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Biomedical subjects

S B Johnson

Publications and source records attributed to S B Johnson.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Cognitive and behavioral knowledge about insulin-dependent diabetes among children and parents.

Youngster's knowledge about insulin-dependent diabetes was assessed across three domains: (1) general information; (2) problem solving and (3) skill at urine testing and self-injection. These youngster's parents completed the general information and problem-solving components of the assessment battery. All test instruments were showed good reliability. The test of problem solving was more difficult than the test of general information for both parents and patients. Mothers were more knowledgeable than fathers and children. Girls performed more accurately than boys, and older children obtained better scores than did younger children. Nevertheless, more than 80% of the youngsters made significant errors on urine testing and almost 40% made serious errors in self-injection. A number of other knowledge deficits were also noted. Duration of diabetes was not related to any of the knowledge measures. Intercorrelations between scores on the assessment instruments indicated that skill at urine testing or self-injection was not highly related to other types of knowledge about diabetes. Furthermore, knowledge in one content are was not usually predictive of knowledge in another content area. The results of this study emphasize the importance of measuring knowledge from several different domains. Patient variables such as sex and age need to be given further consideration in the development and use of patient educational programs. Regular assessment of patients' and parents' knowledge of all critical aspects of diabetes home management seems essential.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Behavioral and environmental characteristics of treated and untreated enuretic children and matched nonenuretic controls.

This correlational study investigated possible behavioral, parental, and environmental differences in enuretic children who were either receiving or not receiving treatment for bed-wetting. The subjects wer 5- to 12-year-old children who were nocturnally incontinent at least once a week and physically normal in all other respects. Seventeen of these youngsters were receiving pharmacologic treatment for enuresis (clinical enuretic group) and 20 were not (nonclinical enuretic group). Clinical enuretic children were older and wet more frequently than youngsters whose parents had not sought treatment for this problem. Their fathers more often held blue-collar jobs and their mothers were more intolerant of enuresis than were parents of the nonclinical enuretic sample. These two groups did not differ in number and type of child behavior problems, number of life-stress events, age toilet training commenced, or parental child-rearing practices employed. However, enuretic youngsters displayed more conduct problems and immature behavior than their nonenuretic counterparts. Mothers of enuretic youngsters applied more rule-oriented child-rearing practices than mothers of nonenuretic controls. There were no differences between the enuretic and nonenuretic groups in number of early-life stressful events or the age at which toilet training commenced.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1981

Essential fatty acid status in cystic fibrosis and the effects of safflower oil supplementation.

The fatty acid compositions of serum phospholipids, cholesteryl esters, triglycerides, and free fatty acids were determined on a group of cystic fibrosis patients. These were compared with similar data from random hospitalized patients of the same age groups of both sexes. Fatty acid patterns in all lipid classes were skewed in the direction of essential fatty acid deficiency, but the differences were most dramatic in phospholipids. Many calculated parameters useful as indices of essential fatty acid status indicated that essential fatty acid deficiency exists in cystic fibrosis. Treatment of 11 cystic fibrosis patients with safflower oil (1 g/kg/day) failed to correct the aberrations in fatty acid pattern. The biochemical data suggest that there may be an impairment in conversion of linoleate to arachidonate as well as an impairment of absorption.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Essential fatty acid deficiency in malnourished children.

Fatty acid patterns of major classes of lipids of serum were measured in forty Argentine children ages 2 to 24 months admitted to the hospital with chronic malnutrition. A normal control group of 48 children from the same population was also examined. Serum lipids were extracted and separated into phospholipids, cholesteryl esters, triglycerides, and free fatty acids. These were converted to methyl esters which were analyzed by gas chromatography. In chronic malnutrition, the fatty acid patterns of phospholipids and cholesteryl esters indicated changes characteristic of essential fatty acid deficiency of moderate degree. The total omega 6 acids were found to be highly significantly diminished from normal, and the ratio of 20:3 omega 9/20:4 omega 6 was highly significantly increased. Decreased proportions of omega 6 metabolites suggested impaired desaturase activity, and elevated ratios of 22:4 omega 6/20:4 omega 6 and 20:2 omega 6/18:2 omega 6 suggested increased chain elongation in chronic malnutrition.

Argentina↗
PubMed1980

Psychosocial factors in juvenile diabetes: a review.

Studies assessing (1) the influence of psychosocial factors on the onset of juvenile diabetes, (2) the influence of psychosocial factors on the course of this disease, and (3) the influence of diabetes on the psychosocial development of the child are reviewed. Directions for future research are suggested.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

The hemolytic equivalence of human, guinea pig and canine complement proteins.

