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Biomedical subjects

M Smith

Publications and source records attributed to M Smith.

At least 1,621 records · Page 90Linked to original sources
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[French translation of Schalling-Sifneos Personality Scale Revised and Beth Israel Questionnaire, 2 evaluation tools of alexithymia].

The concept of alexithymia was first proposed in the 1960's by Sifneos and Nemiah to describe personality traits originally found in psychosomatic patients but which have since been found in other types of patients (alcoholics, drug addicts, traumatic stress disorder patients, sociopaths) as well as in the general population. Etymologically, alexithymia signifies: incapacity to speak one's emotions (from the Greek: a, lack; lexis, word; thymos, sentiments). Alexithymia is not the impossibility of feeling one's emotions, but rather the impossibility of associating them with corresponding mental representations and thus verbalizing them. Such patients tend to act out, to speak circumstantially, and to have difficulty in relationships. A neurophysiological substratum, the absence of connexions between the limbic system and the neo-cortical regions, has been suggested by Sifneos, who has distinguished primary and secondary alexithymia. A "biological" deficit seems to be responsible for primary alexithymia, such as in found in split-brain patients or aprosodias in patients with right hemispheric strokes. Secondary alexithymia, on the other hand, seems to be due to psychodynamic factors such as massive utilisation of defense mechanisms like denial, repression and regression. Appropriate psychotherapy for such patients is debatable, but it seems that in most cases the analytical approach should be replaced by more directive therapies, including relaxation and bio-feedback, to help patients learn to stimulate, master, and verbalize their emotions. The Beth Israel Questionnaire (BIQ) is a rating scale evaluating such traits that is filled out by the rater based on a clinical interview.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Affective Symptoms↗
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Changes in trout testis cyclic GMP concentration during hormonally induced spermatogenesis.

The concentration of cyclic GMP was determined in trout testes (Salmo gairdnerii) during hormonally-induced sermatogenesis. Early in spermatogenesis, a relatively high concentration (1 mumole/kg wet weight testis) of cyclic GMP was present. A sharp, ten-fold, decrease in testis cyclic GMP concentration occurred during the early stages of rapid mitotic activity and testis growth. A further gradual five-fold decrease in cyclic GMP concentration occurred during meiosis and the following transformation of spermatocytes into spermatids and then to mature spermatozoa.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Detection of the anxio-depressive disorders in liaison psychiatry. Contribution of the General Health Questionnaire].

Among self-report inventories of psychopathology for adults, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is one of the prominent instruments developed for the screening of minor psychiatric morbidity. Four versions of the GHQ were provided from the original 60 items (GHQ-30, 28, 20, 12) and three different scorings have been suggested. A large number of validity studies, mostly favourable, have been performed and are reviewed in this paper. Recent work has suggested that the sensitivity of the GHQ to clinical change was fair, compared to the Present State Examination. The most recent version, the GHQ-28, was built from factor analyses of the 60-item version and covered four dimensions, with seven items each: anxiety and insomnia, severe depression, social impairment, somatic complaints, but their subscores were not independent. Several international extensive studies have confirmed that the GHQ was an interesting tool in Community as well as in General Practice. But, as it falls short from detecting all the chronic cases, research aimed at improving its quality in this direction is still in progress. The use of the French version of the GHQ-28 is expected to be encouraged.

Anxiety Disorders↗
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Immunity to heat shock proteins in rheumatoid arthritis.

Heat shock proteins (hsp) or "stress proteins" are a group of highly conserved proteins which are important in the day to day function of all cells. Early studies by others have indicated that immunity to the 65 kDa hsp of mycobacteria is important in the development of arthritis in the adjuvant arthritis model in rats. In this paper, we review the evidence suggesting that, as for the rat model, immune reactivity to hsp is of importance in the human disease. Elevated levels of IgG antibodies to the 65 kDa hsp of mycobacteria are characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Much of this antibody cross-reacts with human 65 kDa hsp and is therefore autoreactive. The 65 kDa hsp is found in synovial fluid and is therefore a potential target for antibody. Antibodies to the 70 kDa hsp (both of mycobacterial and human origin) are elevated, but not specifically, in RA. Increased T cell responses to the 65 kDa hsp are also found in synovial fluid of RA patients. Although gamma delta T cells are present in the synovial joint of RA patients, they do not appear to be particularly increased in frequency although the subset distribution of these cells is clearly different from that seen in the circulation. In fact, the synovium looks like the "gut" with regard to these subsets!

Animals↗
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Turkey herpesvirus. VII. The evolution of Marek's disease in chickens vaccinated at one day of age and challenged at different periods of time after vaccination.

