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Biomedical subjects

B Reynolds

Publications and source records attributed to B Reynolds.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Determinants of HIV disease progression: six-year longitudinal study in the Edinburgh haemophilia/HIV cohort.

Markers of immune function present before infection may determine the subsequent course of disease in HIV-infected individuals. In 1983, we measured immune function in a group of haemophiliacs in Edinburgh. In 1984, 18 of these patients became infected with HIV-1 from contaminated factor VIII. We have followed-up these patients since their seroconversion. The rate of disease progression, as assessed by the appearance or not of AIDS symptoms or signs within five years of seroconversion, was related both to the concentration of total plasma IgM before exposure to infection and to the pattern of specific IgM and IgA anti-HIV response around the time of IgG seroconversion. Disease progression also correlated with concentrations of plasma interleukin-2 receptor (a marker of lymphocyte activation) and with the number and percentage of circulating DR + ve (activated) T cells. Our findings show that the extent of host immune reactivity, which may be genetically determined, is a powerful factor in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated disease.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Psychological treatment of erectile dysfunction in men without partners: outcome results and a new direction.

Studies concerning the psychological treatment of erectile dysfunction in men without partners are reviewed. A significant majority of single men experience improved erectile functioning following surrogate-assisted or men's group therapy. However, the expense and unresolved legal status of surrogate therapy and logistical problems in forming men's groups limit the availability of these treatments. "Personal Potential" is a new audio cassette adjunct for individual therapy. To approximate a men's group experience, "Personal Potential" includes discussions by former clients, didactic presentations, communication roleplays, and sexual and social homework assignments. Routine attention to communication problems in men without partners may also increase patient satisfaction with intracavernosal vasodilator self-infections, penile implants, or vacuum constriction devices.

Combined Modality Therapy

Human immunodeficiency virus detection: correlation with clinical progression in the Edinburgh haemophiliac cohort.

HIV p24 antigenaemia and virus detection in cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes were examined in 16 of 18 haemophiliacs infected with HIV by a single batch of Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service factor VIII concentrate. Six (38%) had p24 antigenaemia and 11 (69%) had positive lymphocyte cultures. All seven patients with serious HIV disease (CDC group IV) had positive lymphocyte cultures whereas four (57%) had p24 antigenaemia. Four of nine (44%) patients with asymptomatic HIV disease (CDC groups II and III) had positive cultures and two (22%) had p24 antigenaemia. Twenty-eight of 36 samples from the symptomatic group were HIV culture positive compared with nine of 30 samples from the asymptomatic group (P less than 0.001). None of 14 antibody negative haemophiliacs who also received the implicated batch of factor VIII had p24 antigenaemia or positive HIV cultures. The ability to detect HIV in cultured lymphocytes correlates with the clinical severity of HIV disease in this cohort.

AIDS Serodiagnosis

Problems of adolescents sexuality.

Recent discussions highlighted adolescents' sexual behaviour, but published studies concentrate on specific problems or subgroups of patients without addressing factors related to sexuality. To obtain a broad picture we studied two groups of adolescents attending genito-urinary medicine/sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics in contrasting areas of Britain, inner London and Swansea. These were evaluated for referral pattern, sexual partner, contraception, obstetric history, sexually transmitted disease, and cervical cytology findings. Over half the adolescents referred themselves but few doctors other than general practitioners referred patients. Sexual partners were regarded by males as casual but by females as regular. Only 66% (81) of females practised contraception. Adolescents had more STD's than the total clinic population except for genital herpes simplex infection, and a high prevalence of genital warts in females has important future implications. The main conclusions were that there is a need for sexually related education targetted at adolescents and their health care providers, especially doctors.

Adolescent

Association of Reoviridae particles in an enteric syndrome of poults observed in turkey flocks during 1988.

