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Biomedical subjects

J M Ross

Publications and source records attributed to J M Ross.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

A new approach to preparing students for academic medicine.

Critical thinking and self-directed learning by students are goals strongly endorsed by medical educators. Teaching medical interviewing and physical diagnosis skills is one of the most important tasks in medical school. An elective for fourth-year students was designed to address both areas. Ten senior medical students spent one month with a teaching staff member and fellow in general medicine. Part of the course was designed for independent problem-solving posed by sophisticated medical problems encountered in a general medicine practice. Skills in problem formulation, reading and assessing the medical literature, and communicating with peers were learned or improved. In the remainder of this course five pairs of senior students precepted 28 randomly chosen second-year students and taught medical interviewing and physical diagnosis. Techniques of teaching and basic pathophysiology were reviewed, and role-playing, feedback, demonstration and role-modelling were used.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1989

Measurement of nuclear oestrogen receptors in human breast tumours.

Recent reports suggest that oestrogen receptors detected in the cytosolic fraction of homogenized human breast tumours might be mainly nuclear receptor released into the cytoplasm during tissue processing. This study thus compares the tumour content of steroid hormone receptors in conventional cytosolic receptor assays with direct measurements of receptor in the cell nucleus. Unoccupied cytoplasmic oestrogen receptors (cER), cytoplasmic progesterone receptors (cPR) and total (occupied plus unoccupied) nuclear oestrogen receptors (nER) have been measured in parallel in human breast tumour tissue using biochemical radioreceptor assay. Of 125 tumours, 62% and 61% were positive for cER and cPR, respectively, 50% contained nER with high affinity for oestradiol (nER I) and 13% expressed nER with low affinity for oestradiol (nER II). The concentration of cER correlated significantly with age, cPR and log nER I. A significant proportion of tumours which were positive for both cytosol receptors also possessed nuclear receptors with high and low affinity for oestrogen. It is possible that this group of tumours which are positive for cER, cPR, nER I and nER II will respond well to hormone therapy.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1985

A system of affective learning behaviours for medical education.

Two basic questions are raised about the relationship between emotion and learning, the affective domain of education: how can objectives be defined without specifying 'desirable' attitudes?; and how, as part of learning, do we revised existing attitudes? A model of the affective domain is described which links, in the setting of the consultation, the emotion and learning behaviours of the doctor. The model depicts a system in which emotion and behaviour are interdependent, and existing values can be amended. From the model the attributes of sensitivity and flexibility are defined in terms of the doctor's capacity to modify behaviour and control the impact of emotion. The present unsatisfactory position of affective learning in medical education and training is reviewed; and its importance to general practice re-emphasized. Use of the model to define objectives in this domain is proposed.

Affect↗
PubMed1984

Allergy to insulin.

Allergy to insulin occurs in nearly all insulin-treated patients, is a clinical problem in about 15 per cent of patients, and can be life-threatening in 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of patients. This article summarizes the clinical expression of insulin allergy and reviews some aspects that contribute to our understanding and therapy of this allergy.

Desensitization, Immunologic↗
PubMed1984

The infrequent occurrence of mycoplasmas in amniotic fluid from women with intact fetal membranes.

As human genital mycoplasmas have been associated with various forms of reproductive failure, the present study was undertaken to investigate whether M. hominis and U. urealyticum organisms (ureaplasmas) are capable of crossing intact fetal membranes. Nearly 300 women in Denmark and England were investigated. Most of them were seen at about the fourth month of gestation and the remainder towards or at the time of birth, all with unruptured membranes. A swab was taken from the uterine cervix or vagina and M. hominis was isolated from 9% of the women and ureaplasmas from half of them. The presence of these mycoplasmas was not associated with an abnormal outcome of pregnancy. In contrast to the frequent presence of mycoplasmas in the lower genital tract, amniotic fluids obtained by transabdominal amniocentesis or at cesarean section did not contain M. hominis and ureaplasmas were isolated from only one of them. This was associated with the same ureaplasmas serotype being recovered from the cervix and also from the blood of both infant and mother, whose case differed from the others as labor had already started when the amniotic fluid was obtained. Thus, in our populations, we have no evidence that mycoplasmal invasion of the amniotic fluid occurs before the onset of labor. During labor, despite intact membranes, it seems that genital mycoplasmas may occasionally invade the fetal--placental unit, probably by the hematogenous route after strong uterine contractions, or otherwise directly after membrane rupture. Since both these events are followed usually by immediate delivery, there would seem to be insufficient time for the genital mycoplasmas to cause fetal damage.

Amniotic Fluid↗
PubMed1981

Interaction of calmodulin with histones. Alteration of histone dephosphorylation.

