Leukonychia. Review and classification.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Humans↗
Biomedical subjects
M Grossman
Publications and source records attributed to M Grossman.
Steroid therapy for bacterial meningitis.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Animals↗
Pregnancy wantedness and the early initiation of prenatal care.
The study examines the impact of the wantedness of a pregnancy on the demand for early prenatal care. Using a cohort of pregnant women in New York City, we estimate a prenatal care demand function in which we control for the probability of giving birth, given a woman is pregnant. We interpret this control as a measure of wantedness. The results indicate that if the black and Hispanic women who aborted had instead given birth, they would have delayed the initiation of prenatal care, on average, more than three-quarters of a month longer than the mean number of months of delay that were actually observed for the women who gave birth. By allowing women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, induced abortion increases the average use of prenatal care among black and Hispanic women relative to what would have been observed if the women who aborted had instead given birth.
Adolescent↗
Amoxicillin therapy for Chlamydia trachomatis in pregnancy.
For treating Chlamydia trachomatis cervical infection in pregnancy, the Centers for Disease Control guidelines recommend either erythromycin base or erythromycin ethylsuccinate. There is no alternate therapy. Because of compliance problems with erythromycin regimens due to gastrointestinal side effects, such an alternative is needed. For this reason, we compared, in an open trial, the efficacy and patient compliance of amoxicillin (500 mg three times a day for 7 days) with those of erythromycin base (500 mg four times a day for 7 days) in treating C trachomatis cervical infections during pregnancy. In the amoxicillin group, 63 of 64 women (98.4%) had negative cervical cultures after treatment, compared with 55 of 58 women (94.8%) treated with erythromycin base. Vertical transmission to the infants was assessed by culture and/or persistent or rising immunoglobulin G antichlamydial antibody. In the amoxicillin group, 37 of 39 infants (94.9%) had no evidence of chlamydial infection, compared with 32 of 36 infants (88.8%) in the erythromycin group. These differences were not significant. The frequency of side effects was higher with erythromycin base than with amoxicillin (15 versus 8%), although not significantly so. However, the frequency of stopping medication because of side effects was significantly higher with erythromycin base than with amoxicillin (13 versus 2%; P less than .006). These results suggest that amoxicillin may be an acceptable alternative treatment for chlamydial infections in pregnancy.
Adult↗
Comprehension of lexical subcategory distinctions by aphasic patients: proper/common and mass/count nouns.
Previous research has found that agrammatic Broca aphasic patients have particular difficulty using determiners like "a" and "the" for the purposes of sentence comprehension. In this study, we test whether or not such difficulty extends to the level where lexical subcategories are distinguished by these articles. The absence or presence of a determiner distinguishes proper from common nouns (e.g., "ROSE" vs. "A ROSE"), and mass from count nouns (e.g., "GLASS" vs. "A GLASS"). Groups of agrammatic Broca and fluent aphasic subjects were required to point to one of two pictures in response to a sentence such as "Point to the picture of rose" or "Point to the picture of a rose". Sentences were presented in either printed or spoken form. Results indicated that for the agrammatic Broca patients, printed presentation yielded significant improvement over spoken presentation only for the proper noun/common noun distinction. Performance was significantly poorer for the mass noun/count noun distinction as compared to the proper/common distinction for these patients, and mass nouns proved particularly difficult. Interpretable patterns were not observed on either subcategory distinction for the fluent aphasic subjects. Current theories of agrammatism cannot fully explain these data. An independent explanation is offered that suggests proper noun/common noun is a universal semantic distinction. On the other hand, the mass noun/count noun distinction is more purely syntactic, and thus is particularly difficult for agrammatic Broca patients.
Aged↗
Health benefits of increases in alcohol and cigarette taxes.
Excise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes imposed by the Federal government of the United States have been very stable since 1951. This paper summarizes research that shows that increased taxation, which results in higher prices, would discourage alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking. One striking finding is that a policy to raise the Federal excise tax on beer in line with the rate of inflation over the last three decades would cut motor vehicle fatalities of 18 to 20 year olds, many of which are alcohol-related, by about 15%, saving more than 1,000 lives per year. A second is that over 800,000 premature deaths in the cohort of Americans 12 years and older in 1984 would be averted if the Federal excise tax on cigarettes were restored to its real value in 1951.
Alcoholic Beverages↗
Diphasic analysis of lactation curves in dairy goats.
Milk production data on 5084 Alpine, 2052 LaMancha, 7024 Nubian, 2194 Saanen, and 2339 Toggenburg does were grouped into 90 subclasses: five breeds x three parities (1, 2, and 3) x two seasons of kidding (early, December to March; late, April to July) x three measures of 305-d milk production within breed (low, medium, and high). Subclass means of milk production for 100 3-d groups were smoothed and used to estimate parameters of a diphasic function, which is the sum of two logistic functions. Characteristics for each phase of the lactation curve (initial, peak, and 305-d yields, time of peak, and duration of phase), which are functions of parameters of the diphasic function, were then analyzed using a linear model including breed, parity, season, and mean of measure of production as â covariate, weighted by the number of observations in each subclass. Breed had little effect on the shape of the lactation curve in dairy goats. Parity affected primarily characteristics of the second phase of lactation. Season of kidding had the most consistent effect on the lactation curve: affecting characteristics of each phase. Measure of production affected characteristics of the second phase more than those of the first phase. First phase, with its proximity to overall peak and short duration, could be interpreted as a "peak" phase. Second phase, affected largely by parity, could be interpreted as a "persistency" phase.
