Biomedical subjects

E Hanson

Publications and source records attributed to E Hanson.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1998

Transgenically produced human antithrombin: structural and functional comparison to human plasma-derived antithrombin.

Recombinant human antithrombin (rhAT) produced in transgenic goat milk was purified to greater than 99%. The specific activity of the rhAT was identical to human plasma-derived AT (phAT) in an in vitro thrombin inhibition assay. However, rhAT had a fourfold higher affinity for heparin than phAT. The rhAT was analyzed and compared with phAT by reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography, circular dichroism, fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE), amino acid sequence, and liquid chromatography/mass spectrography peptide mapping. Based on these analyses, rhAT was determined to be structurally identical to phAT except for differences in glycosylation. Oligomannose structures were found on the Asn 155 site of the transgenic protein, whereas only complex structures were observed on the plasma protein. RhAT contained a GalNAc for galactose substitution on some N-linked oligosaccharides, as well as a high degree of fucosylation. RhAT was less sialylated than phAT and contained both N-acetylneuraminic and N-glycolylneuraminic acid. We postulate that the increase in affinity for heparin found with rhAT resulted from the presence of oligomannose-type structures on the Asn 155 glycosylation site and differences in sialylation.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

The natural history of human papillomavirus infection as measured by repeated DNA testing in adolescent and young women.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to describe the early natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection by examining a cohort of young women positive for an HPV test and to define within this cohort (1) the probability of HPV regression, (2) the risk of having a squamous intraepithelial lesion, and (3) factors that were associated with HPV regression. STUDY DESIGN: The study was a cohort analytic design. An inception cohort of 618 women positive for HPV participated. HPV testing, cytologic evaluation, and colposcopic evaluation were performed at 4-month intervals. HPV testing was characterized for two groups: low risk (five types rarely associated with cancers) and high risk (nine types most commonly associated with cancers). RESULTS: Estimates provided by Kaplan-Meier curves showed that approximately 70% of women were found to have HPV regression by 24 months. Women with low-risk HPV type infections were more likely to show HPV regression than were women with high-risk HPV type infections (log rank test p = 0.002). The relative risk for the development of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) was 14.1 (95% confidence interval: 2.3, 84.5) for women with at least three positive tests for high-risk HPV preceding the development of the HSIL compared with that for women with negative tests for high-risk HPV. However, 88% of women with persistent positive HPV tests have not had HSIL to date. No factors associated with high-risk HPV type regression were identified except for a negative association with an incident history of vulvar condyloma (relative risk = 0.5 [95% confidence interval: 0.3 to 0.8]). CONCLUSION: Most young women with a positive HPV test will become negative within a 24-month period. Persistent positive tests with oncogenic HPV types represented a significant risk for the development of HSIL. However, we found that most young women with persistent positive HPV tests did not have cytologically perceptible HSIL over a 2-year period. Factors thought to be associated with the development of HSIL were found not to be important in HPV regression.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Long-term treatment with desmopressin in children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis: an open multicentre study. Swedish Enuresis Trial (SWEET) Group.

OBJECTIVE: To study the long-term efficacy and safety of desmopressin treatment in children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Children (aged 6-12 years) with nocturnal enuresis were recruited into an open multicentre trial. All children underwent an observation period of 4 weeks before starting a 6-week dose-titration period with desmopressin. If the number of wet nights decreased by more than half during medication, they began long-term treatment on 20-40 microg desmopressin. To test for cure and avoid overtreatment, the medication was interrupted for one week every third month. RESULTS: Of the 399 children forming the intention-to-treat cohort, 245 halved their number of wet nights and started long-term treatment. During the periods off medication, 77 children were dry and at the end of the study another 73 (still on medication) reduced the number of wet nights to < or =10% of that during the observation period. A further 51 children halved the number of wet nights compared with the observation period. No serious adverse events occurred. CONCLUSION: Long-term treatment with nasal desmopressin at a main dose of 40 microg is an effective and safe treatment for monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis.

Administration, Intranasal↗

PubMed1998

Four-hour voiding observation in young boys with posterior urethral valves.