The ability of functionally pure human, guinea pig and canine complement proteins to fulfill the hemolytic function of a substituted analagous component in an otherwise totally homogeneous complement sequence was investigated by means of conventional hemolytic assays. A striking feature was the observation that for hemolysis to occur, differing requirements for enzyme-substrate homology were exhibited by each of the three species of C3 and C5 convertases (C3 and C5 CVA). The results suggest that different strategies of molecular interaction evolved in complement systems of different species.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Levels of free fatty acids and arachidonic acid in pregnancy and labor.

Serum levels of total FA and nonesterified AA were measured during 10 normal pregnancies, subsequent labors, and postpartum periods and in cord blood. The proportion of AA present in PL, CE, and TGs was also measured. A general rise of total FA was noted as the pregnancy progressed, followed by a marked elevation in total FA during labor. By 2 days postpartum, the FA levels had dropped to their lowest values. Cord blood levels were generally much lower than any maternal levels. Mean serum free AA levels were elevated in the second trimester and again during labor, and the percentage of AA in the total FAs was uniformly lower during labor than at any time during pregnancy. The percentage of total FAs made up by AA was much higher in cord blood than in maternal blood. The esterified fatty acid fractions in cord blood were also much richer in AA than those in maternal blood. The possibility that AA circulating in the bloodstream may play a part in the propagation of labor is suggested.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Intensification of essential fatty acid deficiency in the rat by dietary trans fatty acids.

Two studies were conducted using male rats to assess the effect of trans fatty acids upon essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency. In the first study 5% corn oil (CO), hydrogenated coconut oil (HCNO) or margarine stock (MS, partially hydrogenated soybean oil) were fed, and the levels of trans fatty acids in tissue lipids were measured. The trans fatty acids present in MS were found to intensify EFA deficiency and to be retained in tissue lipids to a high degree, especially in heart phospholipids (PL). In the second study, as the level of trans fatty acids increased in the diet, increasingly higher levels of trans fatty acids were deposited in the heart PL. As dietary trans acid increased, a decrease in total omega 6 fatty acids, and a decrease in the sum of 18:2 omega 6 + 20:4 omega 6 - 20:3 omega 9 fatty acids in heart PL occurred, both criteria indicating a shift toward an increasing EFA deficiency state. Studies of delta 5 desaturase activity of liver microsomes in selected groups showed an increase in the conversion of 20:3 omega 6 to 20:4 omega 6 as the trans fatty acid level in the diet increased.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

The effects of stimulus and task on preschoolers' ability to identify visual sequences.

The effects of task and stimuli on the ability of 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers to identify simultaneously presented visual sequences was further assessed. A same-different task was compared to a matching task and familiar pictorial stimuli were compared to unfamiliar letters. Materials consisted of 3 element strings with 1 element repeated; both the standard and alternative(s) remained in full view on each of 25 trials. Older children performed better than younger children. The same-different task was easier than the matching task; this effect was not maintained when the differential effects of chance in the 2 tasks were removed. This pictorial stimuli produced better performance than the letters and also interacted with the type of error made. Reversal errors occurred most often in all conditions, but other kinds of errors were more frequent in the letter than the picture condition. This was particularly true for the matching task. The use of reversal errors to the exclusion of all other error types was associated with high overall accuracy on visual sequence discriminations.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1978

A simple photogrammetric method of measuring anterior chamber volume.

We devised a convenient method of measuring anterior chamber volume in man. Photographs of the anterior chamber were taken with a Zeiss photographic slit lamp with a Polaroid attachment, and measured with a specially constructed transparent scale. Using this method, the standard deviation of individual measurements of volume on different occasions in a given eye was 8 microliter. The standard deviation of the differences between right and left eyes of normal subjects was 10 microliter. The volume of the anterior chamber measured in 78 eyes of 39 normal subjects (mean age, 28 years; range, 19 to 56 years) was found to be 209 +/- 37 microliter (mean +/- SD). We observed a small negative correlation between the age of the subject and the volume of the anterior chamber.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Stapedial reflex and anxiety in fluent and disfluent speakers.

Stapedial reflex thresholds were obtained from fluent and disfluent subjects with and without anxiety. Anxiety conditions were measured by monitoring palmar skin resistance with a psychogalvanometer. Eight of nine disfluent speakers had decreased mean stapedial-reflex thresholds ( -2.5 to -10 dB) at 500 or 1000 Hz or both when anxiety was present. This phenomenon did not occur in the fluent group. Only two of the nine fluent subjects showed reflex change with anxiety and the mean reflex change was shown in an increase of +2.5 dB. The disfluent group's mean stapedial reflex was significantly different with and without anxiety status (a = 0.01). Mean reflex for the fluent group did not change with anxiety.

Adolescent↗