An enteric syndrome of turkey poults, characterized by enteritis, crop mycosis, intestinal changes (pale, thin-walled ballooning with watery contents), and rickets, occurred during 1988 in 74 turkey flocks from different farms belonging to 9 California turkey growers. The flocks ranged in size from 9,000 to 120,000 birds. Pools of intestine sections from 618 birds, representing 78 field cases, were examined. Histopathological examination of the intestines showed a mild to severe atrophy with a reduced depth of crypts, which was more prominent in the distal part of the small intestine. Viral isolation attempts with primary cell cultures of chicken embryo kidney cells were negative. Examination by electron microscopy of negatively stained intestinal specimens revealed the presence of Reoviridae particles of 58.8 to 80 nm in diameter. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results on the intestinal pools for mammalian and group A avian rotaviruses were negative. A statistically significant relationship was found for the presence of Reoviridae particles in the intestines of 10-21-day-old birds. Of the 7 most common pathological conditions analyzed, 2, rickets and intestinal changes (thin-walled ballooning intestine with watery contents), showed a statistically significant association with the presence of Reoviridae particles.

Age Factors

Frontal cortex grafts have opposite effects at different postoperative recovery times.

We studied the effect of different postoperative times on the behavioral recovery following brain implants. Adult male rats received cortical tissue grafts 2 weeks after aspiration of the medial frontal cortex. Either 2 (Immediate Group) or 28 (Delay Group) days after grafting, the performance of these rats on a behavioral battery, comprising the Morris water maze task, forepaw use, and grooming, was compared to that of rats with similar lesions and postoperative recovery times but no grafts. Rats tested immediately after receiving implants performed better on the spatial navigation task than rats with similar lesions but no grafts. This improvement, however, was less than that shown by rats with lesions but no grafts permitted to recover for 28 days before testing. In contrast, in the Delay Group, rats with grafts were more greatly impaired than were their operated controls. Neither lesions nor grafts affected grooming although the Immediate Group with grafts were significantly more impaired in using their forepaws during feeding than were any of the other groups. These results lead us to conclude that differing postoperative recovery times and task requirements may account for some of the inconsistent results of the influence of brain grafts on behavioral recovery reported in the literature. We also conclude that cortical tissue implants can have two effects with different time courses and opposite net behavioral effects.

Animals

Vesicular stomatitis virus (New Jersey strain) infection in two California dairy herds: an epidemiologic study.

The course of vesicular stomatitis in cattle was investigated in 2 dairy herds (A and B) located in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Cattle were examined and specimens were obtained for virus isolation and for serologic survey for one year after an epizootic in December 1982. All 33 lactating cows selected for study had oral lesions, but only 19 (58%) were drooling or frothing around the mouth. Lesions on feet and teats were not observed. The healing time (longer than has been reported previously) for oral lesions ranged from 34 to 59 days. The mean serum neutralizing antibody titer for all cows tested in both herds 21 days after clinical signs were first observed was greater than 1:512. The mean titer decreased in the first 11 months after the epizootic, but remained greater than 1:128, and then increased during December 1983. Vesicular stomatitis virus/New Jersey strain was not isolated from 239 blood samples, 235 swab specimens of oral cavities, 38 swab specimens of oral epithelium, 206 urine specimens, or 232 fecal specimens collected from cows; however, it was isolated from tongue epithelium of 3 cows at 1, 4, and 21 days after signs of frothing were first noticed. For 20 lactating cows brought into dairy A during the epizootic, a mean time of 8.9 days elapsed between time of entry and appearance of clinical signs of vesicular stomatitis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals

Handling of death in special care nurseries and parental grief.

The handling of death in a special care nursery and the needs of bereaved parents were studied in 12 families. Communication was good before death but less satisfactory thereafter, particularly with regard to postmortem results and advice concerning recurrence risk. Parents needed a lasting memory of their child and attached great importance to a tangible memento. Half had an abnormally high grief and Leeds scale score six months after the death, which seemed to be associated with poor marital support. All in the high scoring group favoured bereavement counselling. Communication with general practitioners needed improvement. As a result of this study a protocol for the handling of death was designed.

Attitude to Death

The role of cell-wall associated lipids in the pathogenesis of lesions in experimental murine nocardiosis vs lesions produced by Mycobacterium fortuitum.

