Biomedical subjects
D Lindsay
Publications and source records attributed to D Lindsay.
Which bronchodilator-and when?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Screening for alcohol problems among the unemployed.
Of 2,996 welfare recipients applying for CETA benefits at the Milwaukee office of Jewish Vocational Service between 3/1/78-9/30/78, a 10% sample (N = 309) was screened for assessment of alcohol problems. After obtaining voluntary informed consent from participants (6% declined), trained interviewers individually administered a 16-item alcoholism At-Risk Questionnaire (ARQ) based on observations by NCA's Criteria Committee; a standard form of the 25-item Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST); and a 35-item interview structured around a selectively modified version of NCA's Criteria for the Diagnosis of Alcoholism (CRIT). Analyses of data suggested that our ARQ was of little value in discriminating between problem drinkers and other persons, although significantly correlated with MAST and CRIT scores. Using a conventional scoring of the MAST, 53.6% of the sample appeared to have significant alcohol problems, while our CRIT identified only 31.9% as problem drinkers. By combining the MAST + CRIT in a unique scoring system, a more conservative estimate of 36.57% problem drinkers, with an estimated error rate of 1.63% false negatives and 23.45% false positives, was determined. Further modification of MAST + CRIT scoring led to a revised estimate of 25.41% problem drinkers with estimated false-positive and false-negative rates of 7.55% and 6.5% respectively. Implications for research and plans for further modifications of screening procedures are discussed.
An evaluation of oral hexoprenaline sulphate (Ipradol) in exercise-induced asthma.
The effect of hexoprenaline sulphate (1 mg) administered orally on the fall in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) after exercise was investigated in 20 asthmatic patients. Compared with placebo, the fall in PEFR expressed as a percentage of the resting value (measured immediately before exercise) was less in 16 of the 20 patients in the presence of hexoprenaline sulphate. This consistent amelioration of exercise-induced asthma has not been observed in this laboratory with similar drugs (such as salbutamol and terbutaline). While eight patients were afforded significant protection by the hexoprenaline sulphate, a fall in PEFR after exercise was within the normal range (less than 10% of the resting value) in only four patients.
The early detection of airway obstruction.
To assess the sensitivity of tests for early, small airway obstruction, we selected 52 cigarette smokers with a ratio of 1-sec forced expiratory volume to forced vital capacity greater than 70 per cent from a smoking cessation clinic. From these subjects, 29 of the 46 tested demonstrated frequency dependence of dynamic compliance, a finding arbitrarily defined as indicative of small airway obstruction in this group. Dynamic compliance was correlated with the British Medical Research Council questionnaire, routine pulmonary function tests, closing volume as a per cent of vital capacity, maximal expiratory flow-volume curves, and flow dependence of distribution of inhaled boluses of xenon-133 (finite difference Xe). Symptoms of respiratory disease, and abnormal flow-volume curves, specific conductances, and ratios of residual volume to total lung capacity were also present in some subjects, but they correlated very poorly with frequency dependence of dynamic compliance. On the other hand, finite difference Xe was abnormal in 85 per cent of cases with frequency dependence of compliance and closing volume was abnormal in 70 per cent. In 8 of 12 subjects restudied 2 months after they stopped smoking, dynamic compliance was less frequency dependent than before smoking cessation. Similar improvements were noted in finite difference Xe, but closing volume was unchanged. Although closing volume and dynamic compliance tended to be abnormal in the same subject, concordance was not excellent, and the effects of smoking cessation suggested that the 2 tests had different determinants.