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Biomedical subjects

D Lucy

Publications and source records attributed to D Lucy.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Retaining hard-to-reach women in HIV prevention and vaccine trials: Project ACHIEVE.

Project ACHIEVE, which conducts HIV prevention research studies, maintains a women's site in the South Bronx in NewYork City. Owing to a focused retention effort at the South Bronx site, high retention rates were achieved in a vaccine preparedness study for women at high risk of HIV infection. Comparable retention rates have been achieved in HIV vaccine trials with similar cohorts of women at this site. These results suggest that concerns about retaining hard-to-reach populations should not cause these populations to be excluded from HIV vaccine and prevention trials.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
PubMed2001

The combination of zidovudine and interferon alpha-2B in the treatment of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is frequently a very aggressive malignancy with a poor survival despite aggressive multiagent chemotherapy. The combination of the antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) and interferon alpha (IFNalpha) has been reported to induce remissions in patients with ATL. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical response and toxicity following administration of a combination of IFNalpha-2b and AZT in patients with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated ATL. Eighteen patients with ATL (chronic. crisis, acute or lymphoma type) were treated with the combination of AZT (50 - 200 mg orally 5 times a day) and IFNalpha-2b (2.5 - 10 million units subcutaneously daily). Three patients had objective responses lasting more than one month. One patient had a clinical complete remission, lasting 21.6 months and two patients had partial remissions lasting 3.7 and 26.5 months. Six patients were not considered evaluable for response due to short and/or interrupted periods of treatment. Seventeen patients have died with a median survival time after initiation of therapy of 6 months. Neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were the dose limiting toxicities. In conclusion, the response rate in this study was lower than noted in the two previous published series. This may be due to the amount and type of prior treatment our patients had received.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Validity and responsiveness of the 6 minute walk test for people with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the concurrent validity and responsiveness of the 6 minute walk test (6-MWT) as a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness in people with fibromyalgia. METHODS: Subjects completed the 6-MWT, a Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), and a peak oxygen consumption (pVO2) exercise test before (n = 28) and after (n = 20) a 12 week exercise program. RESULTS: The correlations between 6-MWT distance and pVO2 before (r = 0.328) and after (r = 0.420) the exercise program were not significant. Significant correlations were obtained between 6-MWT distance and FIQ total (r = -0.494, p < 0.01) and physical impairment (r = -0.403, p < 0.05) scores. Fifteen of 28 subjects completed the exercise program, with significant (p < 0.05) changes in 6-MWT distance (+78 m), pVO2 (+1.8 ml/kg/min), and FIQ total score (-9.9). The change in 6-MWT distance was correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with change in FIQ total score but no change in pVO2. CONCLUSION: The 6-MWT was not a valid predictor of cardiorespiratory fitness. However, it was sensitive to change and was also significantly related to FIQ total score.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Comparative degenerative joint disease of the vertebral column in the medieval monastic cemetery of the Gilbertine priory of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York, England.

The pattern of degenerative joint disease (DJD) of the intervertebral and apophyseal joints of the vertebral column of 81 skeletons from the thirteenth to fourteenth century medieval priory cemetery of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York, was recorded in relation to their location of interment: eastern cemetery, southern cemetery, and intramurally (within the priory buildings). Archaeological context and ethnohistorical accounts support the interpretation that people of different social status were buried in these areas. Linear discriminant function analysis and paired Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests showed that the differences in vertebral column DJD pattern and severity among the three subgroups were not statistically significant. As the archaeological and historical evidence seems reliable, it is argued that the analysis of DJD of the vertebral column might not be ideal to study the effects of normal activity patterns, a conclusion which supports the results of recent bioarchaeological research. Further, high-low plots demonstrate that the differences in DJD pattern were located between intervertebral and apophyseal joints of individuals rather than between subgroups of the cemetery. It is thought that this difference was produced as a response to erect posture during bipedal locomotion, reflecting vertebral curvatures, rather than differing occupational stresses. Thus, due to biological constraints on its function, the vertebral column might not be an ideal structure to study markers of occupational stress.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Technical note: regression analysis in adult age estimation.

