Biomedical subjects

J Rothfleisch

Publications and source records attributed to J Rothfleisch.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Relative frequency of various forms of primary cutaneous lymphomas.

BACKGROUND: Data on the relative frequency of the various forms of primary cutaneous lymphomas (PCLs) are largely limited to European institutions. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to document the relative frequencies of various PCLs seen at 3 US institutions with active cutaneous lymphoma programs and to compare those with the European data. METHODS: Included in this study are newly registered patients seen at MCP Hahnemann University, New York University, and the University of California, San Francisco from July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1998. RESULTS: A total of 755 patients were seen. The frequency distribution of the major diagnostic groups was as follows: mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome, 82.3%; lymphomatoid papulosis, 12.6% (including patients with associated mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome); CD30(+) anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, 0.9%; peripheral T-cell lymphomas, 2.9%; B-cell lymphoma, 4.5%. CONCLUSION: The most striking finding is the much lower relative frequency of primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas at US institutions (4.5%) versus the approximately 20% reported by European groups. The reason for this difference requires further study.

Epidemiologic Studies↗

PubMed1999

Use of monetary reinforcers by cocaine-dependent outpatients.

Monetary reinforcers have not been widely used as contingent reinforcers in the treatment of drug abuse, despite their demonstrated effectiveness. This is primarily due to concern that drug abusers will use monetary reinforcers to procure drugs. The present study addressed this concern by examining 48 cocaine-dependent outpatients' biweekly self-reports of how they used their earned reinforcers. For each subject, their reinforcement usage was classified into 12 higher-order categories and 34 subcategories. Usage proportions were calculated for each. Results indicated that monetary reinforcers were used very infrequently to acquire drugs or alcohol (2%). Reinforcers were used primarily for daily life activities (25%) (e.g., food and gas), money-related uses (18%) (e.g., savings and repaying debts), personal use (15%) (e.g., cosmetics and clothes), and household items (11%) (e.g., rent and bills). These findings challenge the concern that drug abusers use monetary reinforcers to purchase drugs and have important implications for the use of contingent monetary reinforcers in treatment settings.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Increased semantic priming in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Semantic priming on a lexical decision task(LDT) was examined in 50 patients with mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's Type(DAT), and 25 normal age-matched controls. DAT patients were slower in their responses, and showed significantly greater priming effects (mean 54 ms vs. 27 ms in controls). The size of the priming effect correlated with the speed of response on the LDT task for the individual DAT patients but not for controls. Twenty of the DAT patients (vs. one control) showed priming greater than 60 ms. This subgroup of DAT patients with "hyperpriming" was slower than the nonhyperpriming group on "yes" responses to targets preceded by unassociated prime words and more impaired on tests of clock drawing and verbal fluency. Slowing of responses alone, however, seems unable to account for the presence of increased priming in DAT patients. Its presence may reflect semantic memory deficits, as well as impaired attentional processing and supervisory control systems. The exact mechanism of this increased priming remains to be established.

Aged↗

PubMed1990

Acute alcohol intoxication and cognitive functioning.

Acute alcohol intoxication produces changes in the cognitive functioning of normal individuals. These changes appear similar prima facie to those exhibited by individuals who sustain prefrontal lobe damage during adulthood. In order to test the validity of this observation, and to control for the confounding effects of expectancy, 72 male subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests, within the context of a balanced-placebo design. Each subject received one of three widely different doses of alcohol. Analysis of the results of the cognitive test battery demonstrated that a high dose of alcohol detrimentally affects a number of functions associated with the prefrontal and temporal lobes, including planning, verbal fluency, memory and complex motor control. Expectancy does not appear to play a significant role in determining this effect. The implications of this pattern of impairment are analyzed and discussed.

Adolescent↗