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Biomedical subjects

J Peters

Publications and source records attributed to J Peters.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

Bacteriological and serological findings in a further case of transfusion-mediated Yersinia enterocolitica sepsis.

A 13-year-old patient developed severe shock due to administration of a Yersinia enterocolitica-contaminated red blood cell concentrate. Y. enterocolitica (serotype O:9, biotype II) was cultivated from the residual blood in the blood bag and from a stool sample of the blood donor. In the donor's plasma immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgA, and IgG antibodies against Yersinia outer proteins (YopM, -H, -D, and -E) were found. Since the donor remembered a short-lasting, mild diarrhea 14 days prior to blood donation, a transient attack of Yersinia enteritis may be associated with a longer than expected period of asymptomatic bacteremia that causes contamination of donor blood. Serological screening for IgM antibodies against Yersinia outer proteins might offer a way to reduce the risk of transfusion-associated Y. enterocolitica sepsis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Association between air pollution and lung function growth in southern California children.

Average growth of lung function over a 4-yr period, in three cohorts of southern California children who were in the fourth, seventh, or tenth grade in 1993, was modeled as a function of average exposure to ambient air pollutants. In the fourth-grade cohort, significant deficits in growth of lung function (FEV(1), FVC, maximal midexpiratory flow [MMEF], and FEF(75)) were associated with exposure to particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometer (PM(10)), PM(2.5), PM(10)-PM(2.5), NO(2), and inorganic acid vapor (p < 0.05). No significant associations were observed with ozone. The estimated growth rate for children in the most polluted of the communities as compared with the least polluted was predicted to result in a cumulative reduction of 3.4% in FEV(1) and 5.0% in MMEF over the 4-yr study period. The estimated deficits were generally larger for children spending more time outdoors. In the seventh- and tenth-grade cohorts, the estimated pollutant effects were also negative for most lung function measures, but sample sizes were lower in these groups and none achieved statistical significance. The results suggest that significant negative effects on lung function growth in children occur at current ambient concentrations of particles, NO(2), and inorganic acid vapor.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Immunohistochemical diagnosis of chronic wasting disease in preclinically affected elk from a captive herd.

An immunohistochemical (IHC) method was used to test brain tissues from 17 elk in a captive herd in which chronic wasting disease (CWD) had previously occurred. The IHC technique detects the protease-resistant prion protein (PrP-res), which is considered a disease-specific marker for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), regardless of the species affected. Of the 17 elk tested, 10 were positive by IHC. Only 2 of these 10 animals had shown clinical signs and histologic lesions of CWD, and an additional animal had histologic lesions only. The most consistently IHC-positive tissue was medulla oblongata, especially the obex. These results show that the PrP-res IHC test on brain tissue, specifically medulla oblongata at the obex, should be considered an essential component of any surveillance study intended to determine the incidence of CWD in captive or free-ranging cervids.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Tissue-specific expression of a rat renin transcript lacking the coding sequence for the prefragment and its stimulation by myocardial infarction.

An alternative transcript of the rat renin gene was recently characterized in the adrenal gland, in addition to the known messenger RNA (mRNA) coding for preprorenin. In the alternative transcript, exon 1 is replaced by exon 1A, a domain originating in intron 1. The reading frame of this mRNA, termed exon 1A-renin transcript, codes for a truncated prorenin that presumably remains intracellular, in contrast to preprorenin, which is targeted to the secretory pathway by its prefragment. We here demonstrate the tissue-specific regulation of expression of both transcripts by RT and PCR. In many tissues both transcripts are present, for example in the adrenal gland, spleen, liver, and hypothalamus. In some organs, however, only one of the renin mRNAs is found. In the kidney only the full-length mRNA coding for preprorenin is detected. In the heart exclusively the exon 1A-mRNA is expressed, but not the preprorenin transcript. After myocardial infarction, which is known to activate the intracardiac renin-angiotensin system, expression of exon 1A-renin mRNA in the left ventricle was stimulated about 4-fold, compared with that in sham-operated animals, whereas no mRNA corresponding to preprorenin was detectable. These findings may have implications for the current concepts of local extrarenal renin-angiotensin systems, as they provide the molecular basis for a possible intracellular function of renin and exclude a role for locally produced secretory renin in the heart.

Alternative Splicing↗
PubMed2000

Management of patients with atopic eczema in the primary care setting.

Nurses in primary care are ideally placed to successfully manage patients with common skin conditions such as eczema. The ability to manage the condition involves combining knowledge of the disease process, aggravating triggers, allergens and the role of the topical therapies that in combination are used to control the condition. Nurses must be able to offer the patient practical information about the application of therapies and changes to lifestyle and environment to enable the patient/carer to anticipate and control potential exacerbations of the disorder. This article cannot discuss all age groups and types of eczema in definitive detail, but introduces the principles of care for this group of patients.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMed2000

Combined lidocaine and salbutamol inhalation for airway anesthesia markedly protects against reflex bronchoconstriction.