Accurate estimation of human adult age has always been a problem for anthropologists, archaeologists and forensic scientists. The main factor contributing to the difficulties is the high variability of physiological age indicators. However, confounding this variability in many age estimation applications is a systematic tendency for age estimates, regardless of physiological indicator employed, to assign ages which are too high for young individuals, and too low for older individuals. This paper shows that at least part of this error is the inevitable consequence of the statistical procedures used to extract an estimate of age from age indicators, and that the magnitude of the error is inversely related to how well an age indicator is correlated with age. The use of classical calibration over inverse calibration is recommended for age estimation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Some considerations regarding the use of amino acid racemization in human dentine as an indicator of age at death.

An HPLC method is described for simultaneously obtaining the enantiomeric ratio of three amino acids (aspartic acid, serine, and glutamic acid) from dental collagen, with a view to using this information for estimating age at death. Results are reported from a sample of twenty three known age modern teeth, six known age 19th C. AD teeth, and two unknown age Romano-British teeth. It was found (as expected) that all three D/L ratios changed significantly with chronological age. Standard calibration techniques were used to estimate ages for the six 19th C. AD specimens from regression equations estimated from the modern specimens, and also to predict (for the first time) the error associated with such estimates. Errors using aspartic acid were found to be similar to those obtained by other methods of age estimation from dental evidence, serine, and glutamic acid providing much poorer age estimates. Additionally, a systematic difference in the age-enantiomeric ratio relationship was observed between modern and older dental samples. It is concluded that there is some fundamental difference in the observed enantiomeric ratios between modern teeth and older samples, possibly as a result of the chemical alteration of the dental proteins.

Age Determination by Teeth↗
PubMed1996

A Bayesian approach to adult human age estimation from dental observations by Johanson's age changes.

Much of the data which appears in the forensic and archaeological literature is ordinal or categorical. This is particularly true of the age related indicators presented by Gustafson in his method of human adult age estimation using the structural changes in human teeth. This technique is still being modified and elaborated. However, the statistical methods of regression analysis employed by Gustafson and others are not particularly appropriate to this type of data, but are still employed because alternatives have not yet been explored. This paper presents a novel approach based upon the application of Bayes' theorem to ordinal and categorical data, which overcomes many of the problems associated with regression analysis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Further comments on the estimation of error associated with the Gustafson dental age estimation method.

Many researchers in the field of forensic odontology have questioned the error estimates stated in Gustafson's paper outlining the relationship between certain dental attributes and age. In a substantial re-working of Gustafson's data, Maples and Rice corrected Gustafson's regression statistics and found that the error associated with the age estimate was nearly double that claimed by Gustafson. We offer another statistical analysis of Gustafson's data and find that the errors calculated by Maples and Rice were also in error, being about a year too small. We give a formula for what we believe to be the correct treatment of errors in such cases, but conclude by observing that there is an urgent need for a more rigorous study of the traits first tabulated by Gustafson.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Inflammatory lesions of ribs: an analysis of the Terry Collection.

The aim of this paper is to consider the diagnostic criteria for tuberculosis in ancient populations. It investigates the frequency of periosteal new bone formation on the visceral surfaces of ribs from 1718 individuals from the Terry Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. and attempts to determine the aetiological factors producing these lesions. Numbers of individuals with lesions according to cause of death were recorded and the patterning of lesions compared between people who had died from tuberculosis and those whose cause of death was unrelated to a pulmonary disease. Rib lesions were more common in individuals dying from tuberculosis (61.6% or 157 of 255) than in individuals dying from other causes (15.2% or 165 of 1086). It is suggested that tuberculosis at a peripheral lung focus may disseminate directly through the pleura to the visceral surfaces of the ribs, or that pulmonary tuberculosis may be the cause of empyema of the pleural cavity and that this, per se, may initiate inflammatory change on the visceral surfaces of ribs. The nonrecognition or description of these often very subtle proliferative lesions on ribs by radiological examination of tuberculous victims is significant in the discussion of bone changes in tuberculosis. The possibility that individuals with no recorded history of tuberculosis at death actually suffered from the disease was considered in light of the frequency of rib lesions and noncorrelation with a tuberculous cause of death. Differential diagnoses are discussed including the possibility that the lesions represent a general non-specific indicator of stress.

Adolescent↗