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Biomedical subjects

P Armitage

Publications and source records attributed to P Armitage.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Interprofessional collaboration in primary health care.

A study of interprofessional collaboration involving 148 general practitioner and district nurse pairs and 161 general practitioner and health visitor pairs was undertaken in 20 health districts throughout England in 1982-83. Data were collected using personal interviews and a prospective record of referrals and consultations. The ratings of collaboration recorded showed that only 27% of general practitioner-district nurse pairs and 11% of general practitioner-health visitor pairs were working in partial or full collaboration. Structural arrangements such as attachment, the number of general practitioners that community nurses work with, and working from the same building were found to be strongly associated with collaboration.

Communication↗
PubMed1986

The rehabilitation and nursing care of severely disabled psychiatric patients.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an exploratory study of long-term care of mentally ill people in a hospital ward and the factors which may hinder or facilitate their rehabilitation and nursing care. The findings suggest that three aspects appear to be particularly relevant: the peer group support patients experience in long-term care, the level of nurse/patient interaction and the weak accountability of nurses for their patients on an individual basis.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1986

An ethical analysis of the policies of British community and hospital care for mentally ill people.

Scant consideration has been given to the ethical implications of the policy of closing down psychiatric hospitals in favour of community care. The recent adherents of this policy in government have been enthusiastic in encouraging its implementation. This paper has three sections: a brief resumé of the history and principles of community care for the mentally ill; a discussion on the merits and de-merits of psychiatric care in the hospital and in the community; and an outline of some preliminary categories for ethical analysis.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1985

Multistage models of carcinogenesis.

The simple multistage model of carcinogenesis is outlined. It provides a satisfactory explanation of the power law for the age incidence of many forms of epithelial carcinoma, for the effects in human populations of changing exposures to supposed carcinogenic agents, and for many of the observed effects of applied carcinogens in animal experiments. In particular, the evidence on the effects of starting and stopping cigarette smoking suggests that both an early and a late stage may be affected. In the absence of direct evidence on the nature of the cellular changes there is some reluctance to accept a model with more than two stages, and several forms of two-stage models provide good general explanations of observed phenomena. Such a model has recently been applied to breast cancer; another approach to this disease, effectively involving transformations of the time scale, is discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1985

Repeated significance tests for clinical trials with a fixed number of patients and variable follow-up.

Group-sequential tests may be applied to trials in which the number of patients is fixed, a response variable is measured for each patient at successive follow-up visits, and the accumulated responses are compared across treatment groups. The standard theory is inapplicable because the increments in the accumulated responses are no longer independent. An adjustment can be made to allow for the ratio of between-patient to within-patient variance and for possible first-order autocorrelation. The method is illustrated by reference to a dental trial.

Biometry↗
PubMed1985

Biometry and medical statistics.

The "biometric school" founded by K. Pearson, F. Galton, and W. F. R. Weldon was concerned especially with heredity and variation, and between the wars "biometry" was not widely used as a general term for quantitative biology. The foundation of the Biometric Society encouraged this wider usage, and medical and biological statistics were seen to share a common methodology. In recent years, medical statistics has developed more rapidly, and this growth has been reflected in the contents of Biometrics. The author stresses the essential unity of the subject, the central core of which is the application of statistics in the life sciences. The Society should encourage contact with those workers in quantitative biology who are outside this central tradition.

Biometry↗
PubMed1984

Transport and hydrolysis of antibacterial peptide analogues in Escherichia coli: backbone-modified aminoxy peptides.

Aminoxy analogues of di- and tripeptides in which the peptide linkage is replaced by -CO-NHO-, either as an L- or D-2-aminoxypropionic acid (L or D-OAla) residue, have been examined for antibacterial activity in vitro and for uptake into Escherichia coli. Isolation of analogue-resistant mutants and cross-resistance tests with peptide-transport mutants indicate that all three peptide permeases can transport these backbone-modified analogues. A number of mutants with defects in particular intracellular peptidases show decreased sensitivity to a range of these analogues, allowing identification of the enzymes responsible for their cleavage and confirming that hydrolysis is essential for their toxicity. Ala-OAla is a bacteriostatic agent that inhibits nucleic acid and protein synthesis within 1 min of being added to an exponentially growing culture. In crude extracts Ala-OAla inhibits transaminase activity but only after liberation of OAla by endogenous peptidases. These antibacterial agents illustrate an approach to drug targeting in which peptide carriers are used to promote uptake of essentially impermeant toxic moieties.

Alanine↗
PubMed1982

The assessment of low-dose carcinogenicity.

The assessment of carcinogenic risk from very low doses of substances to which the population is exposed depends mainly on animal experiments. A variety of statistical models has been proposed for extrapolation to low doses from the much higher doses administered to animals. The most conservative approach uses a multistage model, and is almost equivalent to linear extrapolation. Cornfield has argued against a conservative approach, but linear extrapolation may also be close to the 'best' solution. Species conversion and specification of allowable risks are very difficult problems, and some form of cost-benefit analysis seems to be required.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Phenytoin and chlorpromazine in the treatment of spasticity.

The efficacy of phenytoin sodium and chlorpromazine hydrochloride in the reduction of spasticity was evaluated in both open and controlled studies. In each study, the majority of patients exhibited both objective and subjective signs of improvement. Reduction of motor tone in spastic muscles, as well as improvement in functiional status, was observed. Most patients experienced greater benefit from the combination of phenytoin and chlorpromazine than from either drug alone. The use of the drugs in combination permitted decreased chlorpromazine doses and reduced unwanted side effects such as lethargy and somnolence. These drugs may exert their action by suppressing fusimotor efferent as well as afferent discharged from muscle spindles. The results suggest that the fusimotor system is an important pharmacologic target in the treatment of spasticity.

Adult↗