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Biomedical subjects

L Hunter

Publications and source records attributed to L Hunter.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Physical therapy assessment and treatment protocol for nursing home residents.

This article describes a standard protocol for assessing physical function in elderly nursing home residents. Major physical dimensions that are measured with the protocol include range of motion, muscle force, muscle reflex activity, sensation, soft tissue status, balance/coordination, and posture. A practical, functionally prioritized treatment model based on the assessment is also presented. The standardized assessment and treatment plan may be useful to the physical therapist in (1) planning and prioritizing treatment, (2) identifying when goals have been met, (3) recognizing when there is a need for treatment plan modification, and (4) educating physical therapy students in applying problem-solving skills in their treatment sessions.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1991

Perceptual characteristics of vowel and prosody production in apraxic, aphasic, and dysarthric speakers.

Narrow phonetic transcriptions and prosodic judgments were made of single-word imitations by apraxic (AOS), conduction aphasic (CA), and ataxic dysarthric (AD) speakers. AOS and AD subjects showed similar vowel error patterns, particularly predominant errors in low, tense, and back vowels, more distortions than other types of vowel errors, and predominant errors in initial position of words and in monosyllabic words. The CA subjects displayed a different vowel error pattern, notably more substitutions than distortions, more errors in polysyllabic than monosyllabic words, and more errors in noninitial than initial positions of words. Analysis of prosodic features identifiable at the single-word level (e.g., syllabic stress, juncture, and struggles to initiate or complete productions) indicated that syllabic stress errors and more difficulty initiating than completing word production were characteristic of AOS and AD but not CA subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Effect of visual display unit use on blink rate and tear stability.

In the literature, there is evidence supporting the notion that visual display unit (VDU) use decreases the blink rate and possibly reduces the stability of the precorneal tear film. In this investigation the blink rate and tear stability were measured using noninvasive techniques, in relation to VDU use. In normal healthy subjects, the results show an average 5-fold drop in blink rate during VDU use but tear stability appears to be unaffected. During VDU use a significant relation was found to exist between the interval between blinks and the stability of the precorneal tear film.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

The use of strategies to increase speech intelligibility in cerebral palsy: an experimental evaluation.

The effects of strategies on the intelligibility of cerebral-palsied speech were experimentally evaluated. Listeners were asked to identify words in sentences spoken by subjects whose dysarthria was rated to be either moderate or severe. Results indicated that strategies increased intelligibility and that different strategies were appropriate at different levels of severity. Use of initial letter cueing achieved the greatest gains for the more severely impaired speakers but, for the less severely impaired, the gains achieved by providing visual cues were the same as those achieved by letter cueing and could not be improved upon by repetition. Listeners' experience of dysarthric speech and the redundancy of the test sentences were also manipulated. Previous experience did not influence recognition and redundancy only appeared to have an influence at higher levels of intelligibility. The role of strategies in improving intelligibility is discussed. The results suggest that many speakers will be unable to use simple strategies to improve intelligibility to levels that may be needed for adequate information transfer.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Balance function test correlates of the Dizziness Handicap Inventory.

Balance Function test data alone cannot capture the reaction that a patient has to balance system disease. The present investigation examined the relations among components of the balance function examination (electronystagmography, rotational testing, and platform posturography) and self-perceived dizziness handicap, as quantified by the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI). The DHI is a 25-item self-assessment scale designed to quantify the functional, emotional, and physical effects of dizziness and unsteadiness. The DHI was administered to 367 patients seen consecutively for balance function evaluations. The results indicated that the largest proportion of significant correlations existed between DHI and the sensory organization subtests of platform posturography. Further, greater perceived handicap was documented for patients with (1) spontaneous nystagmus and (2) decreased postural stability quantified by evaluating the inter-relations among vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems (posturography).

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1990

Perceptual characteristics of consonant production by apraxic speakers.

Single-word repetitions by 4 brain-damaged adults with apraxia of speech (AOS) but without concomitant aphasia were transcribed using a standard narrow phonetic transcription system. Analysis of consonant productions yielded a profile of AOS slightly different from the traditionally accepted one. Among the results was the atypical finding that consonant distortions exceeded all other error types including sound substitutions. In addition, errors predominated in the medial position of words, and monosyllabic words had approximately the same error rate per number of consonants as did multisyllabic words. Results are discussed with reference to previous perceptual descriptions of AOS and in relationship to Broca's aphasia. Results are also interpreted relative to linguistic and motoric components of speech production models.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Site-specific integration by adeno-associated virus.

Cellular sequences flanking integrated copies of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) genome were isolated from a latently infected clonal human cell line and used to probe genomic blots derived from an additional 21 independently derived clones of human cells latently infected with AAV. In genomic blots of uninfected human cell lines and of primary human tissue, each flanking-sequence probe hybridized to unique bands, but in 15 of the 22 latently infected clones the flanking sequences hybridized not only to the original fragments but also to a total of 36 additional species. AAV probes also hybridized to 22 of these new bands, representing 11 of the 15 positive clones, but never to the fragment characteristic of uninfected cell DNA. From these data we conclude that the AAV genome preferentially integrates into a specific region of the cellular genome. We have determined that the integration site is unique to chromosome 19 by somatic cell hybrid mapping, and this sequence has been isolated from uninfected human DNA.

