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Biomedical subjects

S Kennedy

Publications and source records attributed to S Kennedy.

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Depression in self-harm patients.

DSM-III diagnoses and responses to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were examined in 71 consecutive admissions to an in-patient psychiatric crisis service following deliberate self-harm. Although 80% of the admitted patients were moderately or severely depressed according to BDI scores, only 31% were diagnosed with a major depressive episode. While all of the self-harm patients may be viewed as experiencing severe subjective distress, only a minority were shown to suffer from DSM-III depressive illness. The high depression scores on the BDI may be related to the patients' extreme distress preceding a crisis admission and to the high prevalence of personality disorders in this group of patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Vitamin E, selenium, and polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations and glutathione peroxidase activity in tissues from pigs with dietetic microangiopathy (mulberry heart disease).

Tissues of 27 pigs with spontaneous dietetic microangiopathy (DM) and of 27 control pigs that died of causes unrelated to vitamin E and selenium (E-Se) deficiency were analyzed for alpha-tocopherol, Se and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) concentrations and for glutathione perioxidase (GSH-Px) activity. These variables (except for GSH-Px) also were measured in rations fed to control pigs and pigs with DM. Swine with DM had lower heart and liver alpha-tocopherol concentrations than did control pigs. Heart and kidney Se concentrations and heart and liver PUFA concentrations were similar in pigs of either group. Diets fed to both groups of pigs contained similar content of alpha-tocopherol, Se, oil, and PUFA; alpha-tocopherol and Se concentrations in the diets of both groups of pigs were high. In spite of apparently adequate amount of dietary alpha-tocopherol, results indicate that pigs with DM had lower tissue alpha-tocopherol concentration than did control pigs. Spontaneous DM is associated with altered alpha-tocopherol metabolism, but is unrelated to alterations in dietary Se and PUFA contents and tissue Se and PUFA concentrations and GSH-Px activity.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Treatment of high blood pressure--the effect on coronary morbidity and mortality.

Established drugs used in the treatment of hypertension have reduced stroke but have had disappointingly little impact on coronary artery disease and its complications. This could be due to inadequate falls in blood pressure (or excessive falls). It is possible that the role of blood pressure in ischaemic heart disease has been over-estimated compared to other risk factors. Alternatively, the drugs used previously may have adversely affected other factors. Mortality in treated hypertensives remains higher than normotensives but so does their blood pressure. The blood pressure on treatment is a much better predictor of outcome than initial blood pressure. This suggests that improved blood pressure control may be desirable. In our hospital-based hypertension clinic many patients have more than one risk factor. In spite of intensive efforts between 1980 and 1988, smoking habits changed little and serum cholesterol and random blood glucose actually rose. Cholesterol is high in our population of hypertensive patients and the mean (+/- SD) rose from 6.4 +/- 1.3 to 6.6 +/- 1.3 (n = 127; P less than 0.01). These observations highlight the importance of a multiple risk factor approach. The benefits of alternative drugs which can lower total cholesterol and/or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and/or raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) deserve study in this population. A final possibility is that the widely observed association between hypertension and ischaemic heart disease is not causal (or is weak compared to other risk factors). If a common underlying mechanism caused both atheroma and hypertension then reduction of blood pressure would not be expected to reverse atheroma and its complications. At present this possibility cannot be excluded.

Antihypertensive Agents↗
PubMed1988

Comparison of the toxicity of orally administered L-triiodothyronine (T3) in rat and cynomolgus monkey.

Oral administration of L-triiodothyronine (L-T3) (0.015-1 mg/kg) for 30 days to mature rats or cynomolgus monkeys resulted in both species in a high mortality at 1 mg/kg (after 2 weeks of treatment) and a progressive loss in body weight. Dose-related elevations in plasma marker enzymes occurred, mainly after 1-2 weeks of treatment. The approximate no-effect dose for these changes was around 0.015-0.020 mg/kg for both rat and primate. The large elevations of leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) at 1 mg/kg L-T3 in monkey indicated hepatocellular toxicity although in the rat such large increases in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) were not seen. L-T3 also showed little toxicity to rat hepatocytes in vitro. High concentrations of L-T3 (7 x 10(-9) to 7 x 10(-7) M) had minimal effects on parameters of cell viability such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage, chromium-51 release and [3H]leucine incorporation. Urinary enzymes in the rat showed a similar profile to those in plasma. Large rises in alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and N-acetyl glucosaminidase (NAG) at 1 mg/kg indicated possible proximal tubular damage although this was not supported histologically. Clinically, in both species L-T3 appeared more toxic to males than females but this was not supported histologically. The histological lesions observed were different in the 2 species. In the monkeys there was extensive lipid vacuolation of hepatocytes and changes in thyroid and adrenal cortex. In the rat there was fine, non-lipid vacuolation of hepatocytes and thyroid changes. In the rat, 2 previously unreported lesions were also noted. There were multinucleated cells in the renal distal tubular epithelium, and focal fibroplasia of serosal surfaces of abdominal viscera.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗
PubMed1988

In vitro fertilisation in a small unit in the NHS.

