Biomedical subjects

R H Glew

Publications and source records attributed to R H Glew.

258 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Comparison of the clock test and a questionnaire-based test for screening for cognitive impairment in Nigerians.

BACKGROUND: Since it is projected that by 2020 seventy percent of the elderly will reside in developing countries, a reliable screening method for dementia and cognitive impairment in general in populations with diverse languages, culture, education and literacy will be needed. We sought to determine if the Clock Test, a screening test for dementia, was suitable for use in a Nigerian population. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of 54 men and 12 women from Northern Nigeria. Researchers administered two dementia screening tools: a questionnaire-based test adapted for use in a Nigerian population and the Clock Test. RESULTS: Overall, 53.0% of the subjects had an abnormal Clock Test whereas 10.6% of the subjects had an abnormal questionnaire score. Only 9.1% of the subjects had abnormal scores on both tests. Subjects with more schooling had a greater probability of having a positive clock concept (understanding that a circle represented a clock). Of those with more than 6 years of schooling, 91.0% had a positive clock concept. Subjects with a negative clock concept were more likely to have an abnormal Clock Test (93.3%) than a questionnaire (26.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The main finding of our study was the discrepancy between the results of the Clock Test and the questionnaire. Performance on the Clock Test appeared to have been heavily influenced by education level, indicating the test is not universally applicable across cultures. The questionnaire-based test appears to reduce the effects of illiteracy on assessing dementia in a Nigerian population. Larger studies should be done to control for how education affects the assessment of dementia.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hydrolase activity in acute otitis media with effusion.

Biochemical studies of middle ear effusions (MEE) from patients with chronic or recurrent otitis media with effusion (OME) have demonstrated the presence of significant levels of certain hydrolytic and oxidative enzymes. We have examined MEE from patients with acute OME for the content of a number of lysosomal hydrolases and find no significant differences in the mean values for acid phosphatase, alpha-mannosidase, beta-galactosidase, beta-glucuronidase, hexosaminidase, and neuraminidase between purulent and serous effusions. In every case, the mean activities of these enzymes were greater in culture-positive than in culture-negative effusions although this difference was significant only in the case of neuraminidase. Neuraminidase activity was detected in 78% of those MEEs from which Streptococcus pneumoniae could be cultured and in only 32% to 64% of all other effusions. No correlation was observed between the level of neuraminidase released into the extracellular growth medium and the infectivity of various strains of S pneumoniae.

Acute Disease↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Gaucher's disease: a clinical, morphological and biochemical study of a Nigerian family.

Two Nigerian sibling presented with progressive hepato-splenomegaly in infancy from which they subsequently died. Morphological investigations carried out showed that the children had Gaucher's disease. Leucocyte B-glucocerebrosidase activities from the parents of the two siblings and also from one surviving sibling were found to be only about 50% of the enzyme activities in control subjects while hexosaminidase and B-glucuronidase activities were within normal limits. There results showed that the three surviving relatives are heterozygotes and also provided a strong supporting evidence that the deceased children had Gaucher's disease. The occurence of this disease in African children living in Kenya, Uganda, the Congo and Nigeria, and in Black Americans suggest that this biochemical abnormality is not as rare in the Negroid race as has been believed hitherto, and may be widespread on the African continent.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Changes in lysosomal hydrolases from cord blood of vigorous and asphyxiated Nigerian newborn infants.

The activities of lysosomal hydrolases, beta-glucuronidase and acid phosphatase, were assayed in cord sera from forty-seven non asphyxiated babies and eleven babies who were severely asphyxiated at birth. Significant changes of these enzymes were observed in cord serum. Compared to the control group, serum beta glucuronidase (determined at pH 4.5 using fluorogenic substrate, 4-methyl-umbelliferyl-B-D glucuronide) was 2.2 fold higher (P less than 0.01) in the asphyxiated babies. Similarly, serum acid phosphatase activity estimated by using 4-methyl-umbelliferyl-phosphate was 1.8 fold higher (P less than 0.01) in asphyxia neonatorum. The clinical relevance of this finding lies in its ultimate application, using the lysosomal hydrolase activity in scalp blood sample to evaluate objectively the foetal well-being.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Determination of serum acid and alkaline phosphatase using 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate.

The present report compares the performance of several colorimetric substrates presently employed in clinical laboratories for the determination of serum acid and alkaline phosphatase with that of the fluorogenic phosphatase reagent 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate. Acid and alkaline phosphatase assays were performed on reference hospital populations in Nigeria and the United States. The results of both acid and alkaline phosphatase determinations indicate that the coefficient of variation is smaller for the fluorometric assay than for the colorimetric methods that employ either phenyl phosphate or p-nitrophenyl phosphate as the substrate. Furthermore, serum acid phosphatase determinations using 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate identified increased serum enzyme levels in 6/6 cases of prostatic carcinoma and 9/9 cases of Gaucher's disease. The occurrence of elevated serum alkaline phosphatase levels in 24/24 cases involving liver and bone disease was also confirmed by the fluorometric alkaline phosphatase assay. In addition, sera from eight patients with the connective tissue disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, were found to contain normal levels of acid and alkaline phosphatase by the fluorometric assays. From these results it appears that the sensitive and rapid fluorometric assay procedures can be readily employed in the clinical pathology laboratory for the determination of serum acid and alkaline phosphatase levels.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of time and temperature on inactivation of aminoglycosides by ampicillin at neonatal dosages.

The administration of gentamicin at least 1 hour before administration of ampicillin in neonates has been advocated because of in vitro inactivation of aminoglycosides by beta-lactam antibiotics. This method would cause a delay in ampicillin dosing in the treatment of serious bacterial infections and unnecessarily complicate nursing procedures. We studied the effect of varying concentrations of ampicillin (50, 100, 200, and 400 micrograms/ml) on aminoglycosidic antibiotics in vitro with the use of stock solutions diluted in pooled sera obtained from cord blood and incubated samples at 25 degrees C, 37 degrees C, and 40 degrees C. We found inactivation of aminoglycosides to be dependent on time, temperature, and ampicillin concentration, but the degree of inactivation was small and does not support temporal separation of parenteral administration of ampicillin and aminoglycosides to neonates.

Ampicillin↗