PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Gilboa

Publications and source records attributed to A Gilboa.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) 10-20 years later: a comprehensive outcome study of psychiatric symptomatology, cognitive abilities and psychosocial functioning.

The goal of this study was to measure the very long-term mental and psychosocial outcomes of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Seventy-six persons with severe TBI were evaluated extensively by means of standardized scales, neuropsychological tests and evaluations by family members, at an average of 14.1 (SD = 5.5) years post-injury. Six mental and functional domains were examined: psychiatric symptomatology, cognitive abilities, vocational status, family integration, social functioning, and independence in daily routines. The findings indicate a long-term differential effect of severe TBI, with seriously affected psychiatric symptomatology, family and social domains, as compared to moderately influenced cognitive, vocational and independent functioning. Relatively high rates of depression, psychomotor slowness, loneliness and family members' sense of burden were found. In addition to their epidemiological importance, the results indicate that persons with TBI and their families may need professional assistance to maintain a reasonable psychosocial quality of life, even more than a decade post-injury.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2001

Longitudinal MRI study of hippocampal volume in trauma survivors with PTSD.

OBJECTIVE: The authors prospectively explored whether a reduction in the volume of the hippocampus occurs in recent trauma survivors who develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD: Thirty-seven survivors of traumatic events were assessed within a week of the traumatic event and 6 months later. The assessment included magnetic resonance imaging of the brain (including 124 coronal slices of 1.5-mm thickness), psychometric testing, and structured clinical interviews. The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale conferred PTSD diagnoses at 6 months. RESULTS: Ten subjects (27%) had PTSD at 6 months. The subjects with PTSD did not differ from those without PTSD in hippocampal volume (right or left) at 1 week or 6 months. There was no reduction in hippocampal volume in the PTSD subjects between 1 week and 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Smaller hippocampal volume is not a necessary risk factor for developing PTSD and does not occur within 6 months of expressing the disorder. This brain abnormality might occur in individuals with chronic or complicated PTSD.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Criterion validation of premorbid intelligence estimation in persons with traumatic brain injury: "hold/don't hold" versus "best performance" procedures.

The goal of the present study was to validate previously suggested regression equations for the estimation of premorbid ability against a real premorbid intellectual criterion. Fifty-four patients with traumatic brain injuries, for whom a premorbid military Primary Psychometric Rating (PPR) was available, participated in the study. Two prediction procedures were validated: (a) "BEST-10", which generates a predicted score from the highest observed score of 10 WAIS-R subtests, according to the "best performance" estimation principle. (b) "BEST-2", which generates the predicted score from the higher of two subtests considered a priori resistant to neurological damage according to the "hold/don't hold" principle. The two procedures showed similar correlation with the premorbid criterion. However, the BEST-10 method provided a more accurate estimation, generating a non-significant 2-point underestimation. The results support the application of previously proposed equations for estimating premorbid intelligence, and suggest that the use of the best performance principle is preferable as compared to the hold/don't hold principle.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Demographic characteristics of patients with community-acquired bacteriuria and susceptibility of urinary pathogens to antimicrobials in northern Israel.

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infection is one of the most common bacterial infections. Since antibiotics are given empirically, it is necessary to assess the distribution and susceptibility of the microorganisms in each case. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the demographic characteristics of ambulatory patients with UTI, the distribution and susceptibility of uropathogens, and the risk factors associated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole resistant bacteria in women. METHODS: During 12 days in August 1997 all the urine cultures sent to the Tel-Hanan Laboratory (Haifa) were evaluated. Demographic characteristics of the patients, their underlying diseases and the previous use of antibiotics were obtained. RESULTS: During the 12 day survey 6,495 cultures were sent for evaluation. Of the 1,075 (17%) that were positive 950 were included in the study; 83.7% were from females, of whom 57% were > or = 50 years old. Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen, with 74.7% in the female and 55% in the male population; 86.2% of the E. coli were resistant to amoxicillin, 38.8% to cephalexin and 46.8% to TMP-SMX. Cefuroxime (4.2%), ofloxacin (4.8%), ciprofloxacin (4.8%) and nitrofurantoin (0.4%) showed the lowest rates of resistance. By a multivariant analysis, post-menopause and recurrent UTI were found to be independent factors related to TMP-SMX resistance in women. CONCLUSION: In northern Israel, ampicillin, cephalexin and TMP-SMX cannot be used empirically in the treatment of community-acquired UTI. Post-menopause and recurrent UTI are independent factors associated with TMP-SMX resistant pathogens in women.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

A rapid and robust particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay for serum beta 2 microglobulin.

A rapid particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (PETIA), for the measurement of serum beta 2-microglobulin is described. The method has a working range of 0.2-40 mg/l, with good precision and a correlation coefficient of 0.97 when compared with an established radioimmunoassay method. One of the major advantages of this assay is the stability of the calibration curve (up to at least 20 months). This, and the fact that no pretreatment of serum samples is necessary, makes the assay ideally suited for all types of routine determination.

Animals↗