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Biomedical subjects

J Mulligan

Publications and source records attributed to J Mulligan.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Poor growth in school entrants as an index of organic disease: the Wessex growth study.

OBJECTIVE: To establish whether poor height or height velocity, assessed during the year of school entry, might identify children with previously undiagnosed organic disease. DESIGN: Observation of a total population and their case controls. SETTING: Community base. SUBJECTS: All 14,346 children in two health districts entering school during two consecutive years were screened for height by school nurses, and those whose height lay below the 3rd centile according to Tanner and Whitehouse standards (n = 180) were identified. After excluding 32 with known organic disease, five from ethnic minorities, and three who refused to take part, the remaining 140 short normal children were matched with 140 age and sex matched controls of average height (10th-90th centile) and their height velocities over 12 months measured. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Height, height velocity, previously diagnosed organic disease, and organic disease diagnosed as a result of blood tests and specialist examination. RESULTS: Twenty five of the 180 short children (14%) were already known to have chronic organic disease which could explain their poor growth. Blood tests and specialist examination revealed a further seven with organic disease, which was acquired rather than congenital in three, and a second cause of short stature in one with known organic disease. These eight conditions had been missed at the school entry medical examination. The shorter the child, the more likely an underlying organic disorder, with seven of the 12 children whose heights were more than 3 standard deviations below the mean having some organic disease. Height velocity measured over 12 months, however, did not distinguish short normal children from those with disease or from their matched controls. CONCLUSIONS: Height, but not height velocity, is a useful index for identifying unrecognised organic disease at school entry. The shorter the stature the greater the prevalence of organic disease. The frequency of newly diagnosed remediable disease in this study (1 in 3-4000) is similar to that of neonatal hypothyroidism, which is routinely screened for. Routine investigation of all very short school entrants is recommended.

Body Height↗
PubMed1991

Communication problems between doctors and nurses.

Communication difficulties between hospital doctors and nurses are well documented. A survey undertaken jointly by medical and nursing administration at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, verified difficulties in doctor-nurse communication as perceived by doctors and nurses, as well as by ward clerks as impartial observers. Questionnaire responses revealed some impediments in the flow of communication. Both nurses and doctors perceived less frequency of difficulties in communicating with members of their own professional group than with members of the other group. Nurses with university preparation and other special clinical qualifications perceived significantly fewer communication problems with doctors than nurses with less education. Interns perceived greater frequency in difficulty communicating with nurses than did more highly qualified doctors, and female doctors who were not interns claimed fewer problems than their male counterparts. Moreover, more highly qualified male doctors who had a previous occupation acknowledged fewer doctor-nurse communication problems.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1991

Short stature and school performance--the Wessex Growth Study.

The relationship between short stature and school performance was examined by comparing an unselected cohort of 140 'normal' short children (below 3rd centile) aged between 7 and 9 years with 140 control children of normal height (10th-90th centiles). The short children had unimpaired self-esteem and normal patterns of behaviour, but a tendency towards hyperactivity and poor concentration. Their IQ scores were normal, but attainment, especially in reading, was low. The underachievement observed in the short children is largely due to the low socio-economic status of this group. All the children in the study were prepubertal and these data will serve as a baseline for further follow-up during and after puberty.

Body Height↗
PubMed1986

Oral nicotine induces an atherogenic lipoprotein profile.

Male squirrel monkeys were used to evaluate the effect of chronic oral nicotine intake on lipoprotein composition and metabolism. Eighteen yearling monkeys were divided into two groups: 1) Controls fed isocaloric liquid diet; and 2) Nicotine primates given liquid diet supplemented with nicotine at 6 mg/kg body wt/day. Animals were weighed biweekly, plasma lipid, glucose, and lipoprotein parameters were measured monthly, and detailed lipoprotein composition, along with postheparin plasma lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTGL) activity, was assessed after 24 months of treatment. Although nicotine had no effect on plasma triglyceride or high density lipoproteins (HDL), the alkaloid caused a significant increase in plasma glucose, cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol plus protein while simultaneously reducing the HDL cholesterol/plasma cholesterol ratio and animal body weight. Levels of LDL precursors, very low density (VLDL) and intermediate density (IDL) lipoproteins, were also lower in nicotine-treated primates while total postheparin lipase (LPL + HTGL) activity was significantly elevated. Our data indicate that long-term consumption of oral nicotine induces an atherogenic lipoprotein profile (increases LDL, decreases HDL/total cholesterol ratio) by enhancing lipolytic conversion of VLDL to LDL. These results have important health implications for humans who use smokeless tobacco products or chew nicotine gum for prolonged periods.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1986

Oral nicotine impairs clearance of plasma low density lipoproteins.