Cell Line↗
PubMed1989

Anthrax.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Epidemiologic survey of bovine diseases in Suriname.

A seroepidemiologic survey of cattle diseases was undertaken in Suriname in 1985 to help assess the livestock disease situation in that country. The six diseases covered by the survey were bovine coronavirus infection, bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine virus diarrhea, brucellosis, parainfluenza-3 infection, and respiratory syncytial virus infection. The results indicated relatively low prevalences of these diseases compared to the prevalences found in most developed countries. The reasons for this are uncertain, but the finding suggests that the cattle population in Suriname could lack extensive exposure to these diseases and so could be highly susceptible to them. In addition, the evident need for more thoroughgoing survey data points up the need to establish a continuous animal data health monitoring system in Suriname--as well as in other developing countries where there is a need to objectively assess the livestock disease picture.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Depot neuroleptic medication and serum levels by radioreceptor assay: prolactin concentration, electrocardiogram abnormalities and six-month outcome.

Twenty-six chronic schizophrenic patients on well-established depot neuroleptic regimes with stable doses (16 on fluphenazine decanoate, 10 on flupenthixol decanoate) had serum neuroleptic levels measured by radioreceptor assay (RRA) and were followed for six months. The serum prolactin (PRL) concentration and resting electrocardiogram (ECG) were also taken at the beginning of the study period. Correlations had previously been noted between RRA measured neuroleptic levels and outcome in both acute and chronic patients on oral medication. However, in this study of depot medication no significant correlations were found between serum neuroleptic concentration, serum prolactin concentration and the clinical state or outcome. The prevalence (33%) and type of ECG abnormality observed was similar to that previously reported.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The effects of a 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthrinse on plaque, toothstaining and candida in aphthous ulcer patients. A double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study.

Despite the known effectiveness of 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash in preventing plaque formation, relatively few studies have assessed adjunctive benefit to normal unsupervised oral hygiene measures. Furthermore, there have been few accurate measurements of toothstaining in the presence of normal oral hygiene and little data of effects on oral candidal carriage. This study was a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study of a 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash used 3 times daily on plaque, staining and candidal carriage in a group of recurrent aphthous ulcer suffers who maintained normal oral hygiene measures. At the end of 2 6-week treatment periods, baseline plaque scores were reduced by active and placebo mouthwashes. Chlorhexidine significantly reduced plaque compared to the placebo. Staining has markedly and significantly increased during chlorhexidine rinsing. Candidal carriage was present in 22.2% of this group and there was no significant effect of chlorhexidine on the mean number of candidal colonies. The distribution of plaque and staining by tooth was plotted and observationally studied. Baseline and placebo treatment plaque distributions indicated the considerable relevance of toothbrushing behaviour for plaque distribution. The effects of toothbrushing on plaque distribution were minimised during the use of chlorhexidine. Staining associated with chlorhexidine showed a distribution again suggesting the influence of toothbrushing. In conclusion, chlorhexidine has significant adjunctive effects on plaque inhibition in the presence of normal unsupervised oral hygiene, but toothbrushing did not prevent toothstaining.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Neuroleptic serum levels measured by radioreceptor assay in patients receiving intramuscular depot neuroleptics. Some preliminary findings.

Twenty-six chronic schizophrenic patients on well established depot neuroleptic regimes with stable doses (16 on fluphenazine decanoate, ten on flupenthixol decanoate) had serum neuroleptic levels measured by a radioreceptor assay (RRA) method. The assay was sufficiently sensitive to measure serum levels in all cases, with acceptable levels of inter-assay variation. Blood level measurements were repeated on two occasions, at the same time interval from the last injection, in 18 patients (11 on fluphenazine decanoate, seven on flupenthixol decanoate) and remained reasonably stable in most cases, although others showed a wider variation. Despite a wide range of doses (X 32 fluphenazine decanoate, X 21 flupenthixol decanoate) the serum levels fell in a remarkably narrow range (X 4, X 6). There was a significant correlation between dose and blood level for flupenthixol decanoate, but not for fluphenazine decanoate.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Necrobiotic xanthogranuloma: a systemic disease with paraproteinemia.

A woman of 39 presenting with a conjunctival swelling with a necrobiotic xanthogranulomatous histology suffered from a series of destructive cutaneous lesions of similar histology for 20 yr. She had a paraproteinemia and developed myelomatosis. At postmortem xanthogranulomatous lesions were found in skin, larynx, heart and kidneys. The patient also had nodular transformation of the liver with portal hypertension.

Adult↗