Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Parsons

Publications and source records attributed to S Parsons.

81 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

A nosocomial outbreak of diarrheal disease due to Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 0:5, biotype 1.

An outbreak of diarrheal disease due to Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 0:5 , biotype 1, involved nine hospitalized patients. The possible source of this infection was two patients who were both hospitalized with a history of several weeks of intermittent diarrhea. Person-to-person contact was the probable mode of transmission of the disease. The present report describes the second known nosocomial outbreak of infection due to Y. enterocolitica, Serotype 0:5 of Y. enterocolitica is not commonly encountered, and its involvement in an outbreak of gastroenteritis has not been previously reported. The importance of the enrichment technique in the isolation of Y. enterocolitica is demonstrated.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Metabolism and transport of glutamine and glucose in vascularly perfused small intestine rat.

1. The metabolism and transport of glutamine and glucose were investigated in a preparation of rat small intestine perfused through the vascular bed in vitro and in situ. 2. With glucose (7.5mm) or glutamine (4.5mm) in the lumen, approx. 40% of the substrate taken up appears unchanged on the vascular side. When glutamine (1.5mm) is also added to the vascular perfusate, metabolism of glutamine is increased and there is uptake of glutamine from both the vascular bed and lumen. Orientation of substrate (vascular bed or lumen) influences the value of alanine production/glutamine utilization and lactate production/glucose utilization. 3. Deprivation of food and metabolic acidosis have no effect upon the utilization of glutamine by unit length of jejunum. In fed rats, glutamine utilization is 44% of glucose utilization, but in rats deprived of food it is 112% of glucose utilization. 4. Glucose utilization and lactate production are not significantly altered by the presence of glutamine in the vascular bed or lumen. 5. With glucose only in the vascular perfusate, glucose utilization is the same in jejunum and ileum. Glutamine metabolism in the ileum is 28% lower than in the jejunum. 6. Glutamine utilization is dependent on the concentration of glutamine in the vascular perfusate, but is not significantly affected by the absence of glucose. 7. Results are discussed in relation to the role of intestinal glutamine metabolism and with respect to some problems of the transepithelial movement of substrates that are both transported and metabolized.

Alanine↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Parental smoking practices and caries experience in pre-school children.

Voluntary and involuntary smoking influence general health. Links between voluntary smoking and oral health are confirmed for periodontal diseases and oral cancer/precancer. Since recent reports have suggested an association between parental smoking and caries experience in young children, this study aimed to explore varying patterns of parental smoking, adjusted for social class, with caries prevalence, using data derived from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (1995). Data analysis was confined to 749 children aged 3.0-4.5 years, to avoid confounding effects of unerupted teeth. Bivariate analysis indicated that the prevalence of maternal rather than paternal smoking was significantly related to caries and substantially attenuated social class differences. The reported number of cigarettes smoked was not important. To compensate for the association between social class and maternal smoking, data were dichotomised by social class (manual/non-manual). With caries prevalence as the dependent variable, logistic regression analysis recorded maternal smoking as a significant independent variable in each case, with odds ratios of 1.55/1.96, respectively. The process was repeated for the combined dataset, using the more extensive (six) social class categories. This further analysis yielded an odds ratio for maternal smoking of 1.54 compared with 1.46 for social class. Nutrition status (as growth parameters) and dietary intake (as household spending on confectionery) were not significant independent variables in these equations. The rationale for these findings is discussed. Further research is required to determine mechanisms underlying these observations. It is concluded that maternal smoking is a significant factor to be considered as an additional risk indicator beyond social class when predicting caries risk in young children.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A person-centred approach to education audit.

This article looks at how the person-centred approach to education audit was developed following a review of the literature and current practice which identified a need for change. Literature covering general and nurse education was studied, together with specific initiatives relating to the audit of the learning environment. A profile tool was designed and tested in a range of practice settings used by students of nursing. The results were evaluated.

Education, Nursing↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hospital-based continuous quality improvement: a realistic appraisal.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a continuous quality improvement (CQI) multidisciplinary team process on emergency department admission times. DESIGN: Prospective observational intervention study. SETTING: A 349-bed tertiary care, university-affiliated, pediatric teaching hospital. RESULTS: The time from triage to departure from the emergency department (T1-T3) was reduced by 71 minutes, and the time from the decision to admit to departure from the emergency department (T2-T3) by 38 minutes following the planned interventions. There was no correlation between admission times and hospital inpatient census, number of emergency department admissions on a given day, or work shift. Medical patients were transferred to the wards more slowly than patients admitted by the general surgery service and several specialty surgical services once the decision to admit had been reached. No major adverse clinical outcomes could be attributed to expedited admissions. Physicians and nurses in the emergency department expressed improved satisfaction with the admissions process, while houseofficers on the wards were less satisfied. Parental satisfaction with the speed of admissions remained suboptimal. Additional potential problems with the application of CQI principles in an academic setting were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Although CQI is a promising approach to certain quality problems, a number of issues remain to be explored before full-scale implementation in academic centers can be endorsed.

Consumer Behavior↗