Biomedical subjects

B Bjerregaard

Publications and source records attributed to B Bjerregaard.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed1980

Presentation of cancer to hospital as 'acute abdominal pain'.

In a survey of 5675 patients presenting to five hospitals in England, Scotland and Denmark with acute undiagnosed abdominal pain, 106 patients later proved to have intraabdominal cancer. The risk of cancer was age-dependent: amongst patients over 50 years with 'non-specific' pain the risk of cancer was 10 per cent. The commonest primary cancer site (in 57 cases, 53.8 per cent) was the large bowel. Most cancers neither perforated nor obstructed: 73 patients merely presented with a short history of unexplained abdominal pain. Of those patients with cancer presenting with 'unexplained' pain, half (37/73, 50.7 per cent) left hospital without a diagnosis of cancer having been made. Subsequently, a computer-aided system was constructed to discriminate (in patients over the age of 50) between those with unexplained acute abdominal pain who did and did not have cancer. Overall accuracy was 84.7 per cent in 138 cases. The most helpful clinical features in making this discrimination are listed. It is suggested (a) that cancer is now a relatively common cause of acute abdominal pain, (b) that the diagnosis is frequently difficult and (c) that urgent screening of all patients over 50 with non-specific acute abdominal pain may be warranted.

Abdomen, Acute↗

PubMed1980

Impaired conversion of prednisone to prednisolone in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Fourteen patients with liver cirrhosis received oral prednisone or prednisolone (0.3 mg per kg) randomised on two consecutive days. Serum prednisone and prednisolone were measured over the following four hours. Mean serum prednisolone concentration after oral prednisone decreased with impaired liver function estimated by galactose elimination capacity (r = 0.64, P less than 0.03). Mean serum prednisolone concentration after oral prednisone in the seven patients with severely impaired liver function was only 53% (P less than 0.05) of that observed in the seven patients with slightly impaired liver function. Conversely, mean serum prednisone concentration after oral prednisone in the patients with severely impaired liver function was 74% higher (P = 0.05) than in patients with slightly impaired liver function. Mean serum prednisolone after oral prednisolone was independent of liver function. As only prednisolone exerts glucocorticoid activity, our results indicate that prednisolone should be preferred to prednisone in the treatment of patients with impaired liver function.

Administration, Oral↗

PubMed1980

Automatic chromosome analysis. I. A simple method for classification of B- and D-group chromosomes represented by band transition sequences.

This paper describes an approach to the automatic analysis of banded B- and D-group chromosomes, represented by band transition sequences (BT-sequences), using Bayes formula in a simple way. The analysis considers the 14 BT-codes constituting the BT-sequence as being independent variables. Error rates of 6-8% in classification experiments and 3-4% in karyotyping experiments are clearly smaller than those reported by other authors using other methods. If the error rates of karyotyping are adjusted for errors in the basic material, they are reduced to 2-3%. The reason for the small error rate is presumably that the BT-sequences are superior to other methods for condensed band-pattern description. The method will be incorporated into a programme system for automatic karyotyping.

Chromosome Banding↗

PubMed1979