Biomedical subjects
D Phillips
Publications and source records attributed to D Phillips.
The Controlled Substances Act and you.
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Vinblastine plus cisplatin in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: lack of advantage for vinblastine infusion schedule.
We have evaluated 31 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated by short-term 5-day vinblastine infusion combined with bolus cisplatin. Nine of 31 patients (29%) had partial and complete responses. Although five of nine (55%) of the responders were alive at greater than or equal to 1 year, three of the 31 patients experienced drug-related mortality. Our experience, as well as a review of previously reported trials in the literature, suggests that the infusion schedule of vinblastine offers no advantage over the bolus schedule.
Internal jugular vein thrombosis after subclavian vein cannulation: detection by computed tomography.
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5-Fluorouracil and methotrexate administered simultaneously as a continuous infusion. A phase I study.
Infusion delivery systems have been evaluated for administration of many individual chemotherapeutic agents including 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and methotrexate (MTX). This study combined the two drugs as an admixture, and in a Phase I trial design established a useful dose schedule for each of the component drugs. 5-FU at a fixed dose rate of 300 mg/M2/day was delivered with methotrexate (MTX) at four different dose rates (0.75, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 mg/M2/day, respectively). The drug solution was delivered via a subclavian venous access with a portable infusion pump in an ambulatory setting. Twenty-nine patients received a total of 38 courses of the two-drug infusion: 21 courses were delivered with the two agents admixed constantly throughout treatment (Schedule A) and 17 were administered the treatment with 5-FU delivered continuously and MTX added to the 5-FU for alternate 14-day cycles (Schedule B). For the former schedule, dose-rate-limiting toxicity was related to MTX and included stomatitis developing at days 8 to 14 (median, day 8) with the higher dose rates (1.5-2.0 mg/M2/day) and thrombocytopenia developing at days 11 to 56 (median, day 14) at the lowest dose rates (1.0 mg/M2/day). For Schedule B, dose-rate-limiting toxicity was similarly due to the MTX with thrombocytopenia and/or chemical hepatitis developing in six of seven courses of MTX at 1.0 mg/M2/day and in five of ten courses delivered at 0.75 mg/M2/day. On Schedule B the MTX-associated toxicities were reversed when the MTX administration was interrupted and in the face of continued 5-FU infusion. A reasonable dose rate and schedule for continuous infusion of 5-FU combined with MTX is: 5-FU 300 mg/M2/day X 28 days and MTX 0.75 mg/M2/day for days 1 to 14, with cycles administered consecutively each 28 days.
Solvent relaxation in lipid bilayers with dansyl probes.
The solvent relaxation properties of the dansyl group attached to two lipids (dansylphosphatidylethanolamine and dansylphosphatidylserine), a fatty acid (dansylundecanoic acid), and two drugs (dansylbenzocaine and dansylpropranolol) were compared in a variety of different lipid systems. Several methods for characterising solvent relaxation were compared in detail for dansylpropranolol in bilayer vesicles of egg phosphatidylcholine. It was shown that the relaxation process is non-monoexponential; nevertheless, for comparative purposes, a model was adopted in which the lifetime associated with the negative exponent in a two exponential decay analysis, obtained at a particular energy on the red edge of emission, was taken as an approximation to a 'solvent relaxation' rate. A negative exponent, indicative of solvent relaxation processes, occurring in the nanosecond time-scale, was found only for dansylpropranolol, dansylPE and dansylundecanoic acid. On addition of the spin probe, 5-doxylstearate, the negative exponent was unaffected in liquid-crystalline phase lipids but was no longer found in gel-phase lipid in the case of dansylpropranolol, while for dansylPE the relaxation time was reduced. On the basis of these types of measurement it was possible to distinguish between different lipid environments using the same probe or between different dansyl environments of the different probes in the same lipid in cases where this would have been difficult or impossible solely on the basis of steady-state or fluorescence lifetime measurements.
Chlamydia trachomatis infection at a family planning clinic.
Endocervical samples were taken for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis from 500 consecutive patients attending a family planning clinic. The Microtrak direct specimen immunofluorescence test was used. Swabs from 79 patients (15.8%) were positive for chlamydia. Seventy-one (95%) of these patients were symptom free, and 39.8% were under 20 years old. Twenty-one patients were pregnant, seven (33%) had chlamydia. Those positive for chlamydia had twice the frequency of abnormal smears and other sexually transmitted infections as those who were negative. Contraceptive use was similar except that intrauterine devices were used less frequently by patients with chlamydia infection. This report indicates the frequent occurrence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in New Zealand and that newly developed methods of diagnosis enable us to identify and treat those with this infection. Characteristically these patients are under 20, have multiple partners and a high incidence of abnormal smears and other sexually transmitted infections.
Natural experiments and the educational context: the environment and effects of an alternative inner-city public school on adolescents.
The 1-year impact of attending a public alternative high school on two cohorts of adolescents who gained entrance to the school through a lottery was studied. Adolescents who had applied to the school but were not selected in the lottery served as a control group. The nature of the alternative high school environment is described, and the outcome of this natural experiment defined in terms of reactions to school, attitude change, and student achievement. In general, the alternative school positively affected student satisfaction with a variety of aspects of school life and induced some positive change in interracial attitudes while not harming student achievement. Race effects were found in the areas of achievement and interracial attitudes. Implications for the study of natural experiments in general and the specific data in particular are drawn.
