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Biomedical subjects

J Thomas

Publications and source records attributed to J Thomas.

At least 541 records · Page 30Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Methylprednisolone treatments alter apomorphine-induced circling in the rat model of 6-hydroxydopamine-induced striatal denervation.

Intrastriatal injection of 6-hydroxydopamine causes significant depletion of dopamine which is associated with contralateral apomorphine-induced rotation in rats. Pretreatment with methylprednisolone (MP) causes almost complete elimination of the apomorphine-induced behavioral responses. In addition, there were significant differences between the lateralization effects of the neurotoxin on the levels of striatal dopamine. These results suggest that MP may have ameliorative effects against the motoric behavioral changes associated with the intrastriatal injection of 6-OHDA.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗
PubMed1989

Toward comprehensive management tailored to prognostic factors of patients with clinical stages I and II in Hodgkin's disease. The EORTC Lymphoma Group controlled clinical trials: 1964-1987.

From 1964 to 1987, the EORTC Lymphoma Group conducted four consecutive controlled clinical trials on clinical stages I and II Hodgkin's disease in which 1,579 patients were entered. From the onset the main aim of these trials was to identify the subsets of patients who could be treated safely by regional radiotherapy (RT). Therefore, several prognostic indicators were prospectively registered and progressively used in the trial protocols for the delineation of the favorable and unfavorable subgroups as soon as they were recognized of high predictive value. In the H2 trial (1972 to 1976), the histologic subtype was the only variable taken into account for the therapeutic strategy and the staging laparotomy findings were found to be of prognostic value only in patients with favorable prognostic indicators. In the H5 trial (1977 to 1982), patients were subdivided into two subgroups according to six prognostic indicators. Patients with favorable features were submitted to a staging laparotomy (lap); lap negative patients were randomized between mantle field RT and mantle field plus paraaortic RT. Disease free survival (DFS) and total survival (S) were similar in the two arms. Among patients with unfavorable features, DFS and S were significantly higher in the arm treated by combination of mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone (MOPP) chemotherapy (CT) and RT than in the arm treated by total nodal irradiation. Nevertheless, in patients below the age of 40, the overall survival rates were equivalent in the two arms. In the H6 trial, the delineation of the favorable subgroup was based on (a) absence of systemic symptoms and elevated ESR, (b) no more than one or two lymph node areas involved. The aim of the study was to assess the impact on survival of a therapeutic strategy including staging laparotomy. At a 4-year follow-up, no difference in survival was evidenced. In patients with unfavorable prognostic indicators, 3 MOPP-RT-3 MOPP were compared with 3 ABVD-RT-3 ABVD. From H1 to H5 trials, the proportion of patients having received CT during the course of the disease gradually decreased; the data suggest that a further reduction in the proportion of patients aggressively treated is conceptually possible. On the basis of the prognostic factors identified, one can delineate three subsets of patients and modulate toxic cost of the initial treatment according to the characteristics of these subsets. In the most favorable subgroup, RT alone produces high survival and CT is not justified.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1989

[Antilithogenic action of dehydroxymaleic, ketomalonic (mesoxalic) and tartronic acids in relation to experimental lithiasis in rats].

The authors study the effects of three acids, one with four carbon atoms, dihydroxymaleic acid, the two others with three carbon considered atoms, ketomalonic acid and tartronic acid. A first study considered the effects of these products on experimental lithiasis induced by oxalic acid, glyoxylic acid and ethylene-glycol. Dihydroxymaleic acid. Monohydrate calcium oxalate stones can be easily induced in the male rat, with in 24 hours, by an intraperitoneal injection of oxalic acid, at the rate of 8 mg per 100 g of body weight. If 25 mg of dihydroxymaleic acid are injected simultaneously via the intraperitoneal route, to a rat weighing 150 g, the lithiasis observed after 24 hours is just as severe. Experimental monohydrate calcium oxalate lithiasis is also induced by intraperitoneal injection of 8 to 9 mg of glyoxylic acid in a 100 mg rat. Dihydroxymaleic acid, injected at the same time as glyoxylic acid, also via the intraperitoneal route, at the rate of 50 mg for a rat weighing 150 g, results in total suppression of the lithiasis. Dihydroxymaleic acid also prevents lithiasis induced by the absorption by the rat, for several weeks, of a 1% ethylene-glycol solution if it is mixed to this solution at the rate of 5 mg per ml. A 12% ethylene-glycol solution given to the rat at the rate of 0.55 ml for 100 g of body weight induces the next day a comatose state and a diffuse parenchymatous monohydrate calcium oxalate lithiasis: coma and lithiasis are prevented by the simultaneous absorption of dihydroxymaleic acid at the rate of 65 to 70 mg. The ketomalonic acid.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1989

