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Biomedical subjects

P Murphy

Publications and source records attributed to P Murphy.

At least 289 records · Page 16Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

School reintegration: a rehabilitation goal for spinal cord injured adolescents.

This article describes how the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, Public Law 94-142, assists in achieving the rehabilitation goal of school reintegration for spinal cord injured (SCI) adolescents. It also describes how subordinate goals are achieved during the inpatient rehabilitation phase. Comments from a survey of 13 SCI adolescents who returned to school demonstrate the need to prepare SCI adolescents for the services to which they are entitled, to acquaint them with ways of resolving possible problems they may encounter, and, when they return for follow-up care, to encourage them to continue in school.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

High calcium intake does not prevent stress-salt hypertension in dogs.

Avoidance conditioning sessions and isotonic saline (1.3 L/day) were administered to dogs for 12 days under conditions of a low (0.1%) or high (1.5%) calcium diet. Twenty-four-hour mean arterial pressure increased comparably during the stress-salt conditioning periods on both the low (systolic: +16 +/- 5 mm Hg; diastolic: +6 +/- 2 mm Hg) and high (systolic: +17 +/- 4 mm Hg; diastolic: +11 +/- 4 mm Hg) calcium diets. Urine volume, sodium excretion, and serum calcium levels on the high calcium diet were not significantly different from those on the low calcium diet. In a second experiment, calcium was infused continuously for six days into the arterial circulation of normotensive or stress-salt hypertensive dogs at a rate of 0.12-0.23 mEq/min. Although serum calcium levels increased by up to 50% under these conditions, there were no significant effects on 24-hour levels of arterial pressure. In contrast to the protective effect of augmented potassium intake, these findings indicate that calcium intake does not influence the development of stress-salt hypertension in dogs.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Unicentric Castleman's disease: a surprising neck mass.

BACKGROUND: We present the case of a 36-year-old female with a three-week history of a pulsatile, tender mass in the anterior triangle of the neck. METHODS: Radiology demonstrated that this was a vascular tumour deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle. RESULTS: Pre-operative embolisation and complete surgical resection was performed. Histology revealed Castleman's disease. CONCLUSION: Unicentric hyaline vascular Castleman's disease is an unusual cause of neck mass. Surgical resection remains the best chance for cure in unicentric disease. Long term follow-up is necessary as the risk of subsequent malignancy exists.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Infection or suspected infection after hip replacement surgery with autologous or homologous blood transfusions.

Homologous blood transfusions have been associated in both animals and humans with an increased risk of acute postoperative infectious complications. Eighty-four patients who underwent hip replacement surgery and were transfused with 2 or 3 units of blood were analyzed to determine whether those receiving homologous transfusions had different outcomes than those receiving autologous blood only. Only patients free of other risks for postoperative infection were studied. Those receiving homologous blood had a 32 percent (16/50) rate of proven or suspected infections, which was significantly higher than the 3 percent (1/34) rate in patients receiving autologous blood (p = 0.0029). Wound infections accounted for only a minority (6/17) of the proven or suspected infections, which suggests that nonsurgical factors contributed to these complications. The patients identified as being infected required significantly more antibiotic therapy (mean, 7.6 days) and lengthier hospital stays (mean, 15.5 days) than the patients who remained free of evidence of infection (means: 2.3 days of antibiotics and 12.3 days in the hospital) (p = 0.0001 for each variable). Other potential risk factors for infection, such as duration of surgical procedure, advanced patient age, amount of blood loss, type of anesthesia, surgeon performing the operation, use of a cemented versus porous-coat prosthesis, leukocytopenia, anemia, and underlying medical diagnosis, did not account for the differences in infection rates seen in those receiving homologous and autologous transfusions. These results confirm previous reports of an increased risk of postoperative infection in patients receiving homologous transfusions. Homologous transfusion may contribute to an increased risk of infection by immunologic modulation of the recipient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Accuracy of nurses' diagnoses of psychosocial responses.

PURPOSE: To describe the accuracy of staff nurses' diagnoses or interpretations of the human responses of patients in hospital settings. METHODS: The sample was 62 staff nurses in three hospitals who assessed and diagnosed the psychosocial problems of one to four patients. Two trained raters followed with assessment, diagnosis, and ratings of nurses' accuracy of 153 cases. A seven-point interval scale was used to judge accuracy. FINDINGS: The means of accuracy scores across nurses were significantly different (f = 1.66; p < .05; df = 2.59). A significant percentage of nurses' diagnoses were scored at the two highest levels of accuracy (45.2%), and 12.8% were scored at the three lowest levels of accuracy. According to the expert raters, a high percentage of patients (54.4%) were experiencing fear or anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: More attention needs to be given to the accuracy of nurses' diagnoses of psychosocial responses.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Linkage analysis of manic depression (bipolar affective disorder) in Icelandic and British kindreds using markers on the short arm of chromosome 18.

Attempts were made to follow up results of a previous linkage study which suggested that a locus-modifying susceptibility to bipolar and related unipolar affective disorder might be present in the pericentromeric region of the short arm of chromosome 18. Twenty-three multiply affected pedigrees collected from Iceland and the UK were genotyped using three highly polymorphic microsatellite markers at D18S37, D18S40 and D18S44 which span the region implicated. Lod score analyses under the assumption of heterogeneity and non-parametric linkage analyses were performed. The total lod scores obtained were strongly negative, and analysis allowing for heterogeneity did not suggest that any subgroup of the families was linked. Model-free linkage analysis using extended relative pair analysis and MFLINK also failed to detect any evidence for linkage. Our study provides no support for the presence of a locus-modifying genetic susceptibility to bipolar affective disorder in the pericentromeric region of chromosome 18q11. Further analyses in independent samples should help to reveal whether our negative results are due to locus heterogeneity or whether the original results were false-positive.

Alleles↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Antidote Dilemma--an activity to promote critical thinking.

BACKGROUND: In a health care environment of increased patient acuity and greater demands on nursing practitioners, the ability to think critically is requisite to functioning safely and proficiently. METHOD: Definitions and tenets of critical thinking promulgated by Brookfield (1987) and Paul (1992) provided the theoretical foundation for Antidote Dilemma, an activity designed to promote critical thinking. RESULTS: Nurses who participated in the activity identified plausible solutions to a nursing dilemma, considered context in identifying alternatives, and thought about their thinking. CONCLUSION: Critical thinking is most likely to occur and continue when it is supported by others and repeatedly practiced. Continuing/staff-development educators play a vital role in promoting critical thinking among nursing practitioners.

Decision Making↗