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Biomedical subjects

J Murray

Publications and source records attributed to J Murray.

At least 307 records · Page 17Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Rhabdomyosarcoma of the oral and paraoral region.

Oral rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) was studied by analysis of eight such cases which presented over a 25-year period. Rhabdomyosarcoma was the fourth most common oral sarcoma (7.5%) from this period after osteosarcoma (32%), fibrosarcoma (19%), and chondrosarcoma (9%). In patients younger than 20 years, RMS was the second most common sarcoma (six cases) after osteosarcoma (ten cases). Combined analysis with 113 further cases documented in the literature showed the majority of cases (71.2%) were embryonal. The alveolar subtype was considered a distant second in frequency (12.3%) even though the pleomorphic subtype was apparently more common (16.4%). However, the pleomorphic cases were diagnosed before histologic criteria were established to discern this entity from other pleomorphic sarcomas and this data is probably unreliable. Site predilections were found for the soft palate, maxillary sinus and alveolus, posterior mandibular region, cheek and lip and possibly tongue. The gingiva and floor of mouth were uncommon sites. There was a predilection for occurrence in the first two decades with a decline in the third decade. Documentation of recent cases treated with a multidisciplinary approach indicated that lesions in the oral soft tissues have a good prognosis; 17 of 21 such cases showed no evidence of disease after a mean follow-up period of 7.2 years (SD = 4.4). In contrast, four of five cases in the posterior mandible resulted in death after a mean period of 1.1 years (SD = 0.3).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Reaction time impairment in schizophrenia and affective illness: the role of attention.

A young but chronic group of schizophrenic and affective disorders patients was tested for simple reaction time (RT) and RT while engaged in a concurrent task. The affective disorders patients were subdivided by the presence of psychotic features. The results show that extreme slowing of RT is due to psychoticism and is not characteristic of nonpsychotic affective illness. Extreme intrasubject variability, however, was specific to schizophrenia, and may be a trait marker of the disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenal bulb: radiographic and pathologic findings in two cases.

We reviewed the radiographic and pathologic findings in 2 patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenal bulb. Barium studies provided important information, characterizing the nature and extent of the lesion, as well as complete evaluation of the descending and horizontal segments of the duodenum before surgical therapy. Early endoscopy is recommended for nonhealing duodenal ulcers, especially if suggestive malignant changes are present.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1989

The contraceptive sponge: factors in initiation and discontinuation of use.

This study examined characteristic of the contraceptive sponge that were important in women's decisions to use the contraceptive sponge and reasons why women discontinued sponge use. A sample of 385 current sponge users and 407 former sponge users participated in a national telephone survey on sponge use. Important reasons for trying the sponge were effectiveness, comfort, convenience and ease of use and it "would not interfere with sexual pleasure." The media and physicians were of considerable influence in women's decisions to initiate sponge use, but sexual partners, friends, parents and relatives exerted little influence. The most important reasons for discontinuing use of the sponge were pregnancy, both planned and accidental, and irritation, discomfort or vaginal infection. Women may decide to use the sponge because they have unrealistically positive perceptions of sponge characteristics.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Health care provider and contraceptive care setting: the relationship to contraceptive behavior.

This study examines contraceptive delivery characteristics and their association with contraceptive behavior. Data were collected in telephone interviews from a national sample of 1057 women who were using female contraceptives. The overwhelming majority of the sample obtained contraceptive services from gynecologists and other physician specialists and were seen in private facilities. Whereas nearly half of the providers recommended use of specific methods, only one-fourth discouraged use of particular methods. The pill was both the most frequently recommended and most commonly discouraged method. With regards to the provision of contraceptive information, practitioners were most likely to discuss the effectiveness of a method. In three of the four categories examined, a higher percentage of non-MDs than MDs gave information to their patients. Although the majority of women reported they were satisfied with the quality of care, mean satisfaction ratings were higher for female providers compared to male providers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Pulmonary abnormalities in Crohn's disease.

