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Biomedical subjects

S Laughlin

Publications and source records attributed to S Laughlin.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

2D time-of-flight MR venography in neonates: anatomy and pitfalls.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The dural venous sinuses in neonates differ from those in adults or older children in that the caliber of venous sinuses is smaller and there is skull molding. The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the presence of flow gaps in venous sinuses in neonates on 2D time-of-flight (TOF) MR venography (MRV). METHODS: Fifty-one neonates underwent coronal 2D TOF MRV. Nine also had CT venography (CTV) for comparison. In 1 neonate, a further 2D TOF MRV was performed in the sagittal plane; in another neonate, images were captured in the axial plane; and in another, a further coronal TOF MRV with shorter echo time was performed. RESULTS: Flow gap was seen in the posterior aspect of the superior sagittal sinus in 35 of 51 (69%). Focal narrowing of the superior sagittal sinus, in the region of convergence of lambdoid sutures, was detected in 7 of 51 (14%). The right and left transverse sinuses demonstrated flow gap in 13 of 51 (25%) and 32 of 51 (63%) respectively. There was normal filling of contrast on CTV in the superior sagittal sinus, transverse sinus and sigmoid sinus in those cases with flow gap detected on coronal 2D TOF MRV. Right, left, and codominance of the transverse sinuses are as follows: 32 of 51 (63%), 5 of 51 (10%), and 14 of 51 (27%), respectively. The right and left sigmoid sinuses demonstrated flow gap in 7 of 51 (14%) and 8 of 51 (16%), respectively, and the left sigmoid sinus was absent in 1 of 51 (2%). CONCLUSION: The high proportion of flow gap in the venous sinuses of neonates, particularly of the superior sagittal sinus, could be attributed to the smaller caliber venous sinuses, slower venous flow, and skull molding.

Angiography, Digital Subtraction↗
PubMed2001

Chickenpox and stroke in childhood: a study of frequency and causation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether infection with varicella is causal for arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) in children. METHODS: First, a prospective cohort study was conducted in young children (aged 6 months to 10 years) with AIS at 2 institutions (cohort study). The presence of varicella infection <12 months before AIS was determined and compared with the published frequency of varicella infection in the healthy pediatric population. The clinical and radiographic features of AIS were compared between the varicella and nonvaricella study cohorts. Second, a literature search of varicella-associated AIS was conducted, and the clinical and radiographic features were compared with the study nonvaricella cohort. RESULTS: In the cohort study, 22 (31%) of 70 consecutive children with AIS had a varicella infection in the preceding year compared with 9% in the healthy population. Children in the varicella cohort were more likely to have basal ganglia infarcts (P<0.001), abnormal cerebral vascular imaging (P<0.05), and recurrent AIS or transient ischemic attacks (P<0.05) than those in the nonvaricella cohort. The pooled literature analysis of 51 cases of varicella-associated AIS showed similar findings to the varicella cohort. CONCLUSION: In young children with AIS, there is a 3-fold increase in preceding varicella infection compared with published population rates, and varicella-associated AIS accounts for nearly one third of childhood AIS. Varicella-associated AIS has characteristic features, including a 2-fold increase in recurrent AIS and transient ischemic attacks. Varicella is an important risk factor for childhood AIS.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed2001

The Sandyford Initiative: creating added value to health and health care.

The Sandyford Initiative in Glasgow brings together Family Planning, Genitourinary Medicine and the Centre for Women's Health in a new partnership which aims to provide integrated health and social care in a manner which reflects a social model of health. The Steve Retson Project for Gay Men's Sexual Health is also situated within the Sandyford, providing clinical services within the context of a social model of health. The Initiative is managed by the Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust but has been developed as a result of joint working between three main services, Greater Glasgow Health Board, Glasgow City Council and a number of voluntary organisations. By working to a social model of health, the intention is to ensure that the detection and management of health problems takes into account the social and economic determinants of health and that the provision and practice of health care reflects the social needs of the user. As such the Initiative is expected to make a significant contribution to the sexual health of men and women and the general and reproductive health of women in the Greater Glasgow area and beyond. The core of the Initiative is housed in premises tailored to the needs of the services and their users although satellite services are being planned. In addition to the core clinical and non-clinical care there are services designed to respond to the needs of specific groups such as young people, black and ethnic minority communities and disabled people, in order to improve access and uptake by previously marginalised groups. It is recognised that often the relationship between health and social service providers and their users becomes strained. Implementation of the Sandyford Initiative is intended to inspire confidence and contribute effectively to improving health and managing complex health problems.

Delivery of Health Care, Integrated↗
PubMed1998

Central nervous system imaging. When is CT more appropriate than MRI?

