Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P Duncan.
N-substituted cyclic imides of phthalimide, 2,3-dihydrohalazine-1,4-dione, and diphenimide were shown to reduce the serum uric acid levels in normal and hyperuric mice at 20 mg/kg/day I.P. for 14 days. The agents were potent inhibitors of commercial xanthine dehydrogenase and xanthine oxidase enzyme activities with IC50 values from 10(-7) to 10(-8) M concentrations of drug.
Knowledge and attitudes about AIDS were surveyed in 147 children between the ages of 6 and 12. Awareness of and accurate information about AIDS increased steadily through the early school years. From third grade on, over 90% of children had heard of AIDS, with the majority capable of providing additional accurate information. Significant misconceptions were also identified in all age groups. Television was found to be the major source of information about AIDS for most children.
Curriculum evaluation is an essential phase of curriculum development. Through evaluation a faculty discovers whether a curriculum is fulfilling its purpose and whether students are actually learning. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the implementation of a formative evaluation used by faculty members of a baccalaureate nursing program. PAIREDAR, a three phase generic model, was utilised to conduct this formative evaluation. The definition and description of this model are included. The process used by the evaluation team within the framework of the model is described in a step by step fashion. Faculty and student interview question sets and a sample course evaluation worksheet are presented.
Bone marrow colony-stimulating factors (CSF) ameliorate hematologic toxicity of standard chemotherapy regimens and may allow relatively safe use of intensive and more efficacious doses of anticancer drugs. Twenty-four patients with cancers for which no standard regimens were likely to be effective received repeated courses of a combination of cisplatin (150 mg/m2), etoposide (1,500 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (5,000 mg/m2) at doses for which bone marrow transplantation is usually used. A total of 10 patients received escalating doses of recombinant human granulocyte CSF (rhG-CSF); 11 patients receiving identical chemotherapy and supportive therapy without rhG-CSF served as controls for the first cycle of therapy. Five of these patients and 3 additional patients also served as their own controls, receiving rhG-CSF for all cycles after the first. No patient received bone marrow transplantation. rhG-CSF shortened the median duration of severe granulocytopenia (less than or equal to 100/mm3) in a dose-related fashion (P less than .03; Kruskal-Wallis test). Patients not receiving rhG-CSF had a median of 8.5 days of granulocytopenia. Those receiving 40 micrograms/kg of rhG-CSF for approximately 20 days from the third day after chemotherapy had a median of 7.0 days (P less than .23) and those receiving 60 micrograms/kg had a median of 5.5 days (P less than .007) of granulocytopenia. An rhG-CSF dose of 20 micrograms/kg had no effect. Recovery to a granulocyte count of at least 500/mm3 took a median of 12 days in the control group and 8 days (P less than .03) in patients receiving rhG-CSF at a dose of 60 mg/kg. The duration of antibiotic therapy (a median, 9.0 days v 5.0 days) was shortened with the two higher and effective doses of rhG-CSF compared with control patients. The duration of hospitalization (median of 20 days v 19 days) was not shortened. These findings that rhG-CSF decreases the risk of granulocytopenia associated with this particular dose-intensive chemotherapy regimen therapy administered without bone marrow transplantation.
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In a prospective trial of 15,481 pregnancies, 667 women (4.3%) had two sequential mid-trimester plasma-alpha-fetoprotein (A.F.P.) values above 2 times the median. The outcome of these pregnancies was open neural-tube defect (12.4%), birthweight less than 2.5 kg (10.3%), twins (9.8%), fetal wastage (9.5%), perinatal death (2.6%), other (1.3%), and "normal" singleton (54.1%). At higher A.F.P. cutoffs the proportion of "normal" singleton pregnancies declined rapidly, being 19% at 3 times the median and 9% at 4 times the median. If it is assumed that ultrasonography and amniotic-fluid A.F.P. assay can detect twins and most cases of neural-tube defect, the outcome of the residual pregnancies is still strongly influenced by plasma-A.F.P. level. Thus at a cut-off of 4 times the median two-thirds of the pregnancies in this residual group will end in spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, or neonatal death. It is suggested that counselling of women taking part in A.F.P. screening programmes should be strongly influenced by maternal plasma-A.F.P. levels, even if ultrasonographic findings and amniotic-fluid levels are normal.
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Electrodes were implanted into the rat hippocampus in both hemispheres for increasing periods of up to 60 days, and the effects of trauma and electrical stimulation of enzymes controlling cell metabolism in the region of implantation were examined and assessed in relation to studies on humans. In the unstimulated hippocampus as a control, enzyme changes were mainly confined to a narrow area of tissue damage surrounding the electrode. The enzyme changes in response to trauma varied widely; some enzymes controlling tissue respiration showed early and rapid changes, increasing in hyperactive, swollen glial cells and vascular endothelium and decreasing in nerve cells and neuropile. Acid phosphatase activity also increased rapidly in glial cells; other phosphate-releasing enzymes increased more gradually with time. A turning point in these chages was apparent between 25 and 40 days, followed by a reversion to more normal levels at 60 days. Electrical stimulation of the hippocampus in the contralateral hemisphere produced no detectable enzyme changes from those of the unstimulated hippocampus.
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