The Single Comb White Leghorn, the Cornell S strain chickens vaccinated at one day of age with cell free Herpesvirus of turkey (HVT) 100 and 1000 focus forming-units (FFU) per bird were raised in isolatores. At different periods of time the vaccinated and control chickens were reared together with chickens with clinical symptoms of Marek's disease previously inoculated with JM-Strain of Marek's disease virus (MDV) in a separate isolation room throughout the experiment. The specific protective effect was 84.6-100 percent in vaccinated chickens raised together with chickens with MD, soon or 4, 7, 11, 14, 17 and 21 days after vaccination. The period of MD evolution, Mean Time to Death (MTD) at unvaccinated chickens was 54.8 and at vaccinated chickens with 100 and 1000 FFU of HVT per bird, MTD was 65.9 and 78.5 days respectively. Rhode Island Red (RIR-HPRS) and Brown Leghorn (BrL-HPRS) chickens vaccinated at one day of age with cell-free HVT 100 and 1000 FFU per bird were raised in isolation rooms. At 21 day of age vaccinated and unvaccinated chickens were challenged with MDV strain P-501 and reared together in isolation rooms throughout the experiments. The specific protective effect was 71.6-100 percent and 76.8-100 percent at vaccinated RIR-HPRS and BrL-HPRS respectively. Mean time to death was 58-68.5 and 95 days at RIR-HPRS vaccinated chickens with 100 and 1000 FFU of HVT respectively and 38.1-48.25 days at control group. MTD was 72.5-87 days at BrL-HPRS chickens vaccinated with 100 FFU of HVT and 41.5-50.25 days at control group.

Animals↗
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Comparison of rapid perfringens medium and lactose sulfite medium for detection of Clostridium perfringens.

Two tubed media, lactose sulfite (LS) and rapid perfringens medium (RPM), were evaluated and compared for their ability to detect and enumerate Clostridium perfringens in inoculated and naturally contaminated samples. In a 3-tube most probable number system, the number of organisms recovered from spiked samples was several-fold higher with RPM than with LS and was close to the numbers inoculated. Levels detected in 15 naturally contaminated samples were also higher with RPM. Only 13 of the samples were positive for C. perfringens with LS medium. These results indicate that RPM is a more effective medium than LS; therefore, its use is recommended.

Clostridium perfringens↗
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The Baltimore pregnancy prevention program for urban teenagers. II. What did it cost?

An experimental pregnancy prevention program for junior and senior high school students consisted of classroom lectures, informal discussion groups and individual counseling in the schools and group education, individual counseling and reproductive health care in a nearby clinic. The structure of the program allowed for extensive individual counseling for students who desired it, and the reported costs are thus considered generous. School-based services utilized 40 percent of a total three-year budget of $409,250, and clinic services, 60 percent. The average cost per student served was $122, with the average per female student almost four times that per male and the average per senior high student more than twice that per junior high student. Students who utilized more expensive types of services, such as individual counseling and medical services in the clinic, also used other program offerings more frequently. Services to students who attended only class lectures cost an average of $13.20 to deliver, while students who utilized all services cost the program an average of $546 each.

Adolescent↗
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The Baltimore pregnancy prevention program for urban teenagers. I. How did it work?

Two teams, each consisting of a social worker and a nurse, delivered the bulk of services in an experimental pregnancy prevention program for junior and senior high school students that combined school and clinic components. In-school components were classroom presentations, informal discussion groups and individual counseling; clinic services consisted of group education, individual counseling and reproductive health care. Eight-five percent of the total student enrollment had contact with at least one component of the program. More males than females were among the 15 percent with no contact. When estimates of chronic absenteeism are taken into account, the program is believed to have reached all students in regular attendance. Approximately 22 percent of staff-student contacts occurred in the classroom, and the remaining 78 percent were voluntary on the part of the student. About 68 percent of contacts occurred within the school, with small group discussions especially popular--they represented 41 percent of all contacts. The proportion of contacts that occurred in the clinic was highest among senior high females (46 percent) and lowest among senior high males (12 percent).

Adolescent↗
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Comparison of the in vitro cytotoxicities and acute in vivo toxicities of 59 chemicals.

The in vitro cytotoxicities of 59 chemicals, expressed as ID50 values (i.e., concentrations of test chemicals that reduced the final cellular protein content of test cultures by 50% in comparison with appropriate solvent control cultures) and obtained using murine 3T3-L1 cells and the FRAME kenacid blue method, have been compared with rat oral and mouse intraperitoneal (ip) LD50 values. A better in vivo/in vitro correlation was obtained for the 59 chemicals with mouse ip LD50 values (r = .80) than with rat oral LD50 values (r = .76), but the best in vivo/in vitro correlation was found when the most toxic of the rat and mouse values were used in the comparison (r = .81).

Administration, Oral↗
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Assessment of two alternative methods for predicting the in vivo toxicities of metallic compounds.

The FRAME in vitro cytotoxicity assay and a physicochemical parameter for metal ions (i.e., "softness," sigma p) were assessed for their ability to predict the in vivo acute toxicities of 52 metallic compounds. The in vitro assay was found to be more useful, since it measures the toxicity of the whole compound, as does the in vivo method. The softness parameter applies to the metal ion only, so it cannot be used to predict the toxicity of compounds containing relatively nontoxic metal ions and toxic anions (e.g., potassium fluoride). The in vitro toxicity values (expressed as ID50 values, i.e., concentrations of test chemicals that reduced the final cellular protein content of test cultures by 50% in comparison with appropriate solvent control cultures) correlated better with mouse ip LD50 values than with rat oral LD50 values.

Animals↗