In vitro fertilisation is one of the most effective new treatments for infertility, but financial restrictions have made it impossible for it to be widely carried out in the National Health Service. We report on the establishment of a small, largely self funded, unit that was set up with the help of the local health service management. All cycles are programmed so that most work is carried out during the working week; oocyte recoveries are performed as outpatient procedures without general anaesthesia and guided by ultrasound. Roughly a tenth of treatment cycles and roughly a fifth of embryo transfers resulted in a clinical pregnancy.

England↗
PubMed1988

A geographic regression model for medical statistics.

A method for modeling geographic processes using census-type data is introduced in an analysis of male and female lung cancer mortality rates. The study area comprises the counties in those states which abut the Gulf of Mexico and the southeast Atlantic Coast of the United States. A spatially autoregressive model is used to estimate the strength of the univariate relationship between both the male and female lung cancer mortality rates in a country and in the respective lung cancer rates in the first to fifth order adjacent counties. The results show that male lung cancer exhibits spatial autocorrelation while female lung cancer does not, and that the female data exhibit a spatial trend while the male data do not. These findings suggest that factors which vary at the regional scale play a greater role in the etiology of female lung cancer and that factors that vary at the neighborhood scale play a greater role in the etiology of male lung cancer.

Female↗
PubMed1988

Escalation of feline predation along a gradient from avoidance through "play" to killing.

In this article, we show that feline predation involves a continuous gradient of activation between defense and attack and that predatory "play" results from an interaction of the two. Benzodiazepines (oxazepam, diazepam) escalated attack toward killing, so that cats that had avoided mice prior to the drug now played with them, cats that had originally played now killed, and cats that killed mice now did so with less preliminary contact. In such shifts, no sharp demarcation between play and predation was evident. Lateral hypothalamic lesions disrupted the escalation of attack. During recovery, attack was escalated once again along the gradient toward killing, but in the absence of both defense and play. A similar result was obtained in intact killers and nonkillers by the application of mild tail pinch. These results suggest that play with prey is a misnomer for predatory behavior that fails to escalate along the gradient between defense and attack. Movement notation analysis revealed that playful movements are adaptive in that they protect the cat from injury.

Aggression↗
PubMed1988

Methylation deficiency causes vitamin B12-associated neuropathy in the pig.

Pigs were treated with N2O which is known to impair vitamin B12 function in vivo. Such pigs demonstrated an inability to gain weight, progressive ataxia, and spinal neuropathy. The ataxia was totally and the neuropathy partially preventable by dietary methionine supplementation. Methionine synthase activity was inhibited in both the liver and brain. There was a marked elevation of S-adenosylhomocysteine in the neural tissues and a concomitant failure of S-adenosylmethionine to rise and thus maintain the methylation ratio, except when supplementary dietary methionine was added. In contrast, the methylation ratio in the rat was affected to a lesser extent. The neuropathy, it is suggested, is caused by raised S-adenosylhomocysteine levels in neural tissue; as a result, the methylation ratio is inverted and S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methylation reactions are inhibited.

5-Methyltetrahydrofolate-Homocysteine S-Methyltran↗
PubMed1988

Immunological consequences of acute and chronic stressors: mediating role of interpersonal relationships.

This review presents recent studies examining the relationship between acute and chronic stressors, changes in immune function, and interpersonal relationships. Data are given which document immunosuppressive effects of commonplace, short-term stressors, as well as more prolonged stressors, such as marital disruption and caregiving for a relative with Alzheimer's disease. Immune changes included both quantitative and qualitative changes in immune cells, including changes in herpes virus latency, decreases in the percentages of T-helper lymphocytes and decreases in the numbers and function of natural killer cells. These effects occurred independently of changes in nutrition. Psychological variables, including loneliness, attachment and depression were related to the immune changes. The data are discussed in a framework in which quality interpersonal relationships may serve to attenuate the adverse immunological changes associated with psychological distress, and may have consequences for disease susceptibility and health.

Female↗
PubMed1988

Efficacy of trimetrexate, a potent lipid-soluble antifolate, in the treatment of rodent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.

Trimetrexate is a lipid-soluble antifolate that has been shown in vitro to be a much more potent inhibitor of Pneumocystis carinii dihydrofolate reductase than the conventionally used inhibitor trimethoprim. To evaluate the in vivo efficacy of trimetrexate, steroid-treated rats which spontaneously develop P. carinii pneumonia were used. Rats treated with trimetrexate (25 mg/kg/d) plus sulfamethoxazole (250 mg/kg/d) orally responded at least as well as rats treated with trimethoprim (50 mg/kg/d) plus sulfamethoxazole. Trimetrexate alone administered orally was ineffective in treating P. carinii infection, but subcutaneous (sc) trimetrexate (7 mg/kg/d) significantly decreased the intensity of infection compared to controls. Trimetrexate is a potent antifolate that may provide an effective alternative to pentamidine and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for treatment of P. carinii pneumonia in humans.

Administration, Oral↗