Childhood asthma: application of the international view of management in Australia and New Zealand.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Henry.
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This study was designed to determine whether diurnal patterns of blood pressure, heart rate, or locomotor activity differed among two substrains of Wistar-Kyoto rats, derived originally from Charles River or Taconic Farms stock, or the spontaneously hypertensive rat. Cardiovascular parameters were continuously monitored over 24 hours. Resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure values were statistically different among the three groups both during the lights-on (rest) and lights-off (active) phases of the cycle with blood pressure of spontaneously hypertensive rats greater than that of Wistar-Kyoto rats from Taconic Farms, which was greater than that of Wistar-Kyoto rats from Charles River. The largest difference in arterial pressure between Wistar-Kyoto/Taconic Farms and Wistar-Kyoto/Charles River was during the lights-on period. Heart rates of all rats decreased during the lights-on period; Wistar-Kyoto/Charles River had the largest decrease (-70 +/- 5 beats/min), Wistar-Kyoto/Taconic Farms had the least (-17 +/- 2 beats/min), and in spontaneously hypertensive rats the decrease was intermediate (-29 +/- 3 beats/min). The pronounced diurnal variation in pressure and heart rate exhibited by Wistar-Kyoto/Charles River was not present in either Wistar-Kyoto/Taconic Farms or spontaneously hypertensive rats. Blood pressure magnitude correlated with locomotor activity during both periods, although all groups showed minimal activity during the rest period. Observed differences between Wistar-Kyoto/Charles River and Wistar-Kyoto/Taconic Farms were not due to a lack of or an abnormality in baroreceptor reflex function.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
This study was concerned with the emotional reaction of men who are HIV antibody positive, and with whether their expression of enjoyment is better viewed as the result of rigid defending or flexible coping. A sample of these men was matched with samples of patients with other major illnesses and well controls. Enjoyment was found to be more frequently expressed in the two ill samples, as were anxiety, depression and helplessness. The HIV antibody positive patients expressed more anger, and yet more competence, than the other patients. These patterns of emotional reaction proved to be modified by different levels of enjoyment in a manner more indicative of coping than defending, because depressive emotions appeared to be reduced when some enjoyment of life was apparent. The implications of these findings for health professionals working with people who are HIV antibody positive are discussed.
Three patients are described with different phenotypes and differing de novo interstitial deletions of the long arm of a chromosome 7. The first patient has a deletion with loss of the proximal 7q11.23 band. Only three other cases have been reported with this particular deletion. Our second case shows mild dysmorphism similar to the other four patients reported with deletion of bands 7q21.12----21.3. Our third patient has a deletion of the 7q22.1----32.2 segment and has many of the phenotypic features of the other reported cases of del 7q22----32. GUSB, the gene for beta-glucuronidase, has been localised to the 7cen----q22 region. Analysis of beta-glucuronidase levels in blood leucocytes of our patients has helped more precisely to assign this gene locus to 7q21.11 or 7q22.1.
A synchronization treatment was initiated when each of 1227 heifers (four trials) was tailpainted. The tailpaint was sprayed with an aerosol raddle at the end of the treatment period. The heifers were in herds of 20 to 279 animals. Each herd was observed for estrus at selected post treatment intervals. A heifer was considered to be (or to have been) in estrus when the raddle was rubbed off. In three of the trials, animals which had the raddle removed were inseminated at 48 h following the end of the synchronization treatment. The tailpaint of an inseminated animal was scored from 0 (less than 10% of the paint remained) to 5 (more than 90% of the paint remained) and was then reraddled with a second color. The detection-insemination sequence was always repeated at 72 and 96 h, and sometimes at 120 h. Animals which had been previously inseminated, but then had paint scores reduced by at least 2 units were reinseminated 24 h later. Over the four trials, 94.5% of the heifers were detected in estrus through the use of the tailpaint and raddle system. The remaining 67 animals included only 10 (0.8%) which had ovulated without being detected in estrus. The reinsemination rate on consecutive days was 11.3% and was highest among animals that had a tailpaint score of 4 or 5 at 48 h. The proportion of animals detected in estrus at selected posttreatment intervals varied with the different synchronization treatments used within one herd, or with the same treatment used in different herds. The combination of tailpaint, raddling, tailpaint scoring and reraddling is a simple sequence which can be effectively used to detect estrus among heifers synchronized in research or commercial herds.
