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Biomedical subjects

N Simpson

Publications and source records attributed to N Simpson.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Women's health advocacy: its growth and development in oncology.

Women's health has become a topic of national importance. Advocacy initiatives by consumers, scientists, government officials, health care professionals, industry, and the media have played a role in helping to set this agenda. Much of the current interest in women's health is the result of the women's movement and its interaction with science, medicine, and health care. Emerging consumerism and increasing public knowledge of medical and scientific topics has led to the emergence of patients as individuals seeking to actively make decisions regarding health care options. Nurses should embrace the advocacy movement and, whenever possible, work with patients and their advocates toward their many shared goals.

Consumer Advocacy↗
PubMed1994

Acne vulgaris.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Acne Vulgaris↗
PubMed1994

Effect of isotretinoin on the quality of life of patients with acne.

Acne is the commonest skin disease, and affects 85% of teenage boys and 80% of teenage girls. More than half of teenagers with acne will obtain advice on treatment from family, friends and pharmacists. However, in 1992 there were approximately 3.5 million consultations for acne with primary care physicians in the UK. Of these, approximately 51 000 were referred for specialist advice. It is clear that rationalisation of acne treatment based on cost-effective analysis will have potential benefit in terms of usage of resources. This article reviews the current epidemiological data on acne, and demonstrates that acne now affects members of a population who are no longer at school, but are in work or tertiary education. This article argues that, due to this shift, the social and economic consequences of acne are quite different from those that occurred 10 years ago. Finally, the article discusses the cost effectiveness of competing therapies for acne, and examines isotretinoin in terms of cost per disease-free years and the utility of the treatment in cost per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).

Acne Vulgaris↗
PubMed1993

An investigation of awareness of antenatal protocols.

Previous audit at the Homerton Hospital had revealed a poor level of compliance with established antenatal protocols mandated by risk factors detected at the booking visit. Medical staff were questioned as to their awareness of five of the most important protocols and their response was analysed by a new scoring system. The scores were generally low though consultants scored more highly than junior staff. Scores were related to the length of obstetric experience and duration of work in the obstetric unit but were not related to frequency of the use of the protocol manual nor to the last time that reference was made to the manual. To improve compliance within the unit, the following recommendations were made: (1) regular revision of protocols to incorporate the current views of senior clinicians and (2) improved dissemination of information. The scoring system described here should prove to be a simple and effective method for the assessment of protocols within any unit.

Awareness↗
PubMed1993

Psychiatric morbidity in older people with moderate and severe learning disability. I: Development and reliability of the patient interview (PAS-ADD).

This paper describes the development of the PAS-ADD, a semistructured clinical interview for use specifically with patients with learning disabilities, based on items drawn from the PSE. The PAS-ADD includes a number of novel features including: parallel interviewing of patient and informant; a three-tier structure to provide a flexible interview appropriate to the patient's intellectual level; use of a memorable 'anchor event' in the patient's life to improve time focus; and simplified wording, improved organisation and lay out. Inter-rater reliability was investigated using an experimental design in which two raters viewed and re-rated videotaped PAS-ADD interviews which had been conducted by an experienced clinician. Reliability results compared favourably with those obtained in a major study of PSE reliability with a sample drawn from non-learning disabled individuals. Mean kappa for all items was 0.72. Other indexes of reliability were also good. In the current phase of development, the PAS-ADD is to be expanded to include further diagnostic categories, including schizophrenia and autism. The new version will be updated for use with ICD-10 criteria.

Aged↗
PubMed1992

Magnetic resonance imaging of the rat brain following acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

