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Biomedical subjects

B A Duncan

Publications and source records attributed to B A Duncan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Early diagnosis and management of Alzheimer's disease.

It is only recently that Alzheimer's disease has become recognized as a major public health concern. Not only those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease are impacted by the disease; the emotional toll exacted on caregivers is enormous, and the financial costs incurred by the United States are staggering. Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease can prevent costly and inappropriate treatment and permits earlier treatment of symptoms. There have been several recent pharmacologic advances in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, including the development of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. For any intervention to prove successful, however, early and accurate diagnosis and effective disease management are crucial.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1994

A sequential, test-control methodology for conducting functional analyses of self-injurious behavior.

Multielement and reversal designs used to identify maintaining variables for behavior disorders such as self-injury have several potential limitations, including interaction effects (multielement), inefficiency (reversal), and lack of a continuous control (reversal). This article describes a methodology that minimizes these problems yet captures the best features of both designs. This design consists of several phases implemented in a sequential (A-B-C) fashion, as in the reversal design. However, each phase consists of two conditions, a test and a control, presented concurrently in a multielement format. Five subjects' self-injury was assessed using both the multielement design and the sequential, test-control (or pairwise) design. Results for two subjects indicated that the multielement design produced clear assessment outcomes, and similar findings were obtained using the pairwise design. For two other subjects, the multielement assessments were somewhat undifferentiated, and clearer results were obtained using the pairwise design. The fifth subject's self-injury showed cyclical patterns using both assessment techniques. Benefits and limitations of the sequential assessment methodology are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Lacidipine metabolism in rat and dog: identification and synthesis of main metabolites.

1. The main metabolites of lacidipine were isolated from bile and plasma of rats and dogs following an oral dose of the 14C-labelled drug (10 mg/kg for rats: 2 and 1 mg/kg for dogs). They were identified by comparison of chromatographic and spectral data with authentic reference compounds synthesized ad hoc. 2. Five metabolites (I-V) were isolated and identified in dog bile by gradient h.p.l.c. with u.v. detection and h.p.l.c.-thermospray mass spectrometry. In all metabolites the heterocyclic ring has been oxidized to pyridine. Further biotransformation reactions involved hydroxylation of the methyl substituents and hydrolysis of the ethyl and t-butyl ester groups to produce carboxylic acids and a lactone. Some of these metabolites also occurred as glucuronide conjugates. 3. A metabolite retaining the intact dihydropyridine ring, the des-ethyl analogue of lacidipine (VI), was isolated from rat plasma where it accounted for 60% of the total circulating radioactivity up to 24 h after administration. To characterize this metabolite, h.p.l.c. with photodiode array u.v. detection also was employed. This compound was detected in dog plasma, but there was no evidence of its presence in dog bile samples. 4. Profiles of circulating metabolites were qualitatively similar in rats and dogs. Identified metabolites accounted for the large majority of total radioactivity in all the analysed samples.

Animals↗