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Biomedical subjects

N Williams

Publications and source records attributed to N Williams.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Investigation of anal function in patients with systemic sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate anorectal function in women patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), with and without lower gastrointestinal symptoms. METHODS: Anorectal manometry was performed in 16 patients with SSc: six with no or minimal bowel symptoms, seven with constipation, and three with diarrhoea and faecal incontinence. Eleven healthy women acted as control subjects. Pressure data were recorded via an eight lumen polyvinylchloride water perfused catheter. Station and rapid pull through techniques were used. RESULTS: In the patients with SSc, mean resting pressure, maximal voluntary squeeze effort, and squeeze vector volume were lower, and squeeze asymmetry was greater, compared with the healthy controls. Differences were significant in the subgroup with constipation. CONCLUSION: Radial asymmetry and vector volume parameters provide detailed analysis of segmental anal canal function. Our findings suggest significant segmental deficits in those patients with SSc who have lower gastrointestinal symptoms. The trend towards smaller pressures and squeeze vector volumes in the asymptomatic SSc group suggests subclinical dysfunction in these patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Management of intra-abdominal abscesses in Crohn's disease.

Over a 5-year period, 54 intra-abdominal abscesses were observed in 40 (20.8%) of 192 patients with Crohn's disease. The median age was 39 years (range 17-76 years); median interval from diagnosis, 7.5 years (range 0-24 years) and the median number of surgical operations was 2 (range 0-7). Forty abscesses (74.1%) were spontaneous and 14 (25.9%) were postoperative. Thirty abscesses were initially managed by laparotomy, 14 by percutaneous drainage, nine by incision and drainage and in one case the abscess drained spontaneously. Intra-abdominal abscesses were managed successfully by laparotomy in 23 (76.7%) of 30 patients, with a 93% success rate (13 of 14) for spontaneous abscesses managed by resection and primary anastomosis. Three of 8 (37.5%) spontaneous abscesses were managed successfully by percutaneous drainage, a temporising effect being achieved in a further two cases. There was no significant difference in sepsis score or duration of hospital stay for patients managed initially by laparotomy and those managed by drainage. However, patients with stricturing or fistulating Crohn's disease were much more likely to have initial management by laparotomy and in these patients surgical intervention was found to be an effective initial strategy.

Abdominal Abscess↗
PubMed1996

Work and ageing.

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Aged↗
PubMed1996

Increasing the efficiency of genomic searches for linkage in complex disorders by DNA pooling of affected sib-pairs.

Detection of linkage using a systematic genome scan in nuclear families including an affected sibling pair is an important initial step on the path to cloning susceptibility genes for complex genetic disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. We describe a novel method in which the pooled genotype of each affected sib-pair is determined and used in the screening stage of a two-stage genome scan. This method, which involves a single PCR reaction per sib-pair in the screening stage can reduce the required number of genotypings to less than 20% of those required in a conventional single stage procedure whilst maintaining a similar power and probability of type I error.

Bipolar Disorder↗