Magnetic resonance (MR) may be used for repeatedly and non-invasively imaging the brain. Until now, no studies have used this approach to study the effects of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in a defined animal model. Conscious, Levine-prepared female rats (unilateral carotid artery and jugular vein occlusion) were exposed to 2400 ppm CO for 90 min, with or without the infusion of 50% glucose solution; CO-stimulated increases in blood glucose and lactate occurred in both groups, while blood pressure and body temperature fell. One to four hours following termination of CO exposure, increased cortical pixel intensity, cortical surface area and brain midline shift were observed on the operated side of the brain in some rats of both groups (i.e. responders = R), providing evidence of edema. At sacrifice, 5 h following termination of CO exposure, gross water content was increased on the left side in the corresponding cortical slices in R rats, providing another measure of edema. Significant positive correlations were found between left to right pixel intensity difference and water content difference, and between the extent of midline shift and water content difference. The elevations of blood glucose and lactate concentrations, and the magnitudes of CO-induced hypothermia and hypotension were similar to those in past studies, but appeared to exert no effect on the severity of cortical edema in terms of differences in pixel intensity, surface area, midline shift or gross tissue water content. Thus, the observed differences between the R rats is not explained by the available data.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1992

A comparison of two breathing exercise programs for patients with quadriplegia.

This study compared the use of abdominal weights (AbWts) to inspiratory resistive muscle training (IMT) on selected measures of pulmonary function. Eleven patients, aged 16 to 41 years (mean = 27.8, SD = 8.3) with complete cervical injuries were randomly assigned to either an AbWts or IMT treatment group. Subjects in both treatment groups received daily treatments (five times weekly) for 7 weeks. Forced vital capacity (FVC), inspiratory capacity (IC), maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), and inspiratory mouth pressure (PImax) were measured weekly. Analysis of variance for repeated measures showed no difference between the AbWts and IMT treatments; there were significant differences within each respective treatment group for all five variables. Although the data did not support the effectiveness of one method of training over the other, the larger increase in MVV with the IMT protocol may be indicative of an endurance training effect with this protocol. Future research should compare the effects of breathing exercise training to spontaneous recovery of the respiratory muscles in control subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Selecting high-affinity binding proteins by monovalent phage display.

Variants of human growth hormone (hGH) with increased affinity and specificity for the hGH receptor were isolated using an improved phage display system. Nearly one million random mutants of hGH were generated at 12 sites previously shown to modulate binding to the hGH receptor or human prolactin (hPRL) receptor. The mutant hormones were displayed in a monovalent fashion from filamentous phage particles as fusions to the gene III product of M13 packaged within each particle. After three to six cycles of enrichment for hGH-phage particles that bound to hGH receptor beads, we isolated hGH mutants that exhibited consensus binding sequences for the hGH receptor. Residues previously identified as important for hGH receptor binding by alanine-scanning mutagenesis were more highly conserved by this selection method. However, other residues nearby were not optimal, and by mutating them, hormone variants having greater affinity and selectivity for the hGH receptor were isolated. This approach should be useful for those who wish to modify and understand the energetics of protein-ligand interfaces.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Interaction between flavone acetic acid (LM-975, NSC 349512) and radiation in Glasgow's osteogenic sarcoma in vivo.

Flavone acetic acid (FAA) is a new anticancer agent in Phase II trials in Europe. In preclinical testing FAA showed broad activity against murine solid tumors and minimal activity against murine leukemias. Our interest in studying the combination of FAA and radiation was based on two of its biological effects which might modify radiation damage. First, FAA depletes ATP and inhibits macromolecular synthesis which are needed to repair radiation-induced DNA strand breaks; and second, inhibition of tumor blood flow by FAA could lead to radiobiological hypoxia. Various schedules of FAA (170 mg/kg I.V.) (n = 9, SF = 0.44) and radiation (10 Gy) (n = 9, SF = 0.37) were investigated against s.c. implanted Glasgow osteogenic sarcoma. In the same model we studied both the kinetics of ATP depletion by 31P-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and the repair of radiation induced single and double strand breaks by alkaline elution. The combined response was not significantly different from log-additive when radiation was given 24, 5 or 1 hr before FAA. When FAA was given immediately before radiation an increase in tumor response, significantly different from log-additive (p = 0.03) was observed. This enhancement disappeared when radiation was delayed for between 1 and 48 hr after FAA. While decreased ATP levels and increased response to radiation occurred within minutes after FAA administration, no effect of FAA at either 180 or 200 mg/kg was observed on the repair of radiation induced single or double strand breaks (10 and 50 Gy, respectively; 5 hr after FAA) in spite of significant ATP depletion in the tumors.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