Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

N F Jones

Publications and source records attributed to N F Jones.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Zinc and the sodium pump in uremia.

A defect in sodium transport is known to exist in the leucocytes of uremic patients. Recent work has shown changes in cation flux rates associated with alterations of extracellular zinc concentration. As plasma zinc is known to be low in uremia, the possibility that this might be the cause of the defect in membrane transport was investigated. Plasma zinc was shown to be lower in uremic patients than in normal controls but this was not matched by alterations in leucocyte zinc content. Leucocytes from normal subjects and from patients with uremia have similar increases in the sodium efflux rate constant when exposed to elevated extracellular zinc concentrations. However, the abnormality in leucocyte sodium transport in uremia was not completely corrected by elevation of the extracellular zinc, when compared with normal cells in the same zinc concentrations. Although extracellular zinc is a factor that must be controlled in studies of cellular membrane transport, a low plasma zinc is not the explanation for the defect of sodium transport seen in uremia.

Biological Transport↗
PubMed1978

Attitudes toward respiratory illness and hospitalization in asthma. Relationships with personality, symptomatology, and treatment response.

A previous study described the development of the Respiratory Illness Opinion Survey (RIOS) which measures six categories describing attitudes toward respiratory illness and its treatment: Optimism, Negative Staff Regard, Specific Internal Awareness, External Control, Psychological Stigma, and Authoritarian Attitudes. In the present study these attitudes were found: a) to relate more clearly to general personality characteristics than to illness-specific subjective symptomatology; b) to enable types of asthmatic patients to be described on the basis of the patterns of attitude category scores; and c) to provide some information about treatment outcome in asthma as indexed by length of hospitalization during long term, intensive therapy, the need for prescribed oral corticosteroids, and rates of rehospitalization and judged severity following discharge from treatment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

Panic-fear in asthma: rehospitalization following intensive long-term treatment.

The panic-fear personality scale related to rehospitalization rates of asthmatics during two successive 6-month periods following intensive long-term treatment. High and Low Panic-Fear patients were nearly twice as likely as Moderates to be rehospitalized. Neither longitudinal pulmonary function measurements, physicians' judgments about the medical severity of the asthma during treatment, nor the presence or absence of maintenance oral corticosteroids at discharge were related to rehospitalization. The available information suggests that High Panic-Fear patients react to asthma with symptom exaggeration and helplessness, while Low Panic-Fear patients employ an equally maladaptive strategy best characterized as symptom minimization and denial. It is possible that both of these extreme response styles may affect adherence to prescribed medical regimens and are equally detrimental as indicated by rehospitalization following intensive long-term treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Patient and physician characteristics influencing medical decisions in asthma.

The present study explores the complex interplay of objective indices of illness-severity and personal characteristics of patients and physicians as they influence judged illness-severity and medical decisions concerning length of hospitalization and intensity of prescribed oral corticosteroids in a chronic asthmatic population. The results indicate that, depending on the physician's personal characteristics, he may: a) confuse his patient's psychological physical distress, resulting in medical judgment and decisions being influenced by patient personality; b) accurately distinguish between psychological physical distress but treat a psychological problem as though it were a medical problem; c) judge and treat the patient's illness objectively, regardless of the patient's personality. These findings stress the importance of expanding the present biomedical model of medicine to include a better appreciation of how social, psychological, and behavioral factors influence the medical decisions about treatment and the resulting outcome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Immunoglobulin deposition in membranous glomerulonephritis: immunofluorescence and immuno-electron microscopy findings.

In a series of 250 renal biopsies (transplants excluded) the diagnosis of membranous glomerulonephritis was made in 22. This was done on light microscopy in 17, while the addition of immunofluorescence enabled the diagnosis to be made in a further five. Electron microscopy confirmed the diagnosis in all cases. Immunoperoxidase studies emphasized the basement membrane distribution of the deposits of immunoglobulin and relative sparing of the mesangium. They showed at an ultrastructural level the presence of IgG in the deposits.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Salivary phenytoin concentrations in epilepsy and in chronic renal failure.

Plasma total, plasma unbound (free, therapeutically active), and salivary phenytoin concentrations have been measured in seventeen epileptics and in seven patients with chronic renal failure on long-term phenytoin therapy. Patients with chronic renal failure had low plasma total, but disproportionately high plasma free, drug concentrations indicating impaired protein binding. Even so, their plasma free drug concentrations never fell within the predicted therapeutic range on conventional phenytoin dosage. Salivary drug concentrations correlated closely with plasma free drug concentrations. These observations suggest that phenytoin therapy could be more appropriately monitored by measurement of salivary, rather than plasma, drug concentrations. Avoidance of blood-sampling would be an added advantage, particularly in children and in uraemia. The present results suggest that the optimal therapeutic range of salivary phenytoin would be 4-10 mumol/1.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Recurrent haematuria: role of renal biopsy and investigative morbidity.

The usefulness of renal biopsy in investigating unexplained haematuria was assessed by a study of 33 adults referred consecutively with this syndrome. Unequivocal abnormalities were seen on light microscopy or immunofluorescence in 31 of the 33 specimens of renal tissue examined. In 18 patients deposits of IgA were present in the mesangium. Loin pain occurred in only two of the 18 patients with mesangial IgA deposits, compared with 11 of the 15 patients without these deposits. Seven of the nine women in this series had had loin pain compared with only six of the 24 men. Thus a woman with loin pain and haematuria was not likely to have mesangial IgA nephropathy but this was found in 14 of the 18 men with unexplained painless haematuria. Failure to appreciate the role of renal biopsy in the investigation of unexplained haematuria may result in unnecessary radiology, considerable morbidity, and even in unjustified nephrectomy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Personality profiles in asthma.

One hundred and fifty-five hospitalized asthma patients were administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) in order to evaluate the existence of common personality characteristics. When the full sample was divided into subgroups according to age, sex, and duration of the illness, it was found that patterns emerged that appeared largely explicable by these variables rather than the asthma per se. The single most frequent pattern observed across these subgroups was a V-shaped configuration of a "neurotic triad" (scales 1, 2, and 3). This pattern is not unique to asthma, but is also characteristic of other chronic illness populations and seems to represent a defensive stance in coping with the problems of chronic illness. The findings speak against any stereotypic asthmatic personality. It appears more profitable to investigate individual personality patterns associated with coping styles and their relationship to the illness via behaviors that either maintain or delimit the effects of chronic asthma.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1976

Polyuria associated with an antibody to vasopressin.

1. A patient with polyuria in whom diabetes insipidus had been diagnosed was treated with Pitressin. Resistance to this therapy developed after 18 months and a circulating antibody to vasopressin was then demonstrated. Withdrawal of therapy led to a fall in titre of the antibody and an increase in maximal urinary concentration. 2. The antibody to vasopressin was associated with the IgA fraction of the serum immunoglobulins and its characteristics are described.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Patient variables supporting chronic illness. A scale for measuring attitudes toward respiratory illness and hospitalization.

To enable the study of attitudes as one basis for the maintenance of chronic illness, a scale of patient attitudes toward chronic respiratory illness and hospitalization was developed. Key cluster analysis was performed on a large set of statements which had been rated by patients hospitalized for chronic asthma in a residential treatment setting. The analyses identified six attitudinal clusters: Optimism, Negative Staff Regard, Specific Internal Awareness, External Control, Psychological Stigma, and Authoritarian Attitudes toward Illness and Hospitalization. The clusters showed good internal consistency, reliability, and generality. The low to moderate inter-relationships among clusters suggest the existence of identifiable patterns of attitudes which may be related to differences in coping styles to chronic illness.

Adolescent↗