Over the past 25 years, the development of noninvasive imaging techniques has allowed exquisite display of the anatomic structures of the brain and spinal cord in normal and disease states. CT remains useful because of short imaging times, widespread availability, ease of access, sensitive detection of calcification and hemorrhage, and resolution of bony detail. MRI offers superior soft-tissue contrast, excellent visualization of vascular structures, fewer artifacts, and imaging in any plane. Cost and use of ionizing radiation are considerations in choosing the most appropriate procedure. In the future, CT and MRI applications that concentrate on functional and physiologic display of the CNS will add greatly to the clinical utility of these imaging tools.

Central Nervous System↗
PubMed1995

Treatment of haemorrhagic telangiectasia with the flashlamp-pulsed dye laser.

The management of epistaxis in patients with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (Osler-Weber-Rendu) is often a perplexing problem. In the past, cautery, cryosurgery, and septodermoplasty have all been used with varying degrees of success. The Candela flashlamp-pulsed dye laser was developed for management of vascular lesions (port-wine stains and telangiectasia). The results of our prospective trial utilizing this laser in the treatment of intranasal telangiectasia in patients with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia are presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Auditory syntactic comprehension in nine aphasia groups (with CT scans) and children: differences in degree but not order of difficulty observed.

Auditory syntactic comprehension was examined in nine groups of aphasics (60 stroke cases) and 3 and 6 year old children. Ten syntactic contrast pairs were studied. Differences in degree but not order of difficulty were observed. The 5 easier pairs were Gender; On/Under; Negative/Affirmative; Object-number; Subject-number; the 5 more difficult pairs were Past/Present; Subject/Object Reversible; Is/Are; Relative Clause; and Future/Present. The "marked" half-pair was significantly more difficult--i.e., Negative vs. Affirmative; Plural vs. Singular Subject; Future or Past vs. Present. Performance on the test was significantly correlated with the BDAE Auditory Comprehension z-score and Token Test. The 3 year old children most closely resembled the Severe Wernicke's (but were better than the Globals), and the 6 year old children were similar to aphasia cases with mild comprehension deficits and frontal or parietal perisylvian lesions which spared most of Wernicke's area. Wernicke's area (posterior two-thirds superior temporal gyrus area) appears to be the area most sensitive to auditory syntactic comprehension. However, the surrounding perisylvian areas including frontal and parietal lobes are also areas sensitive to syntactic comprehension.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Sentence level auditory comprehension treatment program for aphasic adults.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a newly developed sentence level auditory comprehension (SLAC) treatment program could be used to improve language comprehension test scores in adults with chronic aphasia. Results indicate that the SLAC treatment program can be used with chronic patients; performance on a standardized test (the Token Test) was improved after treatment; and improved performance could not be predicted from either anatomic CT scan lesion sites or pretreatment test scores. One advantage to the SLAC treatment program is that the patient can practice listening independently with a tape recorder device (Language Master) and earphones either in the hospital or at home.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1984

A review of pulmonary artery catheterization in 6,245 patients.

From July 1977 to December 1982, 6,245 patients requiring cardiac and noncardiac operations had pulmonary artery (PA) catheterizations for perioperative monitoring. Their ages ranged from 4 to 94 years. PA catheters were inserted through the external or internal jugular vein in 6,146 patients, while arm veins were used in 99 patients. Complications included persistent PVCs requiring therapy in 193 (3.1%), right bundle branch blocks in three (0.048%), left bundle branch and complete heart block each in one patient (0.016%), intrapulmonary hemorrhage in four (0.064%), minor pulmonary infarcts in four (0.064%), perforation of right ventricle in one (0.016%), and death from uncontrollable pulmonary hemorrhage in one patient (0.016%). This investigation reveals a low incidence of morbidity associated with PA catheterization.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

The structures of dorsal and ventral regions of a dragonfly retina.

The apposition eyes of the corduliid dragonfly Hemicordulia tau are each divided by pigment colour, facet size and facet arrangement into three regions: dorsal, ventral, and a posterior larval strip. Each ommatidium has two primary pigment cells, twenty-five secondary pigment cells, and eight receptor cells, all surrounded by tracheae which probably prevent light passing between ommatidia, and reduce the weight of the eye. Electron microscopy reveals that the receptor cells are of two types: small vestigial cells making virtually no contribution to the rhabdom, and full-size typical cells. The ventral ommatidia have a distal typical cell (oriented either horizontally or vertically), four medial typical cells, two proximal typical cells and one full-length vestigial cell. The dorsal ommatidia have only four full-length typical cells, and one distal and three vestigial full-length cells. The cross-section of dorsal rhabdoms is small and circular distally, but expands to a large three-pointed star medially and proximally. The tiered receptor arrangement in the ventral ommatidia is typical of other Odonata but the dorsal structure has not been fully described in other species. Specialised dorsal eye regions are typical of insects that detect others against the sky.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A simple coding procedure enhances a neuron's information capacity.

The contrast-response function of a class of first order interneurons in the fly's compound eye approximates to the cumulative probability distribution of contrast levels in natural scenes. Elementary information theory shows that this matching enables the neurons to encode contrast fluctuations most efficiently.

Animals↗