BACKGROUND: Lidocaine inhalation, in subjects with bronchial hyperreactivity, attenuates evoked bronchoconstriction but also irritates airways. Whether salbutamol pretreatment can mitigate airway irritation and whether combined treatment offers more protection than treatment with either drug alone is unknown. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of the inhalation of lidocaine, salbutamol, lidocaine and salbutamol combined, and placebo on an inhalational histamine challenge. METHODS: Fifteen patients with mild asthma were selected by a screening procedure (ie, a provocative concentration of a substance [histamine aerosol of < 18 mg/mL] causing a 20% fall in FEV(1) [PC(20)]). On 4 different days after pretreatment with the inhalation of lidocaine (5 mg/kg), inhalation of salbutamol (1.5 mg), combined treatment, or placebo, the histamine challenge was repeated. RESULTS: The baseline FEV(1) after lidocaine inhalation but prior to the histamine challenge decreased by > 5% in 7 of 15 volunteers, with a mean (+/- SD) decrease from 3.82 +/- 0.90 to 3.54 +/- 0.86 L (p = 0.0054). The baseline PC(20) for histamine was 6.4 +/- 4.3 mg/mL. Both lidocaine and salbutamol inhalation significantly increased PC(20) more than twofold (14.9 +/- 13.7 and 16.8 +/- 10.9 mg/mL, respectively; p = 0, 0007) at a lidocaine plasma concentration of 0.7 +/- 0.3 microg/mL. Combined treatment quadrupled the PC(20) to 29.7 +/- 20.3 mg/mL (vs lidocaine, p = 0.002; vs salbutamol, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Thus, histamine-evoked bronchoconstriction, as a model of reflex bronchoconstriction, can be significantly attenuated by salbutamol or lidocaine inhalation. However, lidocaine inhalation causes significant initial bronchoconstriction. The combined inhalation of salbutamol and lidocaine prevents the initial bronchoconstriction observed with lidocaine alone and offers even more protection to a histamine challenge than either lidocaine or salbutamol alone. Therefore, the combined inhalation of lidocaine and salbutamol can be recommended to mitigate bronchoconstriction when airway instrumentation is required.

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed2000

[Galactography: important preoperative method for breast surgery].

Galctography still is a very important method in the diagnosis of breast disease. We studied the influence of indication on the diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy of galactography. Between 1990 and 1998 210 galactographies performed in a standardized fashion were evaluated in relation to the histopathologic findings. Most of the pathology was caused by papilloma followed by ectatic ducts and carcinoma. There was also a large number of normal ducts. In patients that were operated on, there was a very high percentage of agreement between radiological and histopathological diagnosis. If indication and performance are precise, galactography yields very good results and thus contributes substantially to the surgical approach. In particular it guides the surgeon safely to the pathologic finding and thus guarantees its excision within a small volume of tissue.

Breast↗
PubMed2000

[Lupus erythematosus profundus of the breast].

Lupus erythematosus of the breast is a rare disease. It causes very firm nodules that clinically may resemble carcinoma of the breast. Mammography does not show these nodules because of their high content of fatty tissue, whereas sonographically they can be identified as homogeneous, highly echogenic lesions in the subcutaneous fat with no capsule that are connected to the skin. CT shows them as lesions of low attenuation (-50 to -70 HU) in the subcutaneous fat.

Biopsy↗
PubMed2000

Changes in the ambulatory activity and discriminative stimulus effects of psychostimulant drugs in rats chronically exposed to caffeine: effect of caffeine dose.

Caffeine is a common psychoactive constituent of coffee, carbonated beverages, and over-the-counter medications. This study examined the effects of chronic caffeine exposure on the behavioral response to acute administrations of psychostimulant drugs on ambulatory activity and on the pharmacological characteristics of nicotine discrimination in rats. Rats were maintained continuously on caffeine added to the drinking water at a concentration of 0.25 or 1. 0 mg/ml that resulted in plasma caffeine concentrations ranging from 0.37 to 5.95 microg/ml. Rats maintained on tap water served as control groups. Exposure to the lower caffeine concentration (0.25 mg/ml) potentiated stimulatory effects of nicotine, amphetamine, and cocaine on ambulatory activity and failed to produce tolerance to the acute stimulatory effects of caffeine. In contrast, exposure to the higher caffeine concentration (1.0 mg/ml) did not alter the effects of the psychomotor stimulants on ambulatory behaviors but resulted in the development of complete, insurmountable tolerance to the acute stimulatory effects of caffeine. In the nicotine discrimination paradigm (0.4 mg/kg, training dose, a fixed-ratio 10 schedule of food delivery in a two-lever choice paradigm), rats exposed to the lower, but not to the higher, caffeine concentration acquired the nicotine discrimination significantly faster and were more sensitive to the effects of amphetamine and cocaine in substitution tests than water-drinking rats. Caffeine exposure did not change pharmacokinetic properties of nicotine (i.e., plasma levels, metabolism). In summary, exposure to two different caffeine solutions within a range of plasma levels observed in humans resulted in quantitatively distinct changes in psychostimulant-induced nonoperant and operant measures of behavior. These results suggest that dietary consumption of moderate doses of caffeine may be associated with enhanced reactions to some psychostimulants.

