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Biomedical subjects

C Hoffman

Publications and source records attributed to C Hoffman.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Caregiving daughters and their local siblings: perceptions, strains, and interactions.

Daughters who are principal caregivers to disabled elderly mothers are compared with their geographically proximate sisters and brothers as to the amount of help each group provides, the effects of care they experience, and the problems and benefits of the siblings' interactions about the caregiving situations. Caregivers reported the most and brothers the least service provision and strain; sisters fell in between, and also equaled caregivers in strain from intersibling problems. Negative intersibling interactions are associated with less emotional closeness in the families and the mothers' greater care needs.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Complete rectal prolapse: the anatomical and functional results of treatment by an extended abdominal rectopexy.

Between 1970 and 1985 (inclusive), 66 patients presented with complete rectal prolapse; 59 (89 per cent) were treated by extended abdominal rectopexy. Forty-four patients (75 per cent) have been followed for more than 2 years: all cases were cured of their complete prolapse, no patients died, and major complications were few. Constipation (47 per cent) and incontinence (19 per cent) caused serious problems for many patients postoperatively.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Adult daughters and parent care: a comparison of one-, two- and three-generation households.

This paper compares the effects of parent-care associated with three living arrangements of elderly widowed mothers who were being helped by married daughters: elderly mother living separately; two-generation households (mothers, daughters, sons-in-law); and three-generation households (grandchildren present). Daughters whose mothers lived separately fared the best; their mothers were the most cognitively and functionally capable and the daughters reported the fewest negative effects of caregiving. Daughters in two-generation households provided the most care; their mothers were the oldest and most impaired. Since daughters in three-generation households reported more negative mental and emotional effects of care, the unique problems of caregiving in such households are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1988

The course of asthma during pregnancy, post partum, and with successive pregnancies: a prospective analysis.

We studied 366 pregnancies in 330 prospectively managed women with asthma to determine the effect of pregnancy on asthma. Asthma activity was assessed by (1) daily symptom and medication diaries and (2) monthly auscultation and spirometry during pregnancy and for 3 months post partum. At 3 months post partum, subjects were asked to assess the overall course of their asthma during pregnancy compared to the usual course for them, and the course of their asthma during the 3 months post partum compared to the asthma during pregnancy. Asthma worsened during pregnancy in 35% of the women, improved in 28%, and was unchanged in 33%. Based on diary-card analysis, asthma was significantly less frequent and less severe during the last 4 weeks of pregnancy than during any other gestational interval. In women whose asthma improved during pregnancy, diary-card analysis revealed a gradual improvement with progressive pregnancy, whereas in women whose asthma worsened during pregnancy, there was an increase in asthma symptoms during 29 to 36 weeks gestation. During labor and delivery, asthma symptoms occurred in 10% of women with approximately equal proportions of these women receiving either no treatment or inhaled bronchodilators; only two subjects required intravenous aminophylline. During the 3 months post partum, asthma reverted toward its prepregnancy course in 73% of women. In 34 subjects prospectively studied for two successive pregnancies, there existed a significant concordance between the asthma course during the first and second pregnancies. The mechanistic and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Asthma↗
PubMed1988

Factor VII activity state in coronary artery disease.

In a recent study, Dalaker et al. (Br J Haematol 1985; 61:315-22) reported that men at high risk for cardiovascular disease had an increased mean level of factor VII procoagulant activity that was apparently attributable to an increase of a phospholipase C-sensitive form of factor VII in their plasma. We chose to investigate this phenomenon further by observing patients at high risk of coronary artery disease with assays that reflect the activity state of factor VII. We measured factor VII levels in patients before coronary arteriography and in normal subjects by an amidolytic assay (FVIIam assay) and by a standard clotting assay (FVIIc-A assay), both of which reflect the total amount of factor VII and are insensitive to activated factor VII, and by the method of Seligson et al. (Blood 1978;52:978-88) (FVIIc-B assay), which is sensitive to the presence of activated factor VII. In the FVIIc-A and FVIIam assays, the patients had a significantly higher mean value than the normal subjects; in the FVIIc-B assay, the patients had a significantly lower mean value than did the normal subjects. Moreover, the ratio of FVIIc-B to FVIIam, which is an indicator of the factor VII activity state, was much lower for the patients (0.70) than for the normal subjects (0.99). Thus, patients at high risk for coronary artery disease have an increased mean level of total factor VII that is not associated with an increase in activated factor VII and therefore presumably reflects an increase in zymogen factor VII.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Interrelationships between asthma and pregnancy: clinical and mechanistic considerations.