Abnormalities of pulmonary function in Crohn's disease have been described, although the results are conflicting and anecdotal accounts of lung involvement are few. In this study we assessed the prevalence of lung function abnormalities in Crohn's disease, and the relative contributions of age, sex, smoking and past medical history, and Crohn's disease activity to the pulmonary abnormalities found. Twenty-nine patients with Crohn's disease and 29 age-, sex- and smoking-matched volunteer controls underwent detailed respiratory assessment. Airways obstruction due to chronic bronchitis and asthma was present in 13 patients with Crohn's disease, but was not more prevalent than in the control group. FEV1 was similar in both Crohn's disease and control subjects (84.2 +/- 21.2% predicted, mean +/- SD; 93.7 +/- 16.3%, respectively: n.s.). The vital capacity was significantly lower in the Crohn's disease patients than in controls (86.7 +/- 16.6%; 95.9 +/- 12.7%; P less than 0.01), but this may have been influenced by the higher prevalence of past or intercurrent medical illnesses affecting the chest in Crohn's disease patients. No patient had evidence of fibrosing alveolitis or bronchiectasis. The haemoglobin corrected transfer factor was significantly lower in the Crohn's disease patients than in controls (100.4 +/- 17.4%; 113.2 +/- 25.1: P less than 0.05) but the diffusing coefficient was not significantly different. There was a significant correlation (r = 0.44, P less than 0.05) between the residual volume and the Crohn's disease activity index but otherwise no close relationship was observed between Crohn's disease activity, extent or duration and the indices of lung function. These findings suggest that the lungs are relatively unaffected by Crohn's disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Polygons and adhesion plaques and the disassembly and assembly of myofibrils in cardiac myocytes.

Successive stages in the disassembly of myofibrils and the subsequent assembly of new myofibrils have been studied in cultures of dissociated chick cardiac myocytes. The myofibrils in trypsinized and dispersed myocytes are sequentially disassembled during the first 3 d of culture. They split longitudinally and then assemble into transitory polygons. Multiples of single sarcomeres, the cardiac polygons, are analogous to the transitory polygonal configurations assumed by stress fibers in spreading fibroblasts. They differ from their counterparts in fibroblasts in that they consist of muscle alpha-actinin vertices and muscle myosin heavy chain struts, rather than of the nonmuscle contractile protein isoforms of stress fiber polygons. EM sections reveal the vertices and struts in cardiac polygons to be typical Z and A bands. Most cardiac polygons are eliminated by day 5 of culture. Concurrent with the disassembly and elimination of the original myofibrils new myofibrils are rapidly assembled elsewhere in the same myocyte. Without exception both distal tips of each nascent myofibril terminate in adhesion plaques. The morphology and composition of the adhesion plaques capping each end of each myofibril are similar to those of the termini of stress fibers in fibroblasts. However, whereas the adhesion complexes involving stress fibers in fibroblasts consist of vinculin/nonmuscle alpha-actinin/beta- and gamma-actins, the analogous structures in myocytes involving myofibrils consist of vinculin/muscle alpha-actinin/alpha-actin. The addition of 1.7-2.0 microns sarcomeres to the distal tips of an elongating myofibril, irrespective of whether the myofibril consists of 1, 10, or several hundred tandem sarcomeres, occurs while the myofibril appears to remain linked to its respective adhesion plaques. The adhesion plaques in vitro are the equivalent of the in vivo intercalated discs, both in terms of their molecular composition and with respect to their functioning as initiating sites for the assembly of new sarcomeres. How 1.7-2.0 microns nascent sarcomeres can be added distally during elongation while the tips of the myofibrils remain inserted into submembranous adhesion plaques is unknown.

Actinin↗
PubMed1989

A comparative study of proliferating (borderline) and invasive epithelial ovarian tumours in young women.