We have described a 28-year-old diabetic woman who had necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum three years after receiving a living related renal transplant. The diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis was made early and she was referred to a tertiary care center where she received radical perineal debridement and aggressive medical and surgical follow-up. Necrotizing fasciitis in a transplant patient is rare; review of the literature shows few cases and no survivors. Our patient has returned to a normal life despite continuation of all immunosuppressive therapy throughout the entire hospital course. In addition, she had a good cosmetic result despite the large necrotic perineal infection. Her survival can be attributed to early diagnosis and referral, immediate and extensive debridement, and aggressive protein replacement.
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This study prospectively compared the following tests for their accuracy in amputation level selection: transcutaneous oxygen, transcutaneous carbon dioxide, transcutaneous oxygen-to-transcutaneous carbon dioxide, foot-to-chest transcutaneous oxygen, intradermal xenon-133, ankle-brachial index, and absolute popliteal artery Doppler systolic pressure. All metabolic parameters had a high degree of statistical accuracy in predicting amputation healing whereas none of the other tests had statistical reliability. Amputation site healing was not affected by the presence of diabetes mellitus nor were the test results for any of the metabolic parameters.
Assays of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and alpha-foetoprotein were performed in peripheral blood and spermatic vein in 73 cases of testicular germ cell tumors. This study showed that the detection sensitivity of hCG is up to 40 times higher in the efferent blood of the tumor than in peripheral blood and that the drop in FSH concentrations often precedes a trophoblastic transformation. These results are of particular interest in the search for a minor trophoblastic or embryonic component. As a result, we propose a new strategy leading to a more efficient diagnosis and an adequate therapy.
A solid-phase luminescent immunoassay (LIA), based on the light emission produced as a result of the oxidation of Pholas dactylus luciferin by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in the presence of molecular oxygen, was developed for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The light emitted in the presence of diethyldithiocarbamate permitted the detection of 0.1 fmol HRP. HRP retained most of its light-emitting capacity after coupling with purified anti-hCG antibody by glutaraldehyde. The LIA involved immobilization of the antigen in plastic tubes coated with purified anti-hCG antibody and detection of the immunocomplex by light emission in the presence of Pholas luciferin. Light emission was linear for antigen concentration within the range 0.5-100 ng/ml. LIA correlates reasonably well with RIA and has a comparable sensitivity (0.5 ng hCG/ml).
Patients with lupus nephritis and severe renal failure progress to end-stage renal disease despite aggressive therapy to suppress immunologic function. Within this group is a small subset presenting with rapid progression of renal failure and requiring dialytic support. We reviewed the clinicopathologic data of four such patients who were able to terminate dialysis after acute renal failure due to lupus nephritis. Three of these patients have remained independent of dialysis up to 4 years, and one patient returned to dialysis 1 month following discontinuation. Although glomerular pathology was variable in the four patients, a lesion common to all at presentation was acute tubular necrosis. It is suggested that tubular necrosis may cause reversible renal failure when part of the nephropathy of disseminated lupus treated with corticosteroids.
The 60-item Boston Naming Test was administered to a group of 78 normal, bright, and independently living older adults in five age groupings from 59 to 80+ in an attempt to generate normative data for an older population. Results indicated that naming abilities decline only slightly with advancing age (r = -.33), although consistent with prior research, more variation in performance was found in the higher age groups.
