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Biomedical subjects

R W Edwards

Publications and source records attributed to R W Edwards.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Trends in drug use of Indian adolescents living on reservations: 1975-1983.

Anonymous surveys on drug use were administered to 7th-12th grade students in Indian reservation schools. A large number of tribes were surveyed from 1975 through 1983. There is reason to believe the results are reasonably representative of Indian youth living on reservations. Lifetime prevalence for most drugs is higher than that for non-Indian youth throughout this period, and rates for alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants, the most frequently tried drugs, were particularly high. Since 1981 there has been a slight drop in lifetime prevalence for most drugs. Current use figures show the same trends, with increasing current use through 1981 and a drop since that time. Analysis of patterns of drug use, classifying youth according to number, type, and depth of involvement with drugs, shows a similar trend, with radical increases until 1981 and then a drop in all but one of the more serious drug use types. Despite this drop, 53% of Indian youth would still be classified as "at risk" in their drug involvement, compared with 35% of non-Indian youth. Reasons probably relate to severely detrimental conditions on reservations; unemployment, prejudice, poverty, and lack of optimism about the future.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Long-term relapse-free survival in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

An intensive treatment program with curative intent was designed for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Forty-eight consecutive patients were treated with this protocol and 39 (81%) obtained a complete remission. Although the complete remission rate was high for patients with both null- and T-cell disease, those with null-cell leukemia had a significantly greater median duration of remission (greater than 306 weeks) than patients with T-cell disease (62 weeks). The median survival by life-table analysis for the 48 patients is projected to be greater than 310 weeks, and five patients have finished the 3-year treatment program and have been off therapy for 1-3 years without recurrence of disease. Classification of adult ALL by immune marker status is an important and easily done pretherapy maneuver that identifies subsets of patients with a significantly different prognosis when treated with the protocol described in this study. Those patients for whom leukemic cells had T-cell characteristics had a short median duration of remission. Most importantly, this treatment protocol identifies by therapeutic response a subset of adult patients with ALL whose leukemic blasts are characterized by the absence of immunological markers and who appear, in substantial proportion, to be potentially curable.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1980

Population screening for congenital hypothyroidism.

A pilot screening programme for congenital hypothyroidism covering most of North London, Essex, Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire entailed carrying out an assay of thyroid-stimulating hormone on single Guthrie dried blood spots. During one year 87 444 babies were screened and 26 cases of primary congenital hypothyroidism detected, giving an incidence of 1:3363. Only two cases (7.7%) had already been diagnosed on clinical grounds before the results of screening became available. In two other babies the diagnosis was delayed. The programme thus resulted in the early treatment of 22 babies, eight of whom already had pronounced features of hypothyroidism that had not been detected on routine clinical examinations. Although definitive evidence will not be available for some years, the results suggest that the prognosis for most of these babies is likely to be improved by early diagnosis; thus the introduction of national screening should be delayed no longer.

Congenital Hypothyroidism↗
PubMed1980

Programming and running radioimmunoassay in the h-TSH screening procedure using dried blood spots and the NE1600 gamma counter on line to the HP9815S calculator.

Screening for hypothyroidism has been achieved by seeking raised concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone (h-TSH) in dried blood samples collected on absorbent paper from some 1700 newborn babies each week using double antibody radioimmunoassay and 125I-label counting on a NE1600 gamma counter linked to a HP9815S desk top calculator. Specificity, accuracy, and quality control of the assay have been investigated. The calculator programme stores all count, time, and calculated data and uses log-log function formation and third-power homoscedastic polynomial fit to the calibration data followed, if necessary, by elimination of outliers set at P = 0.5%. Branching in the calculation procedure provides the ability to process sample data in subgroups, completely to reprocess data (including presentation in a form suitable for making a histogram plot), and to reset without loss of data in case of instrument or main power failure. Variance analysis was used to select the minimum duration of count (50 s), and it was demonstrated that homoscedasticity pertains in the regression calculation.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1980

Internal analytical quality control using the cusum chart and truncated V-mask procedure.

It is recommended that quality control data be recorded on a standard form to facilitate calculation of the cusum increments and of the cumulative sums (cusums) for plotting on the cusum chart. The 'in control' and 'out of control' judgements are made with the aid of a truncated V-mask. Full details of calculation procedures are described without recourse to statistical theory so that the cusum and truncated V-mask procedure may be carried out by operators without training in statistics.

Mathematics↗
PubMed1968

The partial characterization of 1-oxygenated steroids from urine of a hypertensive newborn child.

1. Four substances from the urine of a hypertensive newborn girl were partially characterized and shown to be 17alpha-hydroxy-5beta-pregnane-1,3,20-trione, 3alpha,17alpha-dihydroxy-5beta-pregnane-1,20-dione, 3alpha,17alpha,20alpha-trihydroxy-5beta-pregnan-1-one and 5beta-pregnane-1beta,3alpha,17alpha,20alpha-tetrol. 2. The characterization rested mainly on R(M) analysis of the substances and their derivatives by glycol fission, providing evidence for position and degree of substitution and for steroidal character. Supporting evidence was provided by chemically specific location reactions. 3. Certain problems in the manipulation of these beta-disubstituted steroids are discussed.

Chemical Phenomena↗