PURPOSE: We evaluated 4-hour voiding observation as a method of basic assessment of bladder dysfunction in young boys with posterior urethral valves. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Voiding pattern, including number of voids, voided and residual urine volume, and bladder capacity, was determined noninvasively in 24 boys younger than 4 years with posterior urethral valves and compared to that of healthy age matched controls. Results were then compared to those of standard cystometry. RESULTS: The number of voids was higher, voided volume was smaller and residual urine volume was higher in the posterior urethral valve group. There was no difference in voiding pattern before and after removal of the anatomical obstruction. Voided and residual urine volume, and bladder capacity were higher on standard cystometry than on voiding observation. CONCLUSIONS: Four-hour voiding observation is an easy noninvasive method that focuses on emptying difficulties and clearly detects differences in voiding patterns between boys with posterior urethral valves and healthy, nontoilet trained children. We recommend the method as a complement to standard cystometry for the diagnosis and followup of bladder dysfunction in young boys with posterior urethral valves to identify the need for treatment.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1997

Oscar Wilde and the scarlet woman.

In the late nineteenth century, England was embroiled in a political debate over the importation of Roman Catholic rituals into the Anglican Church, not to mention the re-establishment of the Roman Church itself in Great Britain. Victorian anti-Catholic rhetoric draws upon the figure of the Whore of Babylon to depict the Roman Catholic Church as the Scarlet Woman, a femme fatale who perverts Christianity and seduces Englishmen with elaborate rituals and lascivious whisperings in the confessional. In writing Salomé, Oscar Wilde played ironically on the hysterical eroticism of the No Popery movement by mining the paradox of biblical sensuality. He invested his play with a biblical wealth of archaic metaphors and gestures that took their cues from The Song of Songs and The Book of Revelation. He became the ecclesiastical dandy that evangelicals feared most, a poet enamored of the Scarlet Woman, a would-be convert who exposed the scandal of Christianity as art.

Bible↗

PubMed1996

Antithrombin-heparin affinity reduced by fucosylation of carbohydrate at asparagine 155.

The two human plasma antithrombin isoforms, alpha and beta, differ in glycosylation at asparagine 135. Only the alpha form carries carbohydrate at this position and has lower affinity for heparin than the beta form. We previously found additional heterogeneity in a recombinant N135Q antithrombin variant, evidenced by two isoforms with a 2-fold difference in heparin affinity [Turko, I. V., Fan, B., & Gettins, P. G. W. (1993) FEBS Lett. 335, 9-12]. To test whether this heterogeneity of heparin affinity results from specific glycosylation differences, we have determined the carbohydrate composition at the three remaining glycosylation sites, asparagine residues 96, 155, and 192, in each of the two N135Q isoforms, by a combination of peptide fragmentation and electrospray mass spectrometry. Patterns of glycosylation at residues 96 and 192 were similar for each isoform and showed the presence of mono-, bi-, and triantennary complex carbohydrate, as well as fucosylation of all types of chains. At position 155, however, there was a marked difference between the isoforms, with the form with lower heparin affinity being 97% fucosylated at this position, whereas the form with higher affinity for heparin was not fucosylated. Other differences in carbohydrate type showed no strong correlation between the two isoforms. We conclude that formation of the two heparin-affinity isoforms of N135Q antithrombin results from the specific difference in fucosylation at residue 155, which may result in different structural properties of the carbohydrate. Consistent with these findings was the elimination of heparin-affinity heterogeneity in a double N135Q-N155Q variant antithrombin. It is possible that fucosylation of antithrombin may occur in vivo as a means of modifying the physiological properties of the antithrombin through alteration of the amount of antithrombin bound to surface heparin-like species.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1996

Identification of a second functional glutaredoxin encoded by the bacteriophage T4 genome.

Thioredoxins and glutaredoxins are small ubiquitous redox proteins that were discovered as hydrogen donors for ribonucleotide reductase, the key enzyme for deoxyribonucleotide biosynthesis. Some organisms encode more than one redox protein. In this study, we demonstrate that an open reading frame in the bacteriophage T4 genome, reported earlier and designated as Y55.7 (Tomaschewski, J., and Rüger, W. (1987) Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 3632-3633), encodes a second functional redox protein. Gene y55.7 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Purified Y55.7 protein had glutathione-dependent thioltransferase and dehydroascorbate reductase activities indicative of a functional glutaredoxin. The protein is expressed at all stages of the T4 infection cycle and can serve as a hydrogen donor for the phage ribonucleotide reductase in in vitro experiments.

