ten apocrine adenocarcinomas from dogs with hypercalcemia stained for PTHrP, whereas zero of ten tumors were positive from normocalcemic dogs. Normal canine epidermal keratinocytes and areas of squamous metaplasia in a perianal gland carcinoma also were positive for PTHrP. These data demonstrated that canine tissues contained a homologue to human PTHrP that likely is important in the pathogenesis of humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy.
Parathyroid hormone-related protein: immunohistochemical localization in cancers and in normal skin.
An immunoperoxidase method has been developed to detect parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) in histological specimens of tumors and of normal skin. A rabbit polyclonal antiserum against PTHrP-(1-16) was used that did not cross-react with PTH-(1-34) either under radioimmunoassay conditions or at the high antiserum concentrations used in neutralizing biologic activity. PTHrP antigen was detected in the keratinocyte layer of normal skin and in 100% of 34 samples of squamous cell cancers but in only one of six breast cancers, and none of 15 other adenocarcinomata. It was also detected in four of four samples of renal cortical carcinoma and two of two of melanoma, both of which can be associated with hypercalcemia, and three of three small cell carcinomata of the lung. Immunologic detection of PTHrP could be useful in the diagnosis of tumors of squamous cell origin, particularly in the cytological differentiation of lung cancers, where it may be of value in distinguishing between squamous cell and small cell carcinoma on the one hand and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma on the other.
The practice of pathology in rural Australia.
The role of the pathologist in country Australia is examined in detail. It is concluded that the presence of a pathologist is important for the proper practice of medicine in country areas. A shortage of pathologists with suitable training for these positions should be addressed by modification in training programmes, removal of selection bias against general candidates and by giving trainees the experience of working in country centres.
Suspected Mycobacterium ulcerans disease in Kiribati.
Two cases of extensive limb ulcers that had the clinical features of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection are described. This condition has not been described previously in the Central Pacific region. Both patients responded to radical debridement and skin grafting.
Mycobacterium ulcerans infection in Victoria: celebration of a golden jubilee?
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Clinical features of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection.
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The pathology of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection.
The pathology of cutaneous ulcers resulting from Mycobacterium ulcerans infection is reviewed. Initial infection causes ulceration with necrosis of the dermis and a septate panniculitis in subcutaneous fat. There is little cellular reaction despite the presence of large numbers of organisms. Recurrent or persistent infection produces a granulomatous reaction with epithelioid macrophages, variable numbers of giant cells of the Langhans type, and relatively few organisms. This type of reaction is associated with more successful treatment of the disease and appears analogous to the tuberculoid form of leprosy.
Datura poisoning--the Angel's Trumpet.
A group of seven ate flowers of Datura arborea ("The Angel's Trumpet" or "Trumpet Lilies") and suffered severe hallucinations. One member of the group drowned in shallow water while suffering from these effects. Although poisoning with related species is common, poisoning with this plant is rare, perhaps due to its terrifying rather than pleasurable hallucinogenic effect.
Cutaneous and respiratory tract infection with Mycobacterium ulcerans in two koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus).
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Mycobacterium ulcerans: an infection from Jurassic time?
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Herpes virus serology in vasectomy patients.
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Carcinoma of the urachus.
Two cases of carcinoma of the urachus are reported, 1 involving the dome of the bladder and 1 occurring beneath the peritoneum of the anterior abdominal wall below the umbilicus at the apex of an elongated bladder. Both patients died shortly after diagnosis, a fact which emphasizes the poor prognosis of this group of patients. The poor prognosis and need for more than local resection of the tumour may not be widely appreciated. Tumours arising above the bladder have a different mode of presentation from those arising within the bladder wall. Bladder wall tumours are most frequently mucus-secreting adenocarcinomas; tumours arising above the bladder may be more variable in their histological type, and include squamous and undifferentiated cancer. A simple classification into vesicle and supra-vesical tumours is proposed, to replace an early classification into 7 groups.