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Biomedical subjects

J Kraus

Publications and source records attributed to J Kraus.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

Outpatient computer-based 32-hour esophageal pH studies teletransmitted to a central esophageal laboratory.

Using a computer-based 32-hour esophageal pH system with a small patient-worn digital recording computer, outpatient studies are performed in the physiologic environment of the patient's workplace and home. Samples are taken at 15-s intervals, and the pH data stored in this computer are then fed into the main computer in the Central Esophageal Laboratory for analysis, scoring, printing out, and storage. Satellite esophageal laboratories located in regional hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices conduct pH studies by telecommunication, using antimony electrodes, a recording computer, and a modem to transmit data to the main computer for high-quality computer analysis. One main computer and associated personnel serve multiple satellite stations. This maintains patient-physician relationships and is highly cost-effective.

Computers↗

Relatedness and classification of Streptococcus mutans and "mutans-like" streptococci.

The "mutans-like" streptococci can be separated into five species (Streptococcus mutans, S. rattus, S. sobrinus, S. cricetus, and S. ferus) that belong to the same rRNA homology cluster. New valuable chemical characters for differentiation of the five species--such as peptidoglycan type, presence of cell wall teichoic acid, and cell wall sugar composition--are described. The peptidoglycan type and the cell wall sugar composition can be determined by rapid procedures.

Animals↗

Hip dislocations in myelodysplasia: a functional assessment.

We reviewed the records of 281 patients with myelodysplasia to ascertain the effect of hip dislocation on their ability to walk. There was no difference in the prevalence of myelodysplasia by gender. When adjusted for neurologic level and patient age, no statistical differences were found in the methods of locomotion between patients with hip dislocations and those without. Data (from this report and other published investigations) show that treatment for hip dislocation in myelodysplasia is unnecessary and fraught with many complications.

Adult↗

Juvenile offenders' diversion potential as a function of police perceptions.

The study concerns the relationship of police perception of arrested male juveniles to potential police diversion (operationally defined by perception of juveniles as deserving lenient treatment). Arresting officers (n = 102) from 20 police stations provided structured reports on 174 juveniles, covering 27 questions that police considered important in encounters with juvenile offenders. Of 16 independent variables suitable for analysis, only 4 were significantly related to diversion potential when other variables were held constant (multiple regression analysis). Only 26% of the potential's variance was accounted for by the 16 variables jointly. Factor analysis yielded six latent dimensions (orthogonal factors) of police perception of juvenile offenders: offensive behavior, conformity of appearance, delinquent background, nonserious offense, favorable impression, single offender. All dimensions except "delinquent background" were significantly related to diversion potential, and an empirical rationale could be found for three of these relationships. The findings are discussed critically. It is concluded that the importance of interpersonal variables in police encounters with juveniles might be less than has been suggested in the literature.

Adolescent↗

Immunochemical studies on cultured fibroblasts from patients with homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency.

Fibroblast extracts from 20 individuals with homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency were analyzed for the presence of immunoreactive synthase antigen as cross-reacting material (CRM). CRM was quantitated by competitive and direct immunotitration using rabbit antiserum against homogeneous human liver synthase. The lower limit of sensitivity for detection of CRM was 1.5% of the amount of synthase antigen in control extracts. Each of 14 mutant extracts with detectable synthase activity had detectable CRM ranging from 5% to 100% of the amount found in control extracts. No statistically significant correlation was observed between the percent residual activity and the percent CRM. Of six mutant extracts without measurable catalytic activity, three had no detectable CRM, while three had 13%, 17%, and 26% CRM, respectively. These results extend our information about the biochemical heterogeneity previously found in synthase deficiency, and emphasize that such deficiency is caused by a wide array of mutations affecting the structural locus for cystathionine beta-synthase.

Antigens↗

Juvenile drug abuse and delinquency: some differential associations.

Juvenile court histories were investigated of male and female juvenile drug offenders and of control groups of juvenile delinquents never charged with drug-related offences. On most of the parameters of drug-related and of other criminal offences, criminal involvement was greatest among opiate abusers, followed by those abusing sedatives, and then by cannabis abusers. However, this difference was less marked among females than among males. Involvement with crime not related to drugs was greater among delinquents abusing opiates and sedatives than among delinquent controls, while the criminality of delinquents abusing cannabis was less than that of the controls. There were significant differences between the patterns of offences of the four groups, which did not support the economic necessity hypothesis of crime among (at least juvenile) drug abusers. The findings were consistent with progression from soft to hard drugs, and with the view that where juvenile delinquency and drug abuse co-exist, the former tends to precede the latter. The association between juvenile drug abuse and delinquency seems to be accounted for by a common denominator of a sociopathic character development, rather than by some form of causal relationship between these two phenomena.

Adolescent↗

Affinity of cystathionine beta-synthase for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in cultured cells. A mechanism for pyridoxine-responsive homocystinuria.

Previous attempts to correlate in vivo pyridoxine-responsiveness with in vitro assays of cystathionine beta-synthase activity in synthase-deficient homocystinuric patients have been only partially successful. All such studies, however, have been conducted with extracts of cultured skin fibroblasts grown in medium containing a high concentration (1,000 ng/ml) of pyridoxal. Having recently shown that such growth conditions may obscure important aspects of enzyme-coenzyme interactions by saturating most synthase molecules with their cofactor, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, we have established conditions for growth of cells in pyridoxal-free medium. Under these conditions, intracellular pyridoxal 5'-phosphate fell by >95%, and saturation of cystathionine beta-synthase apoenzyme with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate decreased from a predepletion value of 70% to <10%. When such depleted cells were grown in media containing pyridoxal concentrations ranging from 0 to 1,000 ng/ml, cellular pyridoxal 5'-phosphate reached a maximum of 30 ng/mg cell protein at a medium pyridoxal concentration of 100 ng/ml. Maximal saturation of aposynthase with coenzyme in control cells was reached at a medium pyridoxal concentration of 10 ng/ml. In contrast, maximal saturation of residual aposynthase in cells from an in vivo responsive patient was achieved at a medium pyridoxal concentration of 25-50 ng/ml, whereas that from cells from an in vivo unresponsive patient was reached at 100 ng/ml. Estimates of the affinity of control and mutant cystathionine beta-synthase for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in cell extracts supported the differences observed in intact cells. The apparent K(m) of cystathionine beta-synthase for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in extracts of depleted cells from four in vivo-responsive patients was two to four times that of control. In contrast, the K(m) for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in two lines from in vivo nonresponsive patients was 16- and 63-fold normal. These results suggest that cystathionine beta-synthase activity in cells from patients containing a mutant enzyme with a moderately reduced affinity for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate can be increased by pyridoxine supplements in vivo, whereas that from patients whose enzyme has a more dramatically reduced affinity for the coenzyme cannot be so modulated because of limits on the capacity of such cells to accumulate and retain pyridoxal 5'-phosphate.

Apoproteins↗