Bacteriophage T4↗

PubMed1996

Bladder dysfunction in boys with posterior urethral valves before and after puberty.

PURPOSE: We characterized bladder dysfunction in boys with posterior urethral valves during childhood and adolescence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 12 prepubertal boys with posterior urethral valves presenting before age 1 year was followed from ages 4 to 14 years and compared to 6 postpubertal boys with posterior urethral valves. Urodynamic evaluations and renal function studies were performed repeatedly. RESULTS: Patients had a changing urodynamic pattern with instability decreasing with time, increasing bladder capacity and commonly an unsustained voiding contraction causing emptying difficulties. Postpubertal boys had high capacity bladders with low contractility. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that previously described urodynamic patterns of the valve bladder (unstable, poorly compliant and over distended bladders) are variations of the same basic pattern that changes with time toward decompensation.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Four-hour voiding observation in healthy infants.

PURPOSE: We present the 4-hour voiding observation as a method for basic assessment of bladder function in infants and nontoilet trained children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Voiding pattern, including number of voidings, voided volume, bladder capacity and residual urine for 4 hours, was determined noninvasively in 43 healthy infants. RESULTS: The infants voided an average of 1 time per hour but with great variability. Bladder capacity increased with age according to the formula, 38 + 2.5 x age (months). Mean residual urine plus or minus standard deviation was 4.6 +/- 3.0 ml. In all infants residual volume was less than 5 ml. at least once during observation. CONCLUSIONS: The 4-hour voiding observation is an easy noninvasive method of characterizing the voiding pattern, focusing especially on emptying difficulties, in infants and nontoilet trained children.

Female↗

PubMed1995

Micturition habits and incontinence at age 17--reinvestigation ofa cohort studied at age 7.

OBJECTIVE: To study the epidemiology of micturition disturbances in teenagers. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A subsample of 1034 teenagers previously evaluated at age 7 years was reinvestigated 10 years later. A postal questionnaire was used and a response rate of 71% (736) obtained. Those who reported bladder symptoms were contacted by telephone for a detailed history concerning imperative urge, daytime incontinence, emptying difficulties and bedwetting. RESULTS: There was a general decrease in the frequency and intensity of symptoms from 7 to 17 years of age. At age 17 at least one symptom was reported by 5.9% of the girls and 0.9% of the boys. Overall the symptoms were regarded as mild or moderate. CONCLUSION: At age 17 years, micturition disturbances were reported infrequently and few subjects wanted medical help.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Allosteric effectors are required for subunit association in T4 phage ribonucleotide reductase.

Bacteriophage T4 encodes its own aerobic ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), which reduces ribonucleoside diphosphates to the corresponding deoxyribonucleoside diphosphates. T4 RNR is composed of homodimeric large (R1) and small (R2) subunits. Intricate regulation of enzymatic activity is accomplished by the binding of nucleotide effectors to R1. Berglund (Berglund, O. (1972) J. Biol. Chem. 247, 7270-7275) described similarities between T4 RNR and the corresponding enzyme from aerobic Escherichia coli. An important difference, however, is that T4 RNR forms a tight R1.R2 complex, while the E. coli R1 and R2 more readily dissociate. In this study we purified the phage R2 subunit from an overexpression vector constructed by Tseng et al. (Tseng, M., Hilfinger, J., He, P., and Greenberg, R. (1992) J. Bacteriol. 174, 5740-5744) and used this as an immunogen to generate polyclonal antiserum. Using co-immunoprecipitation techniques, we probed in vitro for interactions between the phage-induced R1 and R2 subunits. Our studies indicate that tight binding of the phage RNR subunits is completely dependent upon the known allosteric effectors of the enzyme. Once the R1.R2 holoenzyme has been formed it appears to be remarkably stable when in the presence of dATP. However, if dATP is removed, the R1.R2 complex readily dissociates.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

PubMed1993

Applications of the laparoscopic ultrasonic aspirator for advanced gynecologic operative endoscopic procedures.