Animals↗
Prediction error variance and restricted maximum likelihood estimation for animal model with relationship grouping.
Genetic evaluation using animal model with relationship grouping has been shown to be feasible. However, algorithms were unavailable for prediction error variance and REML estimation of variance components. This paper shows that prediction error variance of an estimable function of the total merit of additive genetic and group effects is a simple function of a generalized inverse of the coefficient matrix for a transformed mixed model equation or of the inverse of the coefficient matrix when it is restricted to full rank. The REML algorithms, using the transformed equation, having slightly more complicated expressions than usual but could be more feasible computationally. Formulae for prediction error variance apply in general. The REML algorithms are extended to an animal model with an arbitrary number of random factors and can be extended to estimate covariance components.
Algorithms↗
Myelomeningocele, Arnold-Chiari anomaly and hydrocephalus in focal dermal hypoplasia.
Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH) is an X-linked dominantly inherited syndrome of cutaneous, skeletal, dental, ocular, and soft tissue defects. We report on a female infant with FDH with the first observation of myelomeningocele with hydrocephalus and Arnold-Chiari malformation.
Arnold-Chiari Malformation↗
The rabbit autoperfusing heart-lung preparation.
The autoperfusing heart-lung preparation holds promise as a method for extended organ preservation. Further understanding of the hemodynamics, metabolism, and quality of tissue preservation of this preparation may increase the number of available organs for heart-lung transplantation. We describe the materials and operative technique for a small animal model of the autoperfusing heart-lung preparation. The method is easy to learn, the materials and animal subjects are inexpensive, and the preparation is fully monitored to provide consistent and reproducible data. The rabbit autoperfusing heart-lung preparation is an excellent vehicle for the investigator studying warm organ preservation.
Animals↗
Drawing deficits in brain-damaged patients' freehand pictures.
This study examines errors in brain-damaged patients' attempts to produce freehand drawings of common objects in response to a linguistic target (e.g., "fruit"). The pictures were carefully analyzed according to the features which dictionaries claim should vary necessarily from item to item, including color, shape, relative size, and special features which help distinguish between similar items. A "recognizability score" was created to quantify patients' overall drawing capacity. The findings revealed that subjects with right hemispheric insult are significantly more impaired overall than left hemisphere-damaged patients in producing freehand pictures. However, freehand drawing skills do not break down in an undifferentiated fashion after right hemispheric insult: Group and individual data reveal that patients with right central (primarily parietal) insult are most impaired at expressing shape attributes in their pictures, right posterior patients with primarily temporoparietal insult experience the greatest difficulty attributing color to their pictures, but patients with right anterior insult are impaired at expressing color, shape, and relative size in their pictures. All patients with right hemisphere insult often attribute specific features indiscriminantly to any member of the same category, resulting in anomalous pictures like a "potato bush." One patient with left posterior insult seemed to encounter difficulty generating the mental images necessary to serve as the basis for his pictures. These findings are discussed with reference to an image-based model for freehand drawing.
Adult↗
A cost-effectiveness analysis of strategies to reduce infant mortality.
This study compares the cost effectiveness of various health inputs and government programs in reducing race-specific neonatal mortality or death in the first 27 days of life. Approximately two thirds of all infant deaths occur within this period. The programs and inputs at issue are teenage family planning use; the supplemental food program for women, infants, and children (WIC); use of community health centers and maternal and infant care projects; abortion; prenatal care; and neonatal intensive care. Using an economic model of the family as the analytic framework, effectiveness is determined by using ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares to estimate infant health production functions across large counties in the United States in 1977. Estimates of costs are from a number of published sources. We find the early initiation of prenatal care to be the most cost-effective means of reducing the neonatal mortality rate for blacks and whites. Moreover, blacks benefit more per dollar of input use than whites. Neonatal intensive care, although the most effective means of reducing neonatal mortality rates, is one of the least cost-effective strategies.
Child Health Services↗
Comparison of three topical antimicrobials for acute bacterial conjunctivitis.
