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Biomedical subjects

L Fisher

Publications and source records attributed to L Fisher.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Characterization of neuropeptides by reversed-phase, ion-pair liquid chromatography with post-column detection by radioimmunoassay. Application to thyrotropin-releasing hormone, substance P, and vasopressin.

Neuropeptide contents of rat brain samples were determined by radioimmunoassay (RIA) after fractionation of tissue extracts by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Solvent systems were composed of acetic acid, acetonitrile and short-chain (5--8 carbons) alkylsulfonic acids. Separate solvent systems were developed for thyrotropin-releasing hormone, substance P. arginine vasopressin and biologic analogs, and the enkephalins. All separation systems tested gave 80--90% recovery of picogram quantities of peptides. When lyophilized, the HPLC solvents did not interfere significantly with the RIAs, allowing quantitation of tissue concentrations of isolated neuropeptides using the lyophilized eluent from the HPLC. The combination of liquid chromatography with RIA should allow for very accurate identification and quantification of peptides in biologic samples containing large numbers of potentially cross-reacting species of molecules.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Reiter's syndrome. Evaluation of preliminary criteria for definite disease.

A retrospective evaluation of 83 patients with Reiter's syndrome (RS) and 166 comparison arthritis patients was conducted in order to assess the preliminary criteria for definite RS. Data analysis was based on the statement that Reiter's syndrome consists of an episode of peripheral arthritis of more than 1 month duration occurring in association with urethritis and/or cervicitis. During the initial episode of RS, 70 of the 83 RS patients satisfied the criteria, yielding a sensitivity of 84.3%.

Arthritis↗
PubMed1981

Mattis Dementia Rating Scale: internal reliability study using a diffusely impaired population.

The Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS) was developed to determine the degree of cortical deficit in those individuals with extremely low scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS). The purpose of this study was to potentiate the usefulness of this rating scale by determining its internal reliability when applied to patients with diffuse cerebral impairment. Subjects, ranging in age from 65 to 94 years, were chosen on the basis of their presenting an organic brain syndrome wtihout obvious localizing features nor evidence of reversible etiology. Responses to the MDRS were scored on split-half forms. Analysis of the scores using the Rulon formula for split-half reliability yielded a correlation coefficient of .90, indicating that the MDRS is very consistent internally. In addition, the MDRS is shown to be a useful test for discriminating the degree of impairment in individuals with organic mental syndrome.

Aged↗
PubMed1981

Types of paradoxical intervention and indications/contraindications for use in clinical practice.

A review of theoretical mechanisms underlying paradoxical interventions is undertaken in an effort to classify them into three broad types: redefinition, symptom escalation and crisis induction, and redirection. A list of individual and family patient characteristics and problems particularly applicable to each type of paradoxical intervention is presented along with contraindications for use. Last, implications for training and cautions as to their use are presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Angiographic prevalence of high-risk coronary artery disease in patient subsets (CASS).

The prevalence of coronary artery stenoses greater than or equal to 70% or left main stenosis greater than or equal to 50% was evaluated in 20,391 patients who underwent angiography in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study from 1975-1979. After the patients with unstable angina or myocardial infarction were excluded, the disease prevalence in the 8157 patients with definite angina, probable angina, and nonspecific chest pain was 93%, 66% and 14% in men and 72%, 36% and 6% in women (p less than 0.001). The age and sex of the patients and character of chest pain were important determinants of disease prevalence and severity. Left main or three-vessel coronary disease occurred in more than 50% of middle-aged men and older women with definite angina and in more than 50% of men who had probable angina and were older than 60 years of age. In contrast, left main coronary disease occurred in less than 2% of 1282 men and less than 1% of 1397 women with nonspecific chest pain regardless of age. In this latter patient subset, less than 5% of men and less than 1% of women in each decade under 60 years had left main or three-vessel coronary artery disease. Thus, high-risk coronary disease is common in middle-aged patients with definite angina and older patients with probable angina, but is rare in patients with nonspecific chest pain. Indications and guidelines for diagnostic noninvasive tests and coronary angiography could be based on these results.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Genetic counseling for beta-thalassemia trait following health screening in a health maintenance organization: comparison of programmed and conventional counseling.

Providing adequate counseling of patients identified in genetic screening programs is a major responsibility and expense. Adults in a health maintenance organization, unselected for interest, were screened for beta-thalassemia trait as part of preventive health care. Counseling was provided by either a trained physician (conventional counseling) or by a videotape containing the same information followed by an opportunity to question a trained physician (programmed counseling). Immediately before and after counseling, knowledge of thalassemia, knowledge of genetics, and mood change were assessed by questionnaire. Comparable mood changes and similar learning about thalassemia and genetics occurred with both counseling methods. Thus, as judged by immediate effects on knowledge and mood, videotaped instruction can greatly reduce professional time required for genetic counseling and facilitate the incorporation of genetic screening into primary health care.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Operative risk factors in patients with left main coronary-artery disease.

