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Biomedical subjects

P Miller

Publications and source records attributed to P Miller.

At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of cardiac rehabilitation on psychosocial functioning and life satisfaction of coronary artery disease clients.

This article details a quantitative, descriptive study that explored the effects of participation in two types of cardiac rehabilitation programs on psychosocial functioning and life satisfaction. Forty-seven clients with coronary artery disease (CAD) were included in the study sample. Data were collected during a home visit made 6 to 8 weeks after the coronary event. All subjects completed two data collection tools: the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), which measured clients' psychosocial functioning, and the Quality of Life Index (QLI), which measured clients' life satisfaction. No significant differences were found between the two treatment groups in psychosocial functioning or life satisfaction. Psychosocial functioning and life satisfaction were found to be related strongly. Further research efforts are needed to document empirically the influence of cardiac rehabilitation participation on the client's quality of life.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
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In vitro assessment of sulbactam plus cefoperazone in the treatment of bacteria isolated from cancer patients.

Cefoperazone is a broad-spectrum cephalosporin that has been used extensively to treat infections in cancer patients. A recent survey demonstrated only a 6% resistance to this drug among Gram-negative bacteria. The combination of cefoperazone plus sulbactam was studied in vitro against consecutive isolates causing bacteremia in cancer patients as well as those selected for resistance to cefoperazone. Both a fixed ratio of sulbactam/cefoperazone (2:1 w/w) and selected concentrations of sulbactam (2, 4, 8, and 16 micrograms/ml) were studied. Sulbactam was shown to increase the susceptibility of various unselected Gram-negative bacilli; this effect increased with larger concentrations of sulbactam. The addition of sulbactam at optimum concentration levels made 29 of 65 cefoperazone-resistant Gram-negative bacilli susceptible. This effect was seen most markedly for Acinetobacter spp.

Bacterial Infections↗
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Factors associated with weight change among clients of a residential weight control program indicating binge and nonbinge traits.

The long-term effects of a 12- and 26-day residential weight control program on weight change were determined in 187 men and women, 1 to 5 years after treatment. Subjects completed a paper/pencil questionnaire assessing current diet, weight control techniques, exercise behaviors, behavior modification techniques, binge eating, and dieting behavior. General linear modeling was used to investigate the association between behaviors maintained posttreatment and current weight among subjects who demonstrated behaviors indicative of binge traits (BT) and nonbinge traits (NBT). Results indicate that dissimilar variables are predictive of weight change in the BT and NBT groups. Engaging in exercise behaviors and reduced attempts at dieting lead to greater weight loss in NBT individuals. The use of preplaning techniques was found to be indicative of greater weight loss in BT individuals. These findings suggest the importance of identifying individuals who indulge in binge-eating behaviors prior to intervention in order to deliver the appropriate treatment methods.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Truancy and perceived school performance: an alcohol and drug study of UK teenagers.

This study is based on a subsample of 15- and 16-year-old school students from the UK, part of the European School Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Information was available on truancy rates, perceived school performance, family structure, lifestyle, and usage of alcohol, cigarettes and illicit drugs in 6409 teenagers. Living in a single-parent family, lack of constructive hobbies, presence of psychiatric symptoms, and an aggressive outgoing delinquent lifestyle bore the strongest associations to truancy and to perceived school performance. There were also strong relationships between both these last two variables and use of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs. However, the effects of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs were largely accounted for by other variables. Having at least one parent who both supported the respondent and who exercised some control was predictive of better perceived school performance.

Absenteeism↗
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Young people and alcohol: an international insight.

A survey of the drinking, smoking and illicit drug use of more than 90 000 teenage school students was carried out in 1999. This exercise, known as the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), revealed marked differences in the substance use patterns of those surveyed in different countries. Teenagers in a group of northern countries reported the highest rates of heavy drinking and intoxication (drunkenness). Teenagers in southern Europe reported much lower levels of such behaviours and experiences. Some of these findings are presented and discussed in relation to aetiology and health promotion.

Adolescent↗
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Prophylaxis of oropharyngeal candidiasis with fluconazole.

