Biomedical subjects

D Willson

Publications and source records attributed to D Willson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Calfactant.

Surfactant administration has proven remarkably effective in the prevention and treatment of infantile respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS) and may also be beneficial in other forms of acute lung injury. Several surfactant products are available commercially along with others in various phases of development and clinical trials. While all of these products share an ability to lower surface tension in vitro, there are substantial compositional differences that appear to affect their in vivo efficacy. At present, the 'modified natural' surfactants containing the hydrophobic surfactant proteins SP-B and SP-C appear most effective. Calfactant may have a particular advantage because of its relatively high content of SP-B and its lack of contamination with non-surfactant lipids and proteins.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

The drug abuse treatment gap: recent estimates.

There is a widely acknowledged problem of drug abuse in the United States, but there is no widely accepted estimate of the number who need treatment for drug abuse. In this article, the authors present new estimates of the numbers of persons in this country who need and receive treatment. These estimates are derived from improved definitions and statistical estimating methods applied to the national Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDS). There are two separate estimates (based on severity) of people needing treatment, yielding a combined total of 7.1 million people. These new estimates are crucial to better resource planning and allocation.

Data Collection↗

PubMed1996

Information system support of changes in health care and nursing practice.

The practice of nursing is changing in response to changes in health care. An effective information system can support nursing's need to streamline the process of documentation, move to standards-based practice, access standards and other reference material, and access data and information to make clinical and management decisions. Nurses will increasingly rely on information systems to provide them with the critical data and information they need to make decisions about patient care, management of the care team, efficient resource utilization, and best practice standards.

Decision Support Techniques↗

PubMed1995

Computerized support of pressure ulcer prevention and treatment protocols.

Pressure ulcer prevention and treatment protocols were developed and implemented at LDS Hospital. While the protocols were initially implemented "on paper", compliance was not optimum until the hospital's information system was modified to support the clinician in following the new protocols. Preliminary results indicate a significant reduction in the incidence of pressure ulcers.

Clinical Protocols↗

PubMed1994

Survey of nurse perceptions regarding the utilization of bedside computers.

In December 1993, Intermountain Health Care (IHC) placed a moratorium on the installation of bedside computers in the acute care setting unless information could be obtained to justify resumption of these installations. A survey was developed and administered to nurses at two IHC hospitals. The survey results indicate that acute care nurses value bedside computers and believe that IHC should install them at other facilities. In addition, the acute care nurses estimate that they are using the bedside computers over 75% of the time during the day shift to document vital signs/measurements and intake/output quantities. Based on the results of this survey, IHC has decided to continue installing bedside computers in the acute care setting.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1990

Neural control of ANF release in hypoxia and pulmonary hypertension.

Hypoxia causes the release of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), but the mechanisms are not yet understood. This study examined the relative contribution of pulmonary arterial hypertension, neural pathways, increased heart rate, or increased atrial size to the ANF response. Alveolar hypoxia [fractional concentration of O2 in inspired gas (FIo2) = 0.1] or pulmonary arterial hypertension (25-45 mmHg) was induced for 10 min in four series (n = 4-12 each) of anesthetized, mechanically ventilated pigs. During hypoxia, plasma ANF concentrations increased by 129 +/- 52 (SE) pg/ml (or 271 +/- 105%) over baseline (35 +/- 7 pg/ml; P less than 0.01) (series 1). There was also a significant increase of pulmonary arterial pressure, heart rate, central venous pressure, and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Repeated pulmonary hypertension induced by intravenous air infusion caused a repeated and reversible 125 +/- 14% increase (P less than 0.001) of plasma ANF, and this response was totally abolished by lesion of the cervical vagosympathetic trunks (series 2). Lesion of these nerves 1 h before hypoxia also decreased the ANF response to hypoxia by 45-58% (P less than 0.01), whereas responses of heart rate and atrial pressures were unchanged (series 3). The ANF response to hypoxia, expressed in percent of baseline, was not affected by 0.2 mg/kg propranolol (PR) (no PR: 145 +/- 63%; PR: 151 +/- 82%; not significantly different from series 1 and control, series 3), although the increase in heart rate (no PR: 61 +/- 15 beats/min) was almost abolished (PR: 17 +/- 5 beats/min) (series 4). Hypoxia caused no significant changes in right and left atrial peak volume regardless of propranolol, as measured with an electrical conductance catheter. The results indicate that a new neural reflex of probably pulmonary arterial origin mediates approximately 50% of the ANF response to hypoxia. The remaining ANF response remains to be explored further and cannot be explained by conventional release mechanisms such as atrial stretch and pulsatility alone.

Animals↗