Asthma appears to be one of the most common potentially serious medical problems to complicate pregnancy. There is abundant literature suggesting that asthma and pregnancy may have reciprocal influences on each other. This article will review the literature dealing with the effect of asthma on pregnancy and the effect of pregnancy on asthma. For each of the bidirectional relationships, a review of clinical observations will be followed by a review of potentially relevant mechanistic considerations.

Asthma↗
PubMed1986

Factor IX concentrate therapy and thrombosis: relation to changes in plasma antithrombin III.

Commercial factor IX (fIX) concentrate therapy has been associated with thrombogenic complications, the cause of which is uncertain. We have previously reported that infusion of these fIX concentrates led to a decrease in antithrombin III (ATIII) functional activity, but not antigen, from pre-infusion levels. The patient plasmas also showed a cathodal shift in ATIII antigen by crossed immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP). We chose to characterize these ATIII changes more extensively in additional patients, by functional assays, radial immunodiffusion (RID), and CIEP. The effects of commercial fIX concentrate therapy on plasma ATIII levels appear to be dose-related, with most pronounced effects at 100 U/Kg; the effects are also cumulative, with a persistence of ATIII changes 24 hours after infusion in patients on daily therapy. We also studied pre- and post-infusion ATIII levels in patients who received 100 U/Kg of a more purified fIX concentrate (American Red Cross), which contains little or no activated clotting factors and has been shown to be non-thrombogenic in animal models. These patients showed no change post-infusion in ATIII levels by clotting, amidolytic, or RID assays, nor any significant change by CIEP. These data suggest that the ATIII changes that occur predictably after commercial fIX concentrate therapy are caused by a contaminating protein or proteins other than fIX and that the ATIII changes observed are related to the thrombotic complications of these commercial concentrates.

Antigens↗
PubMed1984

Language and person cognition: effects of communicative set on trait attribution.

People may be especially prone to construe an individual's behavior in terms of global traits when they anticipate verbal communication about that person. In a first experiment, subjects expecting to communicate their impressions of a target person generated a greater number of global trait descriptions and made a greater number of unqualified, mutually consistent trait attributions than did control subjects. Three further experiments tested the hypotheses that (a) the specifically verbal nature of the anticipated communication at least partly accounts for this effect and (b) expecting to receive a verbal communication may suffice to produce the effect as well. Both hypotheses received support: Subjects expecting either to transmit or to receive verbal impressions ascribed more traits to the target person, and were more influenced by their implicit personality theory in rating the target's dispositions, than subjects expecting to transmit impressions nonverbally .

Cognition↗
PubMed1983

Murine auto- and cross-tolerance to volatile anaesthetics.

Auto-tolerance and cross-tolerance to halothane, isoflurane and enflurane were tested on 36 mice divided into three equal groups. Each group was first exposed to increasing concentrations of either of the three anesthetics on 13 occasions. The concentration at which each mouse lost its righting reflex during successive exposures in a rotating cage was noted. Cross-tolerance was assessed by comparing the number of mice which had lost their righting reflexes during their first exposure to a given anaesthetic agent to the number which lost it after having been exposed to another anaesthetic. All animals developed auto-tolerance to halothane, isoflurane and enflurane. Cross-tolerance was noted only between mice exposed to isoflurane and enflurane and between mice exposed to halothane and subsequently anaesthetized with isoflurane, but not vice versa.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Effect of stimulus on the chemical composition of human tears.