A total of 112 cancer patients who could ultimately be evaluated were randomly assigned in a double-blind study to receive either fluconazole or placebo as antifungal prophylaxis during hospitalization. Thrush, defined by appropriate lesions in the oropharynx and confirmed by scrapings and cultures positive for Candida species, occurred in 2% of the 58 patients given fluconazole and in 28% of the 54 patients given placebo (P = .0003). Candida species were cultured from initial throat specimens from 29 patients given fluconazole and from 26 patients given placebo. Oropharyngeal candidiasis was detected subsequently in 3% of the former patients and 54% of the latter patients (P = .0001). Adverse reactions that were probably due to or aggravated by fluconazole occurred in only four patients and consisted of transient liver function abnormalities in three instances and nausea and vomiting in one. Oral fluconazole is an effective agent for prophylaxis of oropharyngeal candidiasis in susceptible cancer patients.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Using pulse oximetry to make clinical nursing decisions.

Pulse oximetry provides intermittent or continuous evaluation of a patient's oxygen saturation. Sound clinical nursing judgments can be based on oximetry readings if the nurse combines effective operation and trouble-shooting of the oximeter with knowledge of the principles of oxygenation and their relationship to a patient's total clinical picture.

Aged↗
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Understanding the structure of the turbulent mixing layer in hydrodynamic instabilities.

When a heavy fluid is placed above a light fluid, tiny vertical perturbations in the interface create a characteristic structure of rising bubbles and falling spikes known as Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities have received much attention over the past half-century because of their importance in understanding many natural and man-made phenomena, ranging from the rate of formation of heavy elements in supernovae to the design of capsules for Inertial Confinement Fusion. We present a new approach to analyze Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in which we extract a hierarchical segmentation of the mixing envelope surface to identify bubbles and analyze analogous segmentations of fields on the original interface plane. We compute meaningful statistical information that reveals the evolution of topological features and corroborates the observations made by scientists. We also use geometric tracking to follow the evolution of single bubbles and highlight merge/split events leading to the formation of the large and complex structures characteristic of the later stages. In particular we (i) Provide a formal definition of a bubble; (ii) Segment the envelope surface to identify bubbles; (iii) Provide a multi-scale analysis technique to produce statistical measures of bubble growth; (iv) Correlate bubble measurements with analysis of fields on the interface plane; (v) Track the evolution of individual bubbles over time. Our approach is based on the rigorous mathematical foundations of Morse theory and can be applied to a more general class of applications.

Journal Article↗
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Organization of heterogeneous scientific data using the EAV/CR representation.

Entity-attribute-value (EAV) representation is a means of organizing highly heterogeneous data using a relatively simple physical database schema. EAV representation is widely used in the medical domain, most notably in the storage of data related to clinical patient records. Its potential strengths suggest its use in other biomedical areas, in particular research databases whose schemas are complex as well as constantly changing to reflect evolving knowledge in rapidly advancing scientific domains. When deployed for such purposes, the basic EAV representation needs to be augmented significantly to handle the modeling of complex objects (classes) as well as to manage interobject relationships. The authors refer to their modification of the basic EAV paradigm as EAV/CR (EAV with classes and relationships). They describe EAV/CR representation with examples from two biomedical databases that use it.

Database Management Systems↗
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Equipoise and the ethics of the Canadian Lung Volume Reduction Surgery Trial study: should there be a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate lung volume reduction surgery?

The physical improvement is so great following lung volume reduction surgery that there is growing opinion that a randomized, controlled trial is unnecessary. A randomized, controlled trial, it is argued, would deprive those patients randomly assigned to the nonsurgical treatment arm the 'benefit' of lung volume reduction surgery. Entering a trial in which one arm leads to a surgical intervention and the other to best medical management also poses a variety of ethical difficulties. If one is to be offered surgery, there must be perceived benefit because the physician has an obligation to offer the best possible treatment for his or her patient. If a patient agrees to have surgery, the expectation is that surgery would help. Thus, a patient randomly assigned to the medical arm of a trial may easily believe that he or she is being deprived of surgery that may help them. This paper illustrates this dilemma using the Canadian Lung Volume Reduction Surgery Trial. The authors discuss the concept of 'equipoise' in three dimensions, adding community equipoise to theoretical equipoise and clinical equipoise earlier described by Freedman. The paper concludes that the Canadian Lung Volume Reduction Surgery Trial needs to continue because of the clinical equipoise that drives it.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