The effect of chronic oral nicotine intake on plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) clearance, lipid transfer protein, and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) was examined in male atherosclerosis susceptible squirrel monkeys. Eighteen yearling primates were divided into two groups: 1) Controls fed isocaloric liquid diet; and 2) Nicotine monkeys given liquid diet supplemented with nicotine at 6 mg/kg body wt/day for a two-year period. Averaged over 24 months of treatment, animals in the Nicotine group had significantly higher levels of plasma and LDL cholesterol compared to Controls while plasma LCAT activity was similar for both groups. Following simultaneous injection of 3H LDL and 14C high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesteryl ester (CE), removal of the latter was not altered by oral nicotine while plasma clearance of 3H LDL was dramatically delayed in Nicotine monkeys. Transfer of 14C HDL CE to very low density lipoprotein (VLDL)-LDL particles was greatly accelerated in the Nicotine group vs Controls while the reciprocal movement of 3H LDL CE to HDL was only higher in experimental animals at two time points following injection of the isotopes. Results from this study provide evidence that one major detrimental effect of long-term oral nicotine use is an increase in the circulating pool of atherogenic LDL which is due to: 1) accelerated transfer of lipid from HDL; and 2) impaired clearance of LDL from the plasma compartment. Diminished removal of LDL is of particular importance because an extended residence time of these particles in circulation would increase the likelihood of their deposition in the arterial wall.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1985

Sensitivity to shearing and compressive motion in random dots.

The sensitivity of the visual system to motion of differentially moving random dots was measured. Two kinds of one-dimensional motion were compared: standing-wave patterns where dot movement amplitude varied as a sinusoidal function of position along the axis of dot movement (longitudinal or compressional waves) and patterns of motion where dot movement amplitude varied as a sinusoidal function orthogonal to the axis of motion (transverse or shearing waves). Spatial frequency, temporal frequency, and orientation of the motion were varied. The major finding was a much larger threshold rise for shear than for compression when motion spatial frequency increased beyond 1 cycle deg-1. Control experiments ruled out the extraneous cues of local luminance or local dot density. No conspicuous low spatial-frequency rise in thresholds for any type of differential motion was seen at the lowest spatial frequencies tested, and no difference was seen between horizontal and vertical motion. The results suggest that at the motion threshold spatial integration is greatest in a direction orthogonal to the direction of motion, a view consistent with elongated receptive fields most sensitive to motion orthogonal to their major axis.

Humans↗
PubMed1985

Ethanol induced alterations in low and high density lipoproteins.

Male squirrel monkeys fed ethanol (ETOH) at variable doses were used to determine whether alcohol modifies levels of plasma low density lipoproteins (LDL) in addition to increasing high density lipoproteins (HDL). Because we earlier showed that high alcohol consumption enhances lipoprotein cholesterol synthesis, experiments were also performed to further assess whether ETOH alters lipoprotein clearance and plasma transfer processes in vivo. Monkeys were divided into three groups: Controls fed isocaloric liquid diet; and Low and High ETOH animals fed liquid diet with vodka substituted isocalorically for carbohydrate at 12 and 24 of the calories, respectively. High ETOH primates had significantly more LDL lipid and protein while serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase was similar for the three groups. Although removal of 3H LDL cholesteryl ester (CE) from the plasma compartment was not affected by dietary ETOH, transfer of LDL CE to HDL was impaired in the High ETOH group suggesting a mechanism for the enlarged circulating pool of LDL. Transfer of 14C HDL CE to lower density lipoproteins was similar for the three groups. However, ETOH at both doses delayed clearance of radiolabeled HDL CE from circulation. Thus besides enhancing synthesis of lipoproteins, ETOH at a moderately high dose (24% of calories) influences lipoprotein levels in primates by modifying lipid transfer processes (LDL) as well as by altering clearance (HDL) without adversely affecting liver function.

Animals↗