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Biomedical subjects

J Mooney

Publications and source records attributed to J Mooney.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

The evolution of a clinical database to evaluate the treatment of coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: The field of invasive cardiology has evolved rapidly since the initial use of catheters for treatment of coronary artery disease in the late 1970's. The pace of this change coupled with the complexity of the clinical setting and proliferation of devices and drugs used for therapy have made it extremely difficult to construct and maintain a viable clinical database. METHODS: Using a standard hardware and software system with the direct clinical input from a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and biostatisticians, a clinical database was developed that is capable of tracking complex in-hospital and longterm follow-up data in patients undergoing treatment of coronary artery disease. RESULTS: The database has provided the basis for in-depth analysis of angioplasty results in patients with vessels and lesions of varying morphology, showing greater than 90% success in most complex lesion morphology using contemporary balloon technology and/or new devices. Longterm analysis (14 years) of patients after angioplasty has demonstrated that 76% survived without major cardiac events. Other analyses of various clinical and morphologic subsets have shown favorable results with angioplasty. The databases for angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery have been combined, showing comparable survival and freedom from cardiac events in multivessel disease patients treated with these procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a dynamic and clinically relevant database that has evolved has contributed valuable information to the understanding and effective management of patients with coronary artery disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary↗

Relative avidity of serum antibodies to putative periodontopathogens in periodontal disease.

ELISA was used to determine both the avidity and titre of IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies to the gram-negative anaerobe, Porphyromonas gingivalis, in twenty periodontitis patients enrolled in a longitudinal study of attachment loss and eleven non-periodontitis affected subjects. The avidity and titre of IgG antibodies to Actinobacillus Actinomycetemcomitans were also examined. A cross-sectional analysis of the longitudinal patients at baseline and non-periodontally affected controls confirmed earlier findings that IgG and IgA antibody titres to P. gingivalis were higher in periodontitis patients than in individuals who were not periodontally affected. In this cross-sectional analysis, IgG antibody avidities to P. gingivalis were not found to be significantly higher in periodontitis than in control subjects (p = 0.065). However, indications of the potential prognostic value of antibody avidity was demonstrated by the higher IgM avidities to P. gingivalis in patients who did not experience attachment loss during the three-month monitoring period than in those who did (p = 0.0005).

Adult↗

Identification of HIV-1 in semen following primary HIV-1 infection.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether HIV could be identified in semen samples during the first few weeks after infection. DESIGN: A series of three homosexual men with symptomatic primary HIV-1 infection. METHODS: Each subject provided a series of semen samples that was examined for HIV-1 by virus culture, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and transmission electron micrography. RESULTS: The first samples obtained for each subject (17, 22 and 24 days following onset of primary HIV-1 infection) were all positive by PCR and negative by viral culture. Of 13 samples obtained during the first 80 days after onset of primary HIV-1 infection and analysed by PCR, 10 were positive. Only one of these samples was virus culture-positive. Four semen samples obtained from two subjects during treatment with zidovudine were PCR-positive. Eight samples were examined for presence of HIV-1 by electron microscopy and one was found to be positive. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that men with HIV-1 infection are potentially infectious through sexual transmission during the first few weeks after infection. The findings emphasize that individuals in all stages of HIV-1 infection should practise safer sex to reduce transmission of HIV-1.

Adult↗

The ability of gingival crevicular fluid acute phase proteins to distinguish healthy, gingivitis and periodontitis sites.

3 acute phase proteins, from the local gingival inflammatory response, were examined for their ability to distinguish healthy, gingivitis and periodontitis sites. Indirect competitive immunoassays were developed for the quantification of alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2-M) and transferrin (TF), and for alpha 1-antitrypsin (alpha 1-AT), a double antibody sandwich assay was produced. Healthy (25), gingivitis (31) and periodontitis (28) sites were sampled with filter paper strips (2 x 13 mm) and the volume assessed with the Periotron 6000. The samples were eluted in phosphate-buffered saline and analyzed for alpha 2-M, alpha 1-AT and TF. The results were expressed as absolute amounts per sample (ng/30 s) and on a concentration basis (ng/microliter of GCF). Higher GCF absolute amounts of alpha 2-M, alpha 1-AT and TF were consistently obtained from diseased (gingivitis and periodontitis) sites than healthy sites (p less than 0.005). Absolute amounts of GCF alpha 2-M, alpha 1-AT and TF were increased in periodontitis sites over gingivitis sites, although these differences were not statistically significant (p greater than 0.1). When the results were expressed on a concentration basis, alpha 2-M levels from diseased sites were significantly higher than healthy sites (p less than 0.01). In addition, GCF TF concentration was increased in periodontitis compared to healthy sites (p = 0.03).

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay↗

Comparison of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression from superpotent topical steroids by standard endocrine function testing and gas chromatographic mass spectrometry.

We evaluated 38 males who had psoriasis vulgaris for evidence of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression (HPAS) during treatment with superpotent topical glucocorticosteroids. All men were treated with 49 g per week of either Betamethasone Diproprionate in an optimized vehicle or Clobetasol Proprionate ointment. Three methods used to assess HPAS were compared. Classic 8 a.m. plasma cortisol measurements, urinary-free cortisol, and 17-hydroxycorticosteroid determinations and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GCMS) quantitation of urinary cortisol metabolites were compared. Values for all methods were obtained just prior to therapy and at days 4, 7, 14, and 21 during therapy and at day 28 after treatment was stopped for 7 d. Plasma cortisol measurements correlated well with other measures of HPAS. GCMS determination of urinary cortisol metabolites was slightly more sensitive at detecting HPAS than the other two methods. Persistent HPAS after day 7 was only appreciated by GCMS. Urinary-free cortisol and 17-hydroxycortisol was the least sensitive of the three methods. Analysis of urinary cortisol metabolites by GCMS may be most useful in the monitoring of HPAS resulting from use of topical glucocorticosteroid preparations.

17-Hydroxycorticosteroids↗

A study of parasitic infections in mammals and birds at the Dublin Zoological Gardens.

The present report deals with the parasitic infections detected on examination of fresh faecal samples of 48 mammals and 4 birds at the Zoological Gardens, Dublin during 1978-79. 1,822 faecal samples were received over the two year period and 171 of these samples contained helminth eggs. Ninety-five percent of these positive findings were confined to the Carnivore and Herbivore groups with the Primates, Marsupials and Avians showing a low level of intestinal parasites.

Animals↗