Amphetamine↗
PubMed2000

Wife killing: risk to women as a function of age.

Younger women, relative to older women, incur elevated risk of uxoricide-being murdered by their husbands. Some evolutionary theorists attribute this pattern to men's evolved sexual proprietariness, which inclines them to use violence to control women, especially those high in reproductive value. Other evolutionary theorists propose an evolved homicide module for wife killing. An alternative to both explanations is that young women experience elevated uxoricide risk as an incidental byproduct of marriage to younger men who commit the majority of acts of violence. We used a sample of 13,670 uxoricides to test these alternative explanations. Findings show that (a) reproductive-age women incur an elevated risk of uxoricide relative to older women; (b) younger men are overrepresented among uxoricide perpetrators; and (c) younger women, even when married to older men, still incur excess risk of uxoricide. Discussion examines competing explanations for uxoricide in light of these findings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Diabetes care delivery in the community.

Specialist nurses and practice nurses were asked about the future care and management of Type 2 diabetes. Consensus was high on issues such as audit, evidence-based practice, experience and record keeping. There were differences in opinion about nurse prescribing, teamwork, professional responsibility and education/training.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

OIG to issue compliance guidelines for physicians.

Interventional physicians, like many other small physician practices, are bracing for a soon-to-be released document from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services that will provide guidance to physician practices interested in developing compliance programs for their practices. The purpose of these compliance programs is to demonstrate to government authorities that a provider has made an institutional commitment to adhere to all relevant laws as a matter of everyday practice, and may establish a strong basis for minimizing any penalties if a violation actually occurs. Even though these guidances issued by OIG are non-binding, they are particularly useful as they reflect the OIG's position on a wide range of compliance issues directly impacting physician practices. Physician compliance documents should include the elements that OIG believes are crucial for an effective plan including: written compliance policies and procedures, compliance officer/compliance committee, effective training and education, effective lines of communication, disciplinary protocols to enforce the plan, monitoring and auditing of the plan/program, and responsiveness to detected offenses and the development of corrective action plans.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Identification of imprinted loci by methylation-sensitive representational difference analysis: application to mouse distal chromosome 2.

Imprinted genes are distinguished by different patterns of methylation on their parental alleles, a property by which imprinted loci could be identified systematically. Here, representational difference analysis (RDA) is used to clone HpaII fragments with methylation differences on the maternal and paternal copies of distal chromosome (Chr) 2 in the mouse. Uniparental inheritance for this region causes imprinting phenotypes whose molecular basis is only partially understood. RDA led to the recovery of multiple differentially methylated HpaII fragments at two major sites of imprinted methylation: paternal-specific methylation at the Nesp locus and maternal-specific methylation at the Gnasxl locus. Nesp and Gnasxl represent oppositely imprinted promoters of the Gnas gene, which encodes the G-protein subunit, Gsalpha. The organization of the Nesp-Gnasxl-Gnas region was determined: Nesp and Gnasxl were found to be 15 kb apart, and Gnasxl was found to be 30 kb upstream of Gnas. Sites of imprinted methylation were also detected at the loci for neuronatin on Chr 2 and for M-cadherin on Chr 8. RDA was highly effective at identifying imprinted methylation, and its potential applications to imprinting studies are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

The solution structure of VAT-N reveals a 'missing link' in the evolution of complex enzymes from a simple betaalphabetabeta element.

BACKGROUND: The VAT protein of the archaebacterium Thermoplasma acidophilum, like all other members of the Cdc48/p97 family of AAA ATPases, has two ATPase domains and a 185-residue amino-terminal substrate-recognition domain, VAT-N. VAT shows activity in protein folding and unfolding and thus shares the common function of these ATPases in disassembly and/or degradation of protein complexes. RESULTS: Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we found that VAT-N is composed of two equally sized subdomains. The amino-terminal subdomain VAT-Nn (comprising residues Met1-Thr92) forms a double-psi beta-barrel whose pseudo-twofold symmetry is mirrored by an internal sequence repeat of 42 residues. The carboxy-terminal subdomain VAT-Nc (comprising residues Glu93-Gly185) forms a novel six-stranded beta-clam fold. Together, VAT-Nn and VAT-Nc form a kidney-shaped structure, in close agreement with results from electron microscopy. Sequence and structure analyses showed that VAT-Nn is related to numerous proteins including prokaryotic transcription factors, metabolic enzymes, the protease cofactors UFD1 and PrlF, and aspartic proteinases. These proteins map out an evolutionary path from simple homodimeric transcription factors containing a single copy of the VAT-Nn repeat to complex enzymes containing four copies. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that VAT-N is a precursor of the aspartic proteinases that has acquired peptide-binding activity while remaining proteolytically incompetent. We propose that the binding site of the protein is similar to that of aspartic proteinases, in that it lies between the psi-loops of the amino-terminal beta-barrel and that it coincides with a crescent-shaped band of positive charge extending across the upper face of the molecule.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