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Biomedical subjects

J Horwood

Publications and source records attributed to J Horwood.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

How safe is antenatal transfer between level 3 units?

The effect of antenatal transport of women between level 3 units in New Zealand on maternal and infant well-being was examined in a retrospective case-controlled study. The outcomes of women transferred to other level 3 centres because of lack of neonatal unit space were compared with women who were able to be delivered at Christchurch Women's Hospital (CWH). Of 34 women transferred out of CWH from 1991-194, 20 (59%) were delivered at the receiving centre, the remained returning undelivered. Women transferred from Christchurch were more likely to be of lower parity (p < 0.05), and were less likely to be in premature labour than those who remained in Christchurch (p < 0.05). There was a trend for the initial risk of mortality as assessed by the Clinical Risk Index for Babies (CRIB) score to be lower for those infants born out of Christchurch but this was not statistically significant. Mortality, oxygen requirement at 36 week, periventricular haemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity, and the time to regain birth-weight were not statistically different between the 2 groups, despite significantly more outborn children being male (p < 0.05). Antenatal transfer therefore seems to be a safe procedure, although this study did not consider the potentially serious side effect of social factors on transferred families.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1995

Which parts of the road guide steering?

A driver steering a car on a twisting road has two distinct tasks: to match the road curvature, and to keep a proper distance from the lane edges. Both are achieved by turning the steering wheel, but it is not clear which part or parts of the road ahead supply the visual information needed, or how it is used. Current models of the behaviour of real drivers or 'co-driver' simulators vary greatly in their implementation of these tasks, but all agree that successful steering requires the driver to monitor the angular deviation of the road from the vehicle's present heading at some 'preview' distance ahead, typically about 1 s into the future. Eye movement recordings generally support this view. Here we have used a simple road simulator, in which only certain parts of the road are displayed, to show that at moderate to high speeds accurate driving requires that both a distant and a near region of the road are visible. The former is used to estimate road curvature and the latter to provide position-in-lane feedback. At lower speeds only the near region is necessary. These results support a two-stage model of driver behaviour.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Birth placement and child health.

The standards of health and health care for a sample of 1265 Christchurch children during the period birth to three years were examined. There was a systematic tendency for levels of health care and morbidity to vary with the child's birth placement: in general adopted children had the best standard of health care and the lowest rates of morbidity; children who entered single parent families at birth had the poorest standards of health care and the highest rates of morbidity. Statistical control for family social background including maternal age, education, ethnic status, family size and changes of residence tended to reduce the size of the observed differences. However, even when the results were controlled for these factors children in single parent families still has depressed levels of preventive health care and higher rates of hospital admission. Possible explanations of the differences are discussed.

Adoption↗
PubMed1978

"Localized" carcinoma of the mobile tongue and floor of the mouth--a lesion frequently misjudged and undertreated.

A retrospective study of 74 cases of cancer of the mobile tongue and floor of the mouth, diagnosed between 1949 and 1975, with a two-year minimum follow-up was undertaken. The lesions were TNM staged, stages I and II accounting for 56 cases (76%) and stages III and IV accounting for 18 cases (24%). The analysis was restricted to the "localized" stage I and stage II lesions. In this group failure occurred in 31 patients, or 55% of the group. Failure at the primary site accounted for 10 of the failures, failure at both primary and cervical lymph nodes accounted for 14, and failure at cervical lymph nodes only accounted for 7 of the failures. The treatment for these "localized" lesions was then analyzed for modality, adequacy, presence or absence of planning failure, and survival. The results indicate the lethal nature of this lesion when inadequately treated and strongly suggest more extensive use of prophylactic therapy to the cervical lymph nodes.

Animals↗