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Biomedical subjects

K Rosenberg

Publications and source records attributed to K Rosenberg.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

An audit of the detection and management of small-for-gestational age babies.

The detection and management of small-for-gestational age babies (SGA) was assessed in a case record review of 1302 randomly selected pregnancies. Of the 129 babies with birthweights below the 10th centile for gestational age, 34 (26%) were identified antenatally. For every two correctly identified SGA babies there were three false positive predictions. In-patient monitoring and early elective delivery occurred both in the correctly identified pregnancies (24%) and in the false positives (12%). The management of suspected pregnancies bore no apparent relation to test results and appeared arbitrary. Mortality and morbidity, as measured by nursery admission for greater than 48 h and retention in the nursery after the mother's discharge, were higher in SGA babies than in the hospital population as a whole. The number of ill babies was small, however, reflecting the heterogeneous aetiology of small size for gestational age. Moreover, antenatal detection had little influence on these measures of outcome. It is concluded that tests for detection of SGA babies remain imprecise in practice, gestational weight alone correlates poorly with fetal well-being, and the need remains for sensitive tests to detect babies with genuine morbidity.

Birth Weight↗

Allometric scaling in the dentition of primates and prediction of body weight from tooth size in fossils.

Tooth size varies exponentially with body weight in primates. Logarithmic transformation of tooth crown area and body weight yields a linear model of slope 0.67 as an isometric (geometric) baseline for study of dental allometry. This model is compared with that predicted by metabolic scaling (slope = 0.75). Tarsius and other insectivores have larger teeth for their body size than generalized primates do and they are not included in this analysis. Among generalized primates, tooth size is highly correlated with body size. Correlations of upper and lower cheek teeth with body size range from 0.90-0.97, depending on tooth position. Central cheek teeth (P44 and M11) have allometric coefficients ranging from 0.57-0.65, falling well below geometric scaling. Anterior and posterior cheek teeth scale at or above metabolic scaling. Considered individually or as a group, upper cheek teeth scale allometrically with lower coefficients than corresponding lower cheek teeth; the reverse is true for incisors. The sum of crown areas for all upper cheek teeth scales significantly below geometric scaling, while the sum of crown areas for all lower cheek teeth approximates geometric scaling. Tooth size can be used to predict the body weight of generalized fossil primates. This is illustrated for Aegyptopithecus and other Eocene, Oligocene, and miocene primates. Regressions based on tooth size in generalized primates yield reasonable estimates of body weight, but much remains to be learned about tooth size and body size scaling in more restricted systematic groups and dietary guilds.

Animals↗

Measurement of fundal height as a screening test for fetal growth retardation.

Fundal heights were measured on 761 women in the course of their routine antenatal care. This information was assessed, alone and in combination with other variables such as previous obstetric history and smoking, for its utility in predicting growth retardation. The results were disappointing. By most criteria used for classification, approximately half of the growth retarded babies were classified as such while half were missed. False positive rates were unacceptably high. It is concluded that fundal height measurement is of little use as a screening test for growth retardation.

False Positive Reactions↗

Antenatal detection of growth retardation: actual practice in a large maternity hospital.

A retrospective analysis of the antenatal management of 226 cases of growth retardation was carried out. One-hundred-and-fourteen cases (50%) were not suspected antenatally. Of the 112 suspected cases, 107 were subjected to further tests of fetal well-being. Eighty-one (72%) of the 112 received no further action or surveillance because of erroneously reassuring results or no further tests. Thirty-one women were either admitted antenatally (15) or delivered early (16). The low rate of initial suspicion combined with the disappointing results of the further tests emphasizes the need for more accurate screening procedures for growth-retarded babies.

Birth Weight↗

An audit of caesarean section in a maternity district.

A prospective study of the clinical indications for caesarean sections performed in a large specialist maternity hospital was carried out during the first 3 months of 1981; similar information was collected retrospectively for 1976 and 1971. Demographic changes in the obstetric population were considered. The district section rate increased from 4.4-13% in the last decade. The three most important clinical indications contributing to the rise of caesarean section in primiparae were cephalopelvic disproportion, slow progress and breech presentation. The rate of sections began to fall during the audit and has continued to decrease in the months since. Although it is rather early to draw conclusions, this trend may reflect the critical attention focused on section policy during the period of the study.

Adult↗

Prediction of survival in head and neck cancer based on leukocyte sedimentation in Ficoll-Hypaque gradients.

A battery of immunologic tests were performed on 42 patients with recurrent cancer of the head and neck whose median survival time was 6.8 months. Two tests correlated with survival: total white blood cell (WBC) count and the percentage of lymphoid cells (%LG) in the Ficoll-Hypaque gradient separated leukocyte fraction of blood. Patients with abnormally low values of %LB had a poor prognosis, as did patients who had greater than 8000 WBC count. Of the variation in %LG, 43% was due to the differences in differential WBC counts among the patients, with the remaining variation attributed to changes in the buoyant densities of the leukocytes. These data suggest that further study of the factors effecting buoyant density of cells may be clinically useful.

Cell Count↗

The effect of alcohol on resting metabolic rate.

1. There was a significant increase in oxygen consumption in ten women after small intakes of alcohol. 2. No significant difference was found between the average increase in metabolic rate over 3 h after an isoenergetic meal of food or of food plus alcohol. However, during the last half of the 3 h postprandial period, the increased O2 consumption was significantly greater after the meal including alcohol. 3. Possible explanations for the contradictory results in the literature are discussed.

Adult↗