The Ca2+-dependent regulator protein (CDR), also frequently termed "calmodulin" was determined to influence the dephosphorylation of mixed calf thymus histones or purified histones 1, 2A, or 2B by a partially purified bovine brain phosphoprotein phosphatase. CDR increase the rate of dephosphorylation of mixed histones more than 20-fold. With increasing concentrations of mixed histones as substrate, a proportionate increase of CDR concentration was required to maintain maximal expression of histone phosphatase activity. Mixed histones suppressed the activation by CDR of a bovine brain cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase activity, with activation being restored by increased quantities of CDR. Dephosphorylation of casein and phosphorylase alpha by the phosphatase preparation was not affected by CDR. These observations support the interpretation that the effects of CDR on histone dephosphorylation are substrate-directed. The rates of dephosphorylation of histones 1, 2A, and 2B by the phosphatase were 4- to 12-fold more rapid at low (sub-micromolar) concentrations of free Ca2+ than at high (200 microM) Ca2+ in incubations containing CDR, but they were unaffected by Ca2+ in incubations without CDR. The addition of stoichiometric quantities of calmodulin increased the apparent Km of the phosphatase for the various histones 2- to 6-fold, while maximal velocities were 4- to 12-fold higher at low than at high added Ca2+. The inhibitory effect of Ca2+ on histone dephosphorylation was immediately reversible by chelation of Ca2+ with EDTA. Ca2+-dependent inhibition of histone 1 or 2B phosphatase activities was also produced by rabbit skeletal muscle troponin C, but not by rabbit skeletal muscle parvalbumin, by poly(L-aspartate) or poly(L-glutamate). The phosphorylated fragment from the NH2-terminal region of either H2A (generated by treatment with N-bromosuccinimide) or H2B (generated by treatment with cyanogen bromide) was dephosphorylated by the phosphatase, with the rates of dephosphorylation being reduced 3- to 6-fold by Ca2+ in incubations containing CDR.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

The effect of genital mycoplasmas on human fetal growth.

The relation between maternal genital colonization by mycoplasmas and fetal growth was examined in a study of 195 women. Swabs were taken from the endocervix on three occasions during pregnancy and once post partum. Ureaplasma urealyticum organisms (ureaplasmas) were recovered from 42.7 per cent of Caucasian women and from 34.6 per cent of Asian women at their first antenatal visit. These isolation rates remained similar throughout pregnancy, although there was a decrease in isolation after delivery. Mycoplasma hominis was recovered from 6.5 per cent of Caucasians and from 11.5 per cent of Asians at their first antenatal visit and these rates remained fairly constant during pregnancy and after delivery. Caucasian women colonized by ureaplasmas had a longer mean length of gestation (p less than 0.025) than non-colonized women. Furthermore, the colonized women gave birth to infants who had a statistically significant greater mean birth weight and a greater mean birth weight-for-dates than those of the non-colonized Caucasians. There was no correlation between gestational length, birth weight, or birth weight-for-dates and genital colonization of Asian mothers by ureaplasmas or M. hominis. It is clear the ureaplasmas are not associated with low birth weight in our population.

Asia↗
PubMed1980

Genital flora during pregnancy and colonization of the newborn.

A longitudinal study of the cervical and vaginal microflora of 131 pregnant women showed a similar range of organisms at first visit (up to 16 weeks), at 28 weeks and at 36 weeks of pregnancy. Twenty different groups or genera of microorganisms were recovered, predominantly lactobacilli. There was a fall in the isolation rate of organisms in the mothers 6 to 8 weeks after delivery. Lactobacilli and yeasts including Candida albicans were recovered less frequently whereas the incidence of Escherichia coli and group B streptococci increased.Infants born to these mothers were swabbed within 24 hours of delivery and yielded organisms from the umbilicus, ear and mouth in 24%, 33% and 38% of cases respectively. Alpha haemolytic streptococci and Staphylococcus aureus were the predominant organisms. Sixteen different groups or genera were isolated.The isolation rates in non-pregnant women attending a `well-women' clinic were similar to those in the postnatal mothers; few women of 60 years or more were colonized.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Notes on the genesis of pathological splitting.

In this preliminary paper, we have concentrated on the reverberating system that may develop as parents respond to the rapprochement toddler's ambitendent communications of split objects and to some of the ways in which these interactions may become reactivated later in borderline transference phenomena. We have hypothesized that such splits in mental content underlie communication of a fixed, binary and dualistic nature, such as communication that characterizes the so-called double bind. We have further suggested that the double bind, when understood in the context of object relations, usefully highlights the process whereby parent and then therapist become unwitting participants in the toddler's or borderline's world of split-off part objects. Finally, we have touched on certain therapeutic implications, emphasizing the developmental impact of interpreting borderline transference phenomena.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1979

Perinatal implications of the lower genital tract flora.

In a longitudinal study of the microflora of the lower genital tract at three stages in pregnancy and once postnatally, 20 different groups or genera of microorganisms were isolated. No substantial change was demonstrated in the flora as pregnancy progressed, although there was a fall in the rate of isolation of organisms after delivery. Few infants acquired organisms from their mother's lower genital tract. Caucasian mothers colonized by genital ureaplasmas gave birth to infants with a higher mean birth weight for length of gestation than the infants of ureaplasma-negative mothers. There was no correlation between birth weight and maternal genital colonization with ureaplasmas in the infants of Asian mothers. Group B streptococci were recovered from the ano-rectum more frequently than from the posterior vaginal fornix during pregnancy and strains recovered from these sites in individual patients were indistinguishable by serotyping and phage typing, suggesting that the ano-rectum or bowel is the probable source of the organism. Group B streptococci were never recovered from Asian patients (16% of the study population). Sera of women colonized with group B streptococci and cord sera from their infants had higher levels of type-specific IgG antibody than non-colonized controls and their neonates.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