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Biomedical subjects

J Steel

Publications and source records attributed to J Steel.

44 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Nutritional enhancement of parasite control in small ruminant production systems in developing countries of South-East Asia and the Pacific.

Nutritional insufficiency and gastrointestinal nematode parasitism are major constraints to small ruminant production in south-east Asia and the Pacific Islands. Research on the effects of low cost supplements which supply nitrogen and essential minerals on the ability of small ruminants to resist infection is summarised. In controlled pen studies in young Merino sheep offered a low quality roughage diet of oaten chaff and essential minerals, supplementation with urea reduced the effects of parasitic infection by increasing weight gain and wool production and reducing faecal egg output and parasite burden. In Fiji, field studies have shown that supplementation with urea-molasses blocks can result in increased live-weights of lambs at weaning, increased reproduction rates in maiden ewes and reduction in faecal egg output in grazing sheep. Additional benefits were derived from the inclusion of anthelmintic in the blocks in similar groups of sheep particularly during periods of greater susceptibility to parasites. Pen studies with young goats have shown that urea supplements alone gave no production benefits, but when accompanied by 100 g/d of cotton seed meal beneficial responses were observed. It is expected that parasite control in the small ruminant production systems of developing countries in south-east Asia and the Pacific Islands will benefit from the introduction of low cost nitrogen supplements along with anthelmintic therapy delivered strategically by molasses blocks.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behaviour therapy for phobia of venepuncture.

A 28-year-old female insulin-dependent diabetic patient developed a severe phobia to venepuncture which seriously interfered with her medical treatment. A two-month course of behaviour therapy successfully alleviated the phobia.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Do demographic variables affect the timing of referral to the nephrologist?

The consequences of late referrals for nephrological care include: increased morbidity, poorer quality of life on dialysis and probably increased mortality. Few studies look at the socio-demographic factors which influence referral to the nephrologist. There is good evidence from studies in other areas of health care that socio-demographic and economic factors influence access to health care. It is important that the nephrology community understand whom the individuals are who likely to be referred late so that we can address any inequality in access to services. We studied all of the patients who started renal replacement therapy in our unit over a five-year period, 1st January 1996 to 31st December 2000 (n = 494). We collected data on gender, age at referral, ethnicity, the date that the individual started dialysis as well as the date they were first seen by a nephrologist. We analysed the data to see if age, gender or ethnicity was associated with timing of referral. If an individual had seen a nephrologist more than three months prior to starting dialysis, they were termed 'early referred', if not they were termed 'late referred' Since this was a sociologically driven research project, we set statistical significance at the 10% (0.1) level. Our data showed that gender did not affect the timing of referral (p = ns), ethnicity affected referral in so much as whites were more likely to be referred late than blacks (p = 0.08) but no more so than non-whites (p = ns). People under the age of 30 were statistically more likely to be referred late than people over the age of 30 years (p = 0.027) as were people under the age of 40 (p = 0.047). We interpret these finding as demonstrating that health care professionals are referring older people and people from the black community in good time and that, in contrast to other studies of inequalities in health, these findings demonstrate that the elderly and ethnic minorities are not being disadvantaged.

Adult↗