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Biomedical subjects

J P Benais

Publications and source records attributed to J P Benais.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

[Euthanasia and the Dakar medical staff].

DEROBERT defines euthanasia as an "ability to get painless death for incurable patients, who are suffering from a fatal illness with unbearable bodily aches that can't be mitigated by any means". Passive euthanasia fits with doctor's abstention of any curative therapy for non curable patients at the end of life. It is different from active euthanasia in which physicians themselves get quick death for patients by giving them any drugs. This work was done in the main hospital centers in Dakar; the aim is to determine the position of medical staff about euthanasia and it's legislation. For this purpose an anonymous questionnaire was dispatched to 126 workers choosen at random in these hospitals. The result of this inquiry is that most of them (84%) are against euthanasia and agree with the idea of waiting for death at home. Religious reasons explain non practice of euthanasia.

Attitude to Death↗

[Medical secrecy].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Confidentiality↗

Simultaneous radioimmunoassay of progesterone, androst-4-enedione, pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone in specific regions of human brain.

Simultaneous determination of progesterone, androst-4-enedione, pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and 17-hydroxyprogesterone has been developed for human cerebral tissue. Before immunoassay, steroids were separated on a Celite column with propylene glycol as stationary phase with hexane containing increasing proportions of dichloromethane as mobile phase. This system allowed separation of steroids of similar polarity, especially of pregnenolone and progesterone. The brain regions studied cortex (prefrontal, parietal and temporal), cerebellum and corpus callosum, were obtained after autopsy from 9 women and 1 man between 76 and 93 years of age. Steroids were found in all regions. The overall concentrations expressed in nmol/kg of tissue were: 10.1, 7.6, 120.7, 19.6 and 10.4 respectively, for progesterone, androst-4-enedione, pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone, corresponding to 7.3, 4.9, 74, 6.5 and 9.2 times the plasma levels. These very high concentrations, not previously described in human brain tissue, pose the question of the existence of local biosynthetic pathways independent of the peripheral endocrine gland system as well as that of progressive accumulation of steroids over a lifetime. Concentrations of each steroid in each subject varied little among the various brain regions studied, but there was much variation among the subjects with respect to the concentrations of a given steroid.

17-alpha-Hydroxyprogesterone↗