One hundred fifty-eight patients, 21 years of age or less, presenting with culture-positive (Haemophilus influenzae or Streptococcus pneumoniae) conjunctivitis were treated with trimethoprim-polymyxin B (TP), gentamicin sulfate (GS) or sodium sulfacetamide (SS) ophthalmic solution for 10 days. Clinical response at 3 to 6 days after start of therapy was similar for all test agents: 26 of 55 (47%) patients cured, 25 of 55 (45%) improved for TP; 28 of 57 (49%) cured, 26 of 57 (46%) improved for GS; and 19 of 46 (41%) cured, 22 of 46 (48%) improved for SS. Clinical response at 2 to 7 days after completion of therapy was also similar: 46 of 55 (84%) patients cured, 5 of 55 (9%) improved for TP; 50 of 57 (88%) cured, 5 of 57 (9%) improved for GS; and 41 of 46 (89%) cured, 2 of 46 (4%) improved for SS. Bacteriologic response at 2 to 7 days after completion of therapy was similar for all antimicrobials: 44 of 55 (83%) patients for TP; 39 of 57 (68%) for GS; and 33 of 46 (72%) for SS.
Administration, Topical↗
Multiphasic analysis of growth curves in chickens.
A multiphasic function that considers body weight to result from an accumulation from more than one phase of growth was used to describe growth curves for Rhode Island Red (RIR) and White Leghorn (WL) males and females, from hatching to 45 wk of age. Mean body weight gains were fitted by iteratively reweighted nonlinear regression using the multiphasic function: (formula; see text) where yt is mean gain (grams) at age t; n is number of phases; tanh is hyperbolic tangent; for each phase i, ai is half asymptotic weight; bi is growth rate relative to ai (weeks-1) and ci is age at maximum gain (weeks). For each phase, maximum gain is aibi and duration (days required to attain about 75% of asymptotic yield during that phase) is 2bi-1. Estimates of parameters clearly point to the diphasic nature of growth and to differences between phases of sexes. First and second phases accounted for 97% of total asymptotic weight. For the first phase, males attained 70% of their asymptotic weight, whereas females attained 85%. Duration of the first phase was 15 wk. For the second phase, it was 12.5 wk for RIR and 10 for WL males, whereas it was 5 wk for RIR and 6 for WL females. Maximum gain during the first phase averaged 144.4 g for males, 108.8 g for females, 156.2 g for RIR, and 97.0 g for WL. During the second phase, it was 68.0 g for RIR males and females but 71.5 and 55.9 g for WL males and females, respectively. Age at maximum gain during the first phase was 12.0 wk. During the second phase, it was 24.2 wk for RIR females, 2.6 wk later than for males, whereas it was 27.3 wk for WL females, 8.3 wk later than for males. For a fixed total asymptotic weight, partitioned between two phases of growth, a higher, longer, and later first phase was associated with a lower, shorter, and later second phase; the association was greater for males than for females.
Age Factors↗
Group A streptococcal infection in children younger than three years of age.
We evaluated 758 sick children younger than 3 years of age for Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) upper respiratory infection (URI) to determine the usual clinical presentation of the disease in this age group, indications for culture and the optimal site(s) from which to isolate the organism. GABHS infection was documented in 35 subjects (4.6%). The classic presentation (as proposed in the 1940s) of GABHS URI in children younger than 3 years of age was not confirmed by this study. In 32 of the GABHS cases there were pharyngitis, common cold symptoms or both, and these were associated with acute otitis media 10 times and with otitis media with effusion 3 times. Clinical impetigo was associated with GABHS URI (4 of 32 cases). GABHS URI would not have been documented in 6 of 32 cases if cultures of the anterior nares had not been performed. Children between 18 and 36 months of age were more likely to have GABHS disease than were younger children. Hoarseness and vomiting occurred less frequently in children younger than 36 months with GABHS infection than in those of that age who had non-beta-hemolytic streptococcal illnesses. A history of two or more siblings at home or a family member with a recent streptococcal infection and the presence of irritability, a reddened throat or palate or uvular edema were each associated with GABHS URI. We concluded that sick children between 18 and 36 months of age with a reddened throat should have cultures taken of the throat and anterior nares for GABHS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Bacteriological Techniques↗
Children with AIDS.
Eighty per cent of children with AIDS acquire their infection perinatally from infected mothers. Symptoms and signs appear in the first year of life and include failure to thrive, an increased number of bacterial infections, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and progressive encephalopathy. Serious and multiple opportunistic infections are the rule. Antibody tests are difficult to interpret in the first year of life because of the presence of transmitted maternal antibodies. Management includes vigorous therapy for infections and attention to caloric intake and other aspects of child life, that is, foster care, day care, and schooling. Specific antiretroviral therapy is not yet established. Monthly intravenous immunoglobulin and sulfa-trimethoprim are recommended to prevent infections. The key to prevention is education.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Consensus: management of tuberculin-positive children without evidence of disease.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Child↗
Guidelines for the control of human immunodeficiency virus infection in adolescents.
Although adolescents account for only 0.4% of reported cases of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the United States, they are sexually active and, therefore, at risk of acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. To address issues of HIV control in adolescents, we developed guidelines that emphasize education and medical care and deemphasize antibody testing. For adolescents known to be infected with HIV, we recommend no restrictions on access to educational or treatment programs except when their health providers recommend such restrictions to protect them from exposure to opportunistic infections. For adolescents of unknown antibody status with a possible previous exposure to HIV, we recommend that as long as the incidence of HIV infection and clinical AIDS remains low, there should be no restrictions on residential placements and no routine antibody testing.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