Neuromuscular adaptation of craniofacial muscles to altered oral sensation.
Experimentally induced changes in oral sensation to the tongue altered the use of specific craniofacial muscles. An acrylic wedge was anchored to the maxillary teeth of ten adult rhesus monkeys, providing a tactile-pressure sensation to the dorsal surface of the tongue. Fifteen craniofacial and tongue muscles were studied by electromyography during the first 6 months of adaptation. The results showed that there was an overall shift in those muscles that were normally tonically active in the craniofacial region. Muscles of the suprahyoid region, the geniohyoid and digastric, as well as the platysma muscle of the face, and the lateral pterygoid muscle were tonically active in more animals after placement of the wedge. In contrast to the enhanced activity of mandibular and facial muscles that function during mandibular depression, only the anterior temporalis muscle in the superficial and deep region demonstrated more tonic activity. The superficial and deep masseter regions, as well as the medial pterygoid muscle, demonstrated no change in their EMG activity. Only the lip muscles and mentalis demonstrated increased activity, whereas the facial muscles with more vertically oriented fibers did not demonstrate any increased activity. These findings suggest that a change in the tactile stimulation to the tongue can induce a new balance in the level of activity of specific craniofacial muscles and that this altered neuromuscular pattern can remain throughout the first 6 months of adaptation.
Effect of bronchial lavage volume on cellular and protein recovery.
To investigate the optimal lavage technique to study the airway response in patients with asthma, differential volume lavage was carried out in 22 normal subjects and 18 patients with red cedar asthma. Ten ml of fluid was instilled into a main-stem bronchus followed by 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 ml into different segmental bronchi. Small volume lavage (less than 20 ml) in a main stem bronchus or a segmental bronchus recovered more epithelial cells and neutrophils while a lavage volume of 20-100 ml in a segmental bronchus recovered more lymphocytes, alveolar macrophages, albumin, IgG and alpha 1-antitrypsin. In patients with asthma, a higher proportion of epithelial cells was observed in the 20 ml segmental bronchus lavage 24 to 48 hours after bronchial challenge with plicatic acid, the chemical compound responsible for red cedar asthma. There was an increase in eosinophils and IgG with all volume lavages, but the changes were most marked in the 10 ml main bronchus lavage and the 10 and 20 ml segmental bronchus lavage. The results show the importance of using a systematic lavage protocol to characterize the cellular and protein changes in the airways of patients with asthma. A single volume lavage in one site may not encompass all the changes observed.
The effects of denturism on denture prices.
In 1978, the country's first denturism initiative was passed in Oregon, legalizing the independent construction of dentures by non-dentists. The major campaign issue was the effect denturism would have on the cost of dentures. A review of Oregon dental insurance data shows that the costs of dentures, which had been rising at the same rate as other dental services, had a much lower rate of increase after passage of the denturism initiative.
Guidelines for prescribers of controlled drugs.
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A definition of the breeding season of Pool Dorset ewes.
The seasonality of oestrus and ovulation of 62 Poll Dorset ewes was examined over a period of 16 months commencing October, 1981. Laparoscopic observations showed that the majority of these ewes were anovular during the South Australian spring and early summer (September to December). The number of ewes with corpora lutea (93.6%) and the mean ovulation rate (1.62) reached a peak in June. Oestrus was stimulated in anovular ewes in late spring by the introduction of vasectomised rams. The mean ovulation rate at the teased ovulation was 1.68, although teased ewes did not exhibit oestrus at this ovulation.
Picosecond spectroscopy: applications in biochemistry. Part I: Techniques.
A number of sources of picosecond optical pulses and the means by which they may be used to investigate fast molecular processes have been described. In addition, it should be pointed out that most of these techniques can be extended to take advantage of other properties of the laser pulses; in particular, the polarization is of use in measuring time-dependent antisotropy. The state of the art is now the generation of 30fs pulses; it seems likely that this is all the time resolution that one is likely to need for investigating biological and other molecular processes as at such short times the uncertainty principle leads to a considerable loss of spectral resolution.
Picosecond spectroscopy: applications in biochemistry. Part II: Applications.
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The illusion of incompetence among academically competent children.
To assess the relation between children's perceptions of cognitive competence and their achievement orientations, a group of 117 academically competent fifth graders and their teachers were administered a battery of questionnaires tapping a variety of motivational constructs. The children were then divided into low, average, and high groups on the basis of subscale scores on a standardized measure of perceived cognitive competence. Approximately 20%--equal proportions of girls and boys--had self-perceptions that seriously underestimated their actual high abilities. When compared to the children whose self-perceptions were commensurate with their abilities, the children with low perceived competence were shown to adopt lower standards and expectancies for success, to perceive that their teachers expected less of them (confirmed by the teachers' expectancy ratings), to rank unstable effort as a more important cause of their high grades than ability, and to be portrayed by their teachers as lacking in persistence. Very few sex differences emerged. Several theoretical issues are raised regarding the early acquisition, perpetuation, causal significance, and behavioral manifestations of inaccurate and disparaging self-perceptions among young children.
Patient's page. Haemolytic-uraemic syndrome.
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