The pulmonary pathogens, Nocardia asteroides and Mycobacterium fortuitum classically produce a markedly different tissue response ranging from the acute suppurative lesion of nocardiosis to the granulomatous disease produced by the Mycobacterium. Both organisms have similar cell-wall associated lipids which have been chemically characterized as types of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Earlier studies of virulence factors from M. tuberculosis and other Mycobacteria have shown that much of the host response is due to lipid constituency of the organism cell wall. In order to determine that contribution which the cell-wall associated lipids make in the pathogenesis of nocardiosis produced by N. asteroides and mycobacteriosis due to M. fortuitum, separate lipid fractions were obtained using the Anderson extraction technique as modified by Asselineau (Asselineau, J. 1966. The Bacterial Lipids. Hermann, Paris). These lipid fractions were injected into mice and the lesion development observed. Waxes A and D from the two organisms exhibited distinct differences in tissue response. Wax A from Nocardia produced a pronounced tissue response composed of multiple abscesses, macrophages, and reactive fibrous tissue. Wax A from Mycobacterium showed transient aggregations of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Mycobacteria-derived wax D elicited a marked granulomatous response which persisted throughout the duration of the study, contrasting with a minimally acute inflammatory response to Nocardia-derived wax D. The phosphatide and soluble-fat fractions also showed aggressive lesions; however, these were similar for both organisms. These results indicate that the differences in tissue response elicited by lipids from N. asteroides and M. fortuitum may reside in wax fractions A and D.

Animals

First year of life after the use of atenolol in pregnancy associated hypertension.

We describe the results of a prospective study in which 120 women who developed hypertension in the last trimester of pregnancy were randomly allocated in double blind manner to atenolol or placebo. The mean duration of treatment was five weeks. The only difference between groups during the neonatal period was in respiratory distress syndrome, mainly related to spontaneous premature labour, which occurred in six placebo group babies but in none from the atenolol group. Fifty five children from each group have been followed to 1 year of age. All in the atenolol group are developing normally but one child from the placebo group is brain damaged. These findings do not suggest any short or medium term paediatric complications after the use of beta blockers in pregnancy.

Atenolol

Placebo-controlled trial of atenolol in treatment of pregnancy-associated hypertension.

Atenolol was compared with placebo in a randomised and double-blind prospective study of 120 women with mild to moderate pregnancy-associated hypertension who were also initially managed conventionally by bed rest. Atenolol given once daily significantly reduced blood-pressure, prevented proteinuria, and reduced the number of hospital admissions. Loss of blood-pressure control leading to withdrawal from the study was commoner among the placebo group, whose babies had a high morbidity. Respiratory distress syndrome occurred only in the placebo group. Intrauterine growth retardation, neonatal hypoglycaemia, and hyperbilirubinaemia occurred with the same frequency in the two groups. Neonatal bradycardia was more common after atenolol but the systolic blood-pressure of the babies was the same in both groups. There was no difference between the groups in maternal symptoms which could have been attributed to beta-blocker therapy. Thus atenolol is more effective than conventional obstetric management in this form of hypertension and does not adversely affect mother or baby.

Adult

Atenolol elimination in the neonate.

The elimination of the cardioselective beta-adrenoceptor antagonist atenolol has been studied in 35 neonates by measuring drug concentration in cord blood and in blood obtained at 24 h by heel stab. Elimination rate was assessed by calculating the slopes of lines joining these two concentration points. The slopes had a mean of 0.043 h-1 (equivalent to a half-life of 16 h) and were normally distributed with 95% of values being in the range 0.02-0.066. There was no relationship between slope and neonatal weight or skinfold thickness, but most babies were at term and the range of these indices was narrow. Babies who developed a bradycardia had cord atenolol concentrations and slopes which did not differ significantly from those in babies without bradycardia. We conclude that atenolol elimination in the neonate is reduced when compared to adults. This prolonged elimination is consistent with the physiological characteristics of this age group and with previous observations on drugs eliminated by renal excretion.

Atenolol

Cancer to the inguinal nodes from an unknown primary site.

Three cases of metastatic cancer to inguinal lymph nodes from unknown primaries are presented. All three patients had exhaustive workups which produced no primary lesions. There were two cases of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma and one of melanoma. A review of the literature shows that it is unusual to have metastatic disease without detectable primary lesions to the inguinal lymph nodes. Furthermore, and more importantly, these cases open discussion of recent concepts of tumor biology. Based on these newer concepts, suggestions are made concerning the examination and treatment of these unusual lesions.

Aged