To identify the factors associated with operative mortality, we evaluated clinical, angiographic, and surgical variables in 1172 patients with left main coronary-artery stenoses of at least 50 per cent, who underwent coronary-bypass procedures in the Collaborative Study in Coronary Artery Surgery (CASS). The operative mortality was 4.2 per cent overall and was less than 3 per cent in seven of the 15 participating hospitals. Historical variables associated with an increase in operative mortality were age, female sex, and duration and severity of angina. Other variables associated most closely with poor survival were urgency of operation, left coronary-artery dominance, severity of left main coronary-artery stenosis, and impairment of left ventricular contraction. The results of this multicenter study show that aortocoronary bypass surgery in patients with left main coronary-artery disease can be performed with a low mortality and that patients at high risk can often be identified before surgery.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1980

Child competence and psychiatric risk. I. Model and method.

A model of competence and competence assessment for use in longitudinal research with children at risk to behavioral pathology is presented. The model and the resulting scales were developed so as to create age-appropriate criteria for competent functioning for use in both intermediate and long term outcome research. In order to avoid the pitfalls of listing attributes for success, using normative approaches, or using theoretically based definitions, the model assumes that the criteria for competence are derived from the norms for expected behavior within the assessment domain. Scales for the assessment of competence within the domain of school functioning for children at risk, an area previously demonstrated as having predictive utility, are presented, and an empirically based system of score profiling is described. The model permits the measurement of competence from dimensional to global levels to facilitate the testing of a variety of research questions within the risk area. A description of the University of Rochester Child and Family Study is also presented.

Achievement↗
PubMed1980

Child competence and psychiatric risk. II. Areas of relationship between child and family functioning.

Teacher and peer ratings of 65 children at risk to schizophrenia and other severe psychopathology were divided into three behavioral domains: problem solving, social-emotional, and compliance. Each child area was then related to variables generated from a family consensus Rorschach procedure in an effort to gain a greater understanding of the mechanism of risk involvement. Within the problem solving domain, parental communication deviance, nonacknowledgment of comments, and clear communication were the three family variables which consistently and linearly related to child competence at school. In the social-emotional area, only parental communication deviance displayed a linear relationship to the child's functioning at school. No significant findings occurred in the area of compliance behavior, and the roles of age of child and child IQ did not influence any of the findings. The data indicated that parental communication deviance may be an important variable in risk involvement.

Achievement↗
PubMed1980

Child Competence and psychiatric risk. VI. Summary and integration of findings.

A review of the major findings of the five previous papers in the series is presented and points of integration of the results are noted. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of diagnosis in predicting child competence as well as on differences related to whether or not the mother or the father is the patient. Also, the need to design studies to tease out the relative contributions of patient and family variables is pointed out.

Achievement↗
PubMed1980

New method for large-scale growth; and concentration of the Epstein-Barr viruses.

Efficacious systems are described for the large-scale growth in tissue culture and concentration of infectious (P3HR-1) and transforming (B95-8) Epstein-Barr virus. Also recorded here are our updated procedures for growing stock cultures and protocols to harvest fluids containing biologically active virus which is infectious or transforming. Various methods of concentrating biologically active Epstein-Barr virus have been evaluated. Cellular debris can be removed efficiently and rapidly from culture harvest fluids by clarification through a JCF-Z continuous-flow rotor. Efficient and reliable virus concentration was achieved by molecular filtration with Millipore Pellicon cassettes, using flow rates to 10 liters/h to produce fivefold concentrates followed by pelletization in a fixed-angle rotor. Data from recent production lots showed an average infectivity titer for P3HR-1 virus of 10(4.5) early antigen units per ml (100-fold concentrate) and 10(5.7) transforming units per ml (200-fold concentrate) for B95-9 virus lots.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Portal venous transport of long-chain fatty acids absorbed from rat intestine.

We studied the route of transport of long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) from the rat intestine. Lauric (12:0), myristic (14:0), palmitic (16:0), stearic (18:0), linoleic (18:2), and linolenic (18:3) acids were infused intraduodenally for 4 h as micellar solutions into unanesthetized thoracic duct-fistula rats. Proportionally more of each LCFA was transported by the portal vein at infusion rates of 0.3 mumol/h than at 15 mumol/h. Of the LCFA absorbed at low rates of infusion, 72% of lauric, 58% of myristic, 41% of palmitic, 28% of stearic, 58% of linoleic, and 68% of linolenic acid bypassed the lymphatic pathway. To test the inference that 58% of absorbed linoleate was transported by the portal vein, [14C]linoleic acid was infused at 0.3 or 15 mumol/h into unanesthetized rats equipped with both thoracic duct and portal venous fistulas. Portal venous blood (0.1 ml) was withdrawn every 30 min for 4 h. Proportionally more [14C]linoleate was recovered in portal blood at the low infusion rate. To examine the morphology of fat absorption, segments of rat jejunum in anesthetized rats were infused with micellar linoleic acid at 3 or 150 mumol/h. At 3-mumol/h infusion rate, an appearance identical to the fasting state was seen by electron microscopy. At 150 mumol/h, many larger chylomicron-sized particles appeared in absorptive cells, intercellular spaces, and lymphatics. We conclude that a substantial proportion of unsaturated LCFA is transported from rat intestine in portal venous blood.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Assessment of a pilot child playground injury prevention project in New York State.

Following a child playground equipment injury prevention project conducted in New York State in 1977, there was a 42 per cent reduction in playground equipment hazards, and a 22.4 per cent reduction in playground related injuries treated in the two largest hospitals of one of the program sites. Knowledge about unsafe playground practices and equipment hazards improved after the workshops for playground personnel. This approach to injury prevention deserves further study.

Accident Prevention↗