Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R J Davidson.
100 patients showing a significant number of stomatocytes were identified from the microscopic examination of 4291 peripheral blood films. The distinctive red cell appearance was most commonly found in patients with neoplastic, cardiovascular or hepatobiliary disease including acute alcoholism and during therapy with certain drugs some of which are known to be stomatocytogenic in vitro.
Two patients with anorexia nervosa who developed progressive haemolytic anaemia during chlorpromazine therapy are presented. In each case, withdrawal of the drug alone led to a prompt haematological response. Drug-induced oxidant damage is proposed as being the underlying haemolytic mechanism.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This paper reports three studies showing sex differences in EEG asymmetry during self-generated cognitive and affective tasks. In the first experiment, bilateral EEG, quantified for alpha on-line, was recorded from right-handed subjects while they either whistled, sang or recited lyrics of familiar songs. The results revealed significant asymmetry between the whistle and talk conditions only for subjects with no familial left-handedness and, within this group, only for females and not for males. In the second experiment, bilateral EEG was recorded while right-handed subjects (with no familial left-handedness) self-induced covert affective and non-affective states. Results revealed significantly greater relative right-hemisphere activation during emotion versus non-emotion trials only in females; males showed no significant task-dependent shifts in asymmetry between conditions. The third experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that females show greater percent time asymmetry than males during biofeedback training for symmetrical and asymmetrical EEG patterns. Results confirmed this prediction as well as indicating that females show better control of such asymmetrical cortical patterning. These findings provide new neuropsychological support for the hypothesis of greater bilateral flexibility in females during self-generation tasks.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Right-handed subjects tend to look to the left when answering affective questions. The relative shift in gaze from right to left is accentuated when the questions also involve spatial manipulation and attenuated when the questions require verbal manipulation. The data support the hypothesis that the right hemisphere has a special role in emotion in the intact brain, and that predictable patterning of hemispheric activity can occur when specific combinations of cognitive and affective processes interact.
Positive serum tests for infectious mononucleosis (IM) unaccompanied by the clinical syndrome or blood changes characteristic of the disease were detected in 39/177 (22%) mentally subnormal patients investigated with three different commercially available IM slide tests. Slide positively was still detectable six months later in 27/35 (77%) positive reactors. Positive IM slide tests were significantly associated with anticonvulsant, primarily phenobarbitone therapy and with concomitant elevations of immunoglobulins IgG and IgM. Epstein Barr virus antibodies were not detectable in the sera of 8/38 (21%) positive slide reactors. The implications of these observations are discussed and attention is drawn to the variations in sensitivity, specificity, and comparability of different IM slide tests.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Until recently, the exclusive use of serum in all laboratory tests for detecting heterophile antibody has remained unquestioned. This communication describes a series of studies which demonstrate that comparable results are obtained when sequestrenized plasma is used instead of serum in the conventional differential absorption technique and in two slide screening tests. It is confirmed that significant differences in the final differential absorption titres can result from variations in the agglutinability of erythrocytes from different sheep but such differences when present are the same for plasma as for serum. The advantages of using plasma for routine purposes are briefly discussed.
Haemolytic anaemia, rarely severe, is a common yet often unrecognized complication of the prolonged use or abuse of phenacetin-containing analgesics. Irregularly contracted (pyknocytes) or fragmented erythrocytes (schistocytes) are commonly present in the peripheral blood in this form of anaemia. It is emphasized that their recognition during screening of blood films may reveal patients previously unsuspected of analgesic abuse and at a stage before the development of the more serious complication of nephropathy. Fourteen such patients, detected during the last 18 months, are briefly described and the pathogenesis and laboratory features of the anaemia reviewed.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.