We examined the effect of the nature of the stimulus on the chemical composition of human tears. The protein concentration of emotional tears from women exceeded that of irritant-induced tears by 24% (P less than .01). Polyacrylamide disk gel electrophoresis disclosed no significant difference between the distribution of positively or negatively charged proteins of irritant-induced and emotional tears. Manganese concentrations in tears (30 ng/ml) exceeded serum concentrations from the same subjects by 30-fold. These manganese concentrations in tears were considerably less than previously reported values. We found no differences for the concentrations of protein or manganese in human tears between the sexes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Mevinolin: a highly potent competitive inhibitor of hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase and a cholesterol-lowering agent.

Mevinolin, a fungal metabolite, was isolated from cultures of Aspergillus terreus. The structure and absolute configuration of mevinolini and its open acid form, mevinolinic acid, were determined by a combination of physical techniques. Mevinolin was shown to be 1,2,6,7,8,8a-hexahydro-beta, delta-dihydroxy-2,6-dimethyl-8-(2-methyl-1-oxobutoxy)-1-naphthalene-hepatanoic acid delta-lactone. Mevinolin in the hydroxy-acid form, mevinolinic acid, is a potent competitive inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase [mevalonate: NADP+ oxidoreductase (CoA-acylating), EC 1.1.1.34]; its Ki of 0.6 nM can be compared to 1.4 nM for the hydroxy acid form of the previously described related inhibitor, ML-236B (compactin, 6-demethylmevinolin). In the rat, orally administered sodium mevinolinate was an active inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis in an acute assay (50% inhibitory dose = 46 microgram/kg). Furthermore, it was shown that mevinolin was an orally active cholesterol-lowering agent in the dog. Treatment of dogs for 3 weeks with mevinolin at 8 mg/kg per day resulted in a 29.3 +/- 2.5% lowering of plasma cholesterol.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Field dependence and facial recognition.

29 male and 28 female undergraduates were administered two measures of Witkin's field-dependence dimension--the Portable Rod-and-frame Test and the Group Embedded-figures Test--and a test of facial recognition. Field-independent males were significantly more accurate in the recognition of photographed human faces than field-dependent males. Field-independent females were also more accurate than field-dependent females, although the relation was nonsignificant. While it has often been claimed that field-dependent individuals remember faces better, the results of the present study, as well as others which have examined this relationship, support the opposite conclusion.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Lateral eye movements and field-dependence--independence.

The relationship between field-dependence--independence and lateral eye movements was investigated for a sample of 41 male and 39 female right-handed undergraduates. Subjects were administered the Portable Rod-and-frame Test, the Embedded-figures Test, and the Block Design, Object Assembly, and Picture Completion scales of the WAIS. Eye movements in response to 60 questions requiring reflective thought were recorded. Contrary to predictions, right-movers did not perform better than left-movers on the tests of field-dependence--independence. Among males, however, both consistent right- and left-movers performed significantly better than inconsistent movers. The correlation, for males, between lateral eye-movement consistency and a composite measure of field-dependence--independence was .65 (p less than .001). It was argued that eye-movement consistency and cognitive ability level are a joint function of extent of brain lateralization.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Parenteral clindamycin phosphate: pharmacology with normal and abnormal liver function and effect on nasal staphylococci.

Parenteral clindamycin was evaluated in 41 patients with a variety of infections. The four major findings were as follows. (i) Five hours after the intravenous administration of 600 mg of clindamycin, the mean serum concentration in patients with "moderate to severe" hepatic dysfunction was 24.3 mug/ml, and in those with normal liver function it was 8.3 mug/ml (P < 0.02). This suggests that the dose of clindamycin might be modified in patients with liver disease. (ii) There was a positive association between the 5-h serum clindamycin level and the degree of elevation of the serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase. (iii) No significant side effects were observed. Of 24 patients with preexisting hepatic dysfunction, 5 showed deterioration and 5 showed improvement of liver function during therapy. (iv) Whereas all pre-treatment isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis from the anterior nares were susceptible to clindamycin, 6 of 9 post-treatment isolates were resistant, most probably due to selection of resistant organisms.

Adolescent↗