This study was designed to test the feasibility of using the noninvasive radionuclide measurement of the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) to identify which patients with chronic lung disease objectively benefit from low flow oxygen therapy. Two categories of benefit, pulmonary artery pressure/resistance and peripheral oxygen delivery, were examined in 19 patients. Fourteen subjects returned after at least 3 wk of continuous low flow oxygen therapy for restudy; 12 patients had complete radionuclide and hemodynamic data. The change in RVEF, in response to continuous oxygen, correlated significantly with the change in coefficient of oxygen delivery (r = 0.59, p less than 0.05) and the change in cardiac output (r = 0.62, p less than 0.05). The change in RVEF did not correlate significantly with the change in pulmonary artery pressure (r = 0.06) or the change in total pulmonary resistance (r = -0.35). The change in coefficient of oxygen delivery, representing oxygen delivery corrected for oxygen consumption, correlated positively with change in cardiac output (r = 0.58, p less than 0.05) and negatively with change in oxygen consumption (r = -0.63, p less than 0.05), arterial oxygen content (r = -0.63, p less than 0.05), and arterial oxygen tension (r = -0.61, p less than 0.05). That is, the fall in hemoglobin in these patients more than compensated for any increase in Pao2 so that improved oxygen delivery frequently occurred despite a decrease in arterial oxygen content, and improved oxygen delivery occurred for the most part among patients with smaller improvement in Pao2.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
We have studied the deactivation of the in vivo actions of insulin and biosynthetic human proinsulin (recombinant DNA) to stimulate the glucose disposal rate (GDR) and to inhibit hepatic glucose output (HGO) in man. Twelve healthy, lean, young subjects were studied using a modification of the euglycemic glucose clamp technique. Subjects received 4-h infusions on separate occasions of insulin (15 mU/m2/min equivalent to 0.54 microgram/m2/min) or proinsulin (2.75 micrograms/m2/min), achieving steady-state serum levels of 32 +/- 3 microU/ml (equivalent to 0.23 +/- 0.02 pmol/ml) and 3.7 +/- 0.2 pmol/ml, respectively. Suppression of HGO was similar (83-84%) with proinsulin and insulin, but stimulation of GDR above basal was greater with insulin (3.41 +/- 0.43 versus 1.98 +/- 0.28 mg/kg/min, P less than 0.001). Following cessation of the hormone infusions, serum proinsulin concentration fell in a biphasic fashion with half-times of 25 and 146 min for the two phases. Serum half-disappearance time for insulin was 5 min. Deactivation of the hormone's effects to stimulate GDR was 50% complete by 35 min after insulin and 71 min after proinsulin. In contrast, 50% of the recovery times for the effect on suppression of HGO were 55 min after insulin and 188 min after proinsulin. Serum glucagon levels did not differ significantly after the insulin and proinsulin infusions. In summary: (1) Deactivation of proinsulin and insulin's effects to suppress HGO proceeds more slowly than deactivation of their effects to stimulate GDR; and (2) There is a markedly prolonged and disproportionately delayed deactivation of proinsulin's effects on suppression of HGO. This later finding may prove of therapeutic value in the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
A sensitive and specific method for the determination of plasma S-DHA by gas chromatography (GC), with fused silica capillary column (stationary phase SE 54) and electron capture, after solvolysis of the sample and purification by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is described. The interest of the new internal standard (5 alpha androst-9(11)-ene-3 beta ol-17-one) for the determination of the DHA by GC is shown. The analytical characteristics of this method as well as a comparative study of the values obtained by this method and by radioimmuno-assay are described.
A clinical syndrome of pathological left-handedness (PLH) is proposed to identify the pattern of correlative changes in lateral development associated with early brain injury in some manifest left-handers. This syndrome is believed to be caused by a hemispheric lesion that is predominantly left-sided (or bilateral asymmetric), which onsets before Age 6, and which encroaches upon the critical speech zones of the frontotemporal/frontoparietal cortex. The pattern of changes may include any or all of the following features: shifts in manual dominance, trophic changes in the extremities, transfer of hemispheric speech, and/or intrahemispheric reorganization of visuospatial cognitive functions. Although some of these correlates of PLH have long been known, they have not been recognized as an interrelated pattern of traits that constitute a clinical syndrome. Identification of these individuals, all manifest left-handers, will be shown to have implications for diagnosis/remediation and for models of recovery of function.
Right ventricular function at rest and during exercise was examined in a group of patients with symptomatic aortic or mitral valve disease, or both. The right ventricular ejection fraction was less than 45% in 22 of 36 patients at rest and in 12 of 17 subjects at symptom-limited, supine bicycle exercise. The right ventricular ejection fraction failed to increase more than 5% with exercise in 17 of 17 patients. The central venous pressure was greater than 5 mm Hg in 18 of 36 patients at rest and in 13 of 17 patients at maximal exercise. There was a significant inverse relation between rest right ventricular ejection fraction and mean pulmonary artery pressure (r = -0.47, p less than 0.05) and between rest right ventricular ejection fraction and mean central venous pressure (r = -0.39, p less than 0.05). There was no significant relation between the exercise values of these variables. In individual patients, the changes in right ventricular ejection fraction and pulmonary artery pressure with graded exercise were nonlinear. It is concluded that right ventricular function is not a simple function of pulmonary artery pressure at rest or during exercise in aortic and mitral valve disease. Less than one-quarter of the variation in right ventricular ejection fraction at rest can be explained by the variation in pulmonary artery pressure, and the finding of a normal (greater than 45%) right ventricular ejection fraction does not reliably exclude the possibility of pulmonary hypertension in a patient with valvular heart disease.