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Biomedical subjects

K Howard

Publications and source records attributed to K Howard.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Renal and hepatic concentrations of platinum: relationship to cisplatin time, dose, and nephrotoxicity.

Autopsy tissues were obtained from 30 patients who had received cisplatin antemortem; the tissues were assayed for platinum by flameless atomic absorption spectrometry. Patients with antemortem evidence of renal toxicity had higher renal cortical platinum concentrations than did patients without evidence of kidney damage. In addition, patients with nephrotoxicity were more likely than patients without toxicity to have renal cortical platinum concentrations that were higher than renal medullary platinum concentrations. Overall, the two variables most closely associated with an increase in serum creatinine with treatment were renal cortical platinum concentration (P less than .02) and cumulative dose of cisplatin (P less than .05). These two variables were important independently of one another. Renal cortex platinum concentrations correlated inversely with time from last treatment until death, whereas hepatic platinum concentrations did not. In contrast, hepatic platinum concentrations correlated with dose of cisplatin while renal platinum concentrations did not. Our results suggest the following: (1) cisplatin-induced renal toxicity is tissue-platinum-concentration dependent and cisplatin-dose dependent; and (2) cisplatin may be handled differently at the molecular level in liver and kidney.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Nursing in the mid-eighties--condition critical.

Nursing in the mid 1980s is in a chronic state of crisis. Inadequate wages, poor working conditions, lack of career opportunity, low morale, disillusionment, and high levels of stress have each contributed to the inability to recruit and retain nurses in the health care system. In the next twelve months decision makers must come to terms with the chronic problems affecting the industry, and speedily introduce radical changes if a major breakdown in the health care system is to be averted.

Australia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Quality of life in Alzheimer's disease.

We reviewed and independently ranked the measurement properties of quality of life (QL) instruments currently used in anti-dementia drug trials for Alzheimer's disease. Of 36 read reports, 5 measured and 4 mentioned QL. Eight instruments, labelled QL measures, included questionnaires measuring function, self-rating instruments measuring the caregivers' impression of the impact of sickness and deterioration of memory, and observational rating scales measuring function. The most thoroughly tested QL measure was the Progressive Deterioration Scale. The instruments with the most promising measurement properties were the Progressive Deterioration Scale and the Italian Quality of Life Scale. Most instruments now used to assess QL in antidementia drug trials have not been adequately validated in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Effort should be directed both to conceptual and practical development in the assessment of QL in dementia.

Age Factors↗