We evaluated the efficacy of a new laparoscopic ultrasonic aspirator and applied it in gynecologic endoscopy. Two procedures were selected for preliminary evaluation of the instrument; ultrasonic aspiration for selective presacral neurectomies and total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH). The aspirator worked successfully in evacuating soft tissue and in adequately exposing the presacral plexus. In TLH we were able to skeletonize the broad ligament adventitia all the way to the level of the uterine arteries bilaterally, including exposure of the ureters. The time required for the procedures varied from case to case, and strongly depended on tissue type and on instruments used to dissect and improve visualization of the operative field. The aspirator may prove useful as an adjunctive in the surgical management of endometriosis, in laparoscopic lymphadenectomy, and in treating complex adhesions after further evaluation is completed.

Endoscopes↗

PubMed1992

Pronounced detrusor hypercontractility in infants with gross bilateral reflux.

In this study the prevalence of bladder dysfunction in 18 children with gross bilateral reflux was investigated via cystometric recordings. In all except 1 infant maximal voiding detrusor pressure was 100 cm. or greater water (range 86 to 244). Pronounced instability during filling (overt instability) with pressure waves above baseline (mean 65 cm. water, range 42 to 194) was found in 9 infants. Another 5 children had evidence to suggest an uninhibited bladder, not manifested as unstable contractions during filling but as covert instability, meaning that the first unstable contraction was transformed into a premature and forceful voiding contraction. The high detrusor pressures found in 18 children with gross bilateral reflux during the voiding phase but also during the filling phase in half of the children suggest that a hypercontractile detrusor may be a contributory factor for the development of reflux even in this age group.

Female↗

PubMed1992

Infection pattern in children with vesicoureteral reflux randomly allocated to operation or long-term antibacterial prophylaxis. The International Reflux Study in Children.

A total of 306 children with grade III to IV vesicoureteral reflux (international classification) and a history of documented urinary tract infection was randomized into medical (155 patients) or surgical (151 patients) treatment arms in the European portion of the International Reflux Study in Children. Children treated medically were maintained on prophylactic antibacterials as long as the reflux persisted, while those treated surgically were covered prophylactically until followup studies at 6 months postoperatively demonstrated the reflux to be corrected. Standard definitions for bacteriuria were used, and the distinction was made clinically among acute pyelonephritis, cystitis and asymptomatic bacteriuria, supported in many instances by additional laboratory testing. Urine was cultured after 3 months and whenever suspicious symptoms occurred. Urinary tract infections developed during the first 5-year followup period in 59 patients (38%) in the medical group and in 59 (39%) in the surgical group but the incidence of pyelonephritis was higher in the medical group (21%) than in the surgical group (10%) (p < 0.01). Pyelonephritis often followed catheterization or cystoscopy but asymptomatic bacteriuria was uncommon after these procedures in either group. Recurrent infections were related to age, sex and treatment center. They were common in boys and girls entering under 1 year of age but were less common in girls and rare in boys entering after 1 year of age. Recurrences were lowest among the Finnish children and highest in the German and Belgian children.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMed1992

Sodomy and kingcraft in Urania and Antony and Cleopatra.

Despite his description of sodomy as a horrible crime that a king is "bound in conscience neuer to forgiue," James I pursued the affections of a string of young and handsome "favourites" on whom he lavished gifts, titles, and power. Relying on the evidence of the King's own letters and frank comments from his Puritan critics, most historians assume that his relations with some of these men were sexual. The King's friendship with Robert Carr (who was later made Earl of Somerset), coupled with his estrangement from Queen Anne, may have been an inspiration for at least two literary accounts of kingship confounded by sex: Lady Mary Wroth's Urania (1621) and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1608). Wroth describes a duke who is made politically vulnerable by his love for a young man that leaves him "issue-les." The rise and fall of this disloyal companion closely resembles that of Somerset and would seem to indicate Wroth's belief that the King's relationship with the Earl was sexual. Antony and Cleopatra is in many ways a reflection of Jacobean court extravagance and decadence. Cleopatra, despite her sex, seems to fill the same role in political and sexual scandal as did