[A case of a large pyelic calculus composed only of ammonium urate].

The authors report a case of pure ammonium urate stone. It was a very large lightly radiopaque pelvic stone, which was extracted by pyelotomy and analysed by infra-red spectrography. The clinical history did not reveal a long history of chronic infections. The stone was diagnosed by urography performed after an acute urinary trad infection. Proteus mirabilis was found at one time, but only after the surgical operation. The blood and urinary laboratory check-up was normal. No case of such a large pure ammonium urate stone especially in adults, can be found in the literature. The pathogenesis is not obvious, and could not be explained without an abnormal urinary ammonia production during the development of the stone, but the lack of associated phosphate precipitation cannot be explained.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

National survey of recent changes in hospital policies on pharmaceutical sales representatives' activities.

Data from a national survey of recent changes in hospital policies on the activities of pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) are presented. Data were collected by means of a mail survey sent in October 1985 to pharmacy directors of 857 randomly selected hospitals. The questionnaire asked them to identify recent (since 1983) and anticipated changes in restrictions on policies concerning products that PSRs are permitted to detail and sample, persons with whom PSRs can have business contact, requirements for drug exhibits and displays, and areas where PSRs can detail products. Respondents also were asked to describe which PSR services they found to be most useful, which services they would like to see discontinued, and what new services they would like PSRs to provide. Data from 446 of 451 (52.2%) returned questionnaires were included in the analysis. For each of the four policy areas, approximately one fifth of the directors indicated that changes had been made during the previous two years, and nearly all of the changes involved increased restrictions. Half of the respondents reported that their hospitals planned to increase restrictions on products that PSRs would be permitted to detail or sample. The most common reason given for anticipated policy changes was a desire to improve control of the formulary. The directors viewed information about new products as the most useful PSR service, most directors wanted PSRs to discontinue sampling or excessive sampling, and most desired greater educational support from PSRs. From late 1983 to 1986, approximately 20% of hospitals had increased restrictions on the activities of PSRs, and many of the respondents anticipated further increases in restrictions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Drug Industry↗
PubMed1988

Seronegative Lyme disease. Dissociation of specific T- and B-lymphocyte responses to Borrelia burgdorferi.

The diagnosis of Lyme disease often depends on the measurement of serum antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes this disorder. Although prompt treatment with antibiotics may abrogate the antibody response to the infection, symptoms persist in some patients. We studied 17 patients who had presented with acute Lyme disease and received prompt treatment with oral antibiotics, but in whom chronic Lyme disease subsequently developed. Although these patients had clinically active disease, none had diagnostic levels of antibodies to B. burgdorferi on either a standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or immunofluorescence assay. On Western blot analysis, the level of immunoglobulin reactivity against B. burgdorferi in serum from these patients was no greater than that in serum from normal controls. The patients had a vigorous T-cell proliferative response to whole B. burgdorferi, with a mean ( +/- SEM) stimulation index of 17.8 +/- 3.3, similar to that (15.8 +/- 3.2) in 18 patients with chronic Lyme disease who had detectable antibodies. The T-cell response of both groups was greater than that of a control group of healthy subjects (3.1 +/- 0.5; P less than 0.001). We conclude that the presence of chronic Lyme disease cannot be excluded by the absence of antibodies against B. burgdorferi and that a specific T-cell blastogenic response to B. burgdorferi is evidence of infection in seronegative patients with clinical indications of chronic Lyme disease.

Adolescent↗