A series of 18 patients with proliferating or borderline ovarian tumours and 18 with invasive ovarian tumours is discussed. Proliferating tumours occurred at a younger mean age than invasive disease, and presented at an earlier stage, both contributing factors to their more favourable outlook. Histopathological assessment revealed that the majority of both proliferating and invasive tumours were of serous origin. Mucinous cell type occurred less often as did the endometrioid and clear cell types. The management of the proliferating tumours involved 'radical' surgical procedures in 11 of 18 (61.6%) patients. Only 7 patients (38.8%) had conservative surgical procedures performed. Six patients (33%) had adjuvant chemotherapy while 2 (11%) also underwent abdominopelvic irradiation. All patients with invasive disease had radical surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy and 2 also received abdominopelvic irradiation. The fact that epithelial malignancies of the ovary do occur in younger women needs to be remembered by gynaecologists contemplating surgical procedures on younger patients with adnexal masses. Proliferating or borderline tumours tend to occur more frequently in the younger age groups, and contrary to the implication of their name, they are associated with significant morbidity and mortality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Locus of control in health: the effects of psychological well-being and contact with the doctor.

Previous studies have demonstrated an association between a high score on measures of "external" locus of control of health and high levels of psychosocial distress. In the present study, a measure of illness behaviour (visits to the doctor) has been added to elucidate the association between locus of control and self-reported psychological distress. In a sample of female high and low attenders at two general practices, neither physical health nor psycho-social problems were found to be associated with high scores on the measure of external locus of control. However, high attenders were more likely to score high on this measure. When a logistic model was fitted to the data an interactive variable (attendance rate x psychological symptoms) was found to have a significant effect, suggesting that psychological distress has a different effect upon the beliefs expressed by high and low attenders.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

Distribution and immunochemical characterization of a keratin-like antigen in epithelial tumors using mouse and human monoclonal antibodies.

Using conventional murine hybridoma technology, we have produced a monoclonal antibody (MAb), 89E5, which recognizes two keratin-like polypeptides (Mr 53,000 and 45,000), which are preferentially expressed by epithelial tumors. In addition to detection of tumor cells by immunohistochemistry, MAb 89E5 was able to localize to tumor xenografts in nude mice after iodination of its F(ab')2 fragments. To develop potentially less immunogenic antibodies to antigens defined by MAb 89E5, studies were performed to produce a human counterpart to the mouse MAb. The mouse 89E5 MAb was used to purify the 89E5 polypeptides from tumor cell lines. The partially purified 89E5 antigen was then used to sensitize human splenic lymphocytes in vitro. Immortalization of the sensitized cells by cell fusion resulted in a human IgM MAb, PA1, which showed the same reactivity pattern on a panel of cell lines as did the mouse MAb 89E5. Immunofluorescent studies showed that both 89E5 and PA1 had staining patterns on epithelial cells indicative of antibodies to cytokeratin. Furthermore, PA1 immunoprecipitated two polypeptides (Mr 53,000 and 45,000) which comigrated with the 89E5 polypeptides. Competitive binding assays showed that the PA1 MAb and 89E5 MAb recognized closely associated epitopes. As with the 89E5 MAb, PA1 was reactive with tumor tissues in immunohistochemical studies. These studies indicate that the PA1 MAb is a human counterpart of the mouse 89E5 MAb. Direct comparison of human MAb and mouse MAb against the same antigen could yield valuable information on the efficacy of using human MAb in vivo.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Genetic engineering of Schizosaccharomyces pombe: a system for gene disruption and replacement using the ura4 gene as a selectable marker.

A system is described for gene disruption and replacement in Schizosaccharomyces pombe based on the homologous selectable marker, ura4, the structural gene for orotidine-5'-phosphate decarboxylase. The presence of a single copy of the wild-type gene can rescue a ura4 auxotrophic mutant. Furthermore, ura4- cells can be selected for in the presence of 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA). This allows a convenient means of selecting for both forward and backward mutations. The sequence of a 1.8 kb HindIII fragment which contains the functional gene is reported. It encodes a single open reading frame of 264 amino acids which shows considerable conservation with the orotidine-5'-phosphate (OMP) decarboxylases from other organisms. The ura4 transcript is approximately 850 nucleotides long. It begins 51 bp upstream of the protein coding sequence and is unusual in that transcription termination occurs at or very close to the translational stop codon. To facilitate the use of ura4 in gene disruption experiments we have also constructed a novel strain of S. pombe called ura4-D18, in which the 1.8 kb HindIII fragment has been deleted from the chromosome. Using a combination of this strain and vectors containing ura4 as a selectable marker, we present a general method for targeting recombination events to the chromosomal locus under investigation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