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Biomedical subjects

R R Phillips

Publications and source records attributed to R R Phillips.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Partial splenic embolization in children with hypersplenism.

As an alternative to surgical splenectomy, partial splenic embolization was performed in seven children for hypersplenism manifested by splenomegaly, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and erythrocyte hemolysis. Within a few days, platelet and leukocyte counts rose significantly in all patients and were maintained in six of seven patients during a follow-up period of 9 to 69 months. Spleen size and abdominal distention also decreased significantly in all children. There were no infectious complications.

Adolescent

Case report: congenital fistula between the submandibular gland and the oropharynx.

Congenital salivary fistulae are rare and may be associated with abnormalities of the branchial apparatus or arise from aberrant or accessory salivary tissue. Previous case reports have documented cutaneous fistulae. We report a case of a salivary fistula between the submandibular gland and the oropharynx and discuss a possible embryological basis for the abnormality.

Adult

Admission to hospital with gastroenteritis.

A prospective study over a one year period examined preadmission illness and its treatment, social characteristics and referral patterns, and inpatient illness progression in 1148 children admitted with a primary diagnosis of gastroenteritis. Admissions were predominantly from socially disadvantaged families: 712 (62%) from social classes IV and V. Approximately a quarter were referred with minimal symptoms, only 12 (1%) with moderate to severe dehydration, and eight (less than 1%) with hypernatraemia. One hundred and ninety two of 1101 (17%) had not seen their general practitioner during the acute illness. One third had received no treatment and one third inappropriate antibiotics, antidiarrhoeals, antiemetics, or changes of milk. Gastroenteritis is a less severe illness than formerly but remains a significant cause of paediatric morbidity. Suboptimal treatment is common. Improved local district hospital and community based resources are needed.

Adolescent

Morbidity in whooping cough and measles.

Parents of 99 children who were admitted to hospital with whooping cough or measles, and of 50 children with whooping cough or measles who were nursed at home, were interviewed to determine the extent of morbidity and its effects on the family. Children admitted with whooping cough or measles spent a mean of 12.6 and 5.8 days in hospital, respectively. Time to full recovery was 13.7 and 2.1 weeks, respectively. Over a third of the children who were admitted were emotionally upset during the admission and for several weeks afterwards. Parental anxiety and exhaustion were common. Routine family life was appreciably disturbed. Advice from health care professionals, based on misconceptions of valid contradictions to immunisation, was the main reason for refusing vaccination.

Child

Dissociation of the effects of inferior temporal and limbic lesions on object discrimination learning with 24-h intertrial intervals.

Monkeys with bilateral ablations of the inferior temporal cortical area TE were trained on a visual discrimination task thought to measure non-cognitive habit formation. The task consisted of 20 object discriminations presented concurrently, but at the rate of only one trial on each per day; successive trials on a given discrimination were thus separated by 24-h intertrial intervals. Performance on this task by the animals with TE lesions was compared to that of both normal control monkeys and monkeys that had sustained bilateral removals of the amygdala and hippocampus. In contrast to the latter animals, which learned the 24-h intertrial interval task about as quickly as the normal controls, monkeys with area TE removals were markedly impaired. Taken together with earlier findings demonstrating that ablation of area TE impairs visual recognition memory, the present results suggest that area TE contributes not only, like limbic structures, to a cognitive memory system, but also, unlike limbic structures, to a non-cognitive habit system. Evidence is reviewed suggesting that this latter system may involve a corticostriatal circuit.

Animals

Aortic valve damage caused by operative balloon dilatation of critical aortic valve stenosis.

Operative balloon dilatation of the aortic valve was performed in seven neonates with critical stenosis of the aortic valve. The procedure was followed by the development of severe aortic regurgitation in four patients. Necropsy was performed in three and revealed partial detachment of the right coronary cusp of the aortic valve. Damage to the valve leaflet caused by balloon dilatation was probably the result of using a balloon with a diameter that was too large in relation to the aortic valve ring diameter and of shearing forces created in the aortic wall by the contracting ventricle. The diameter of the inflated balloon should not be larger than the diameter of the aortic valve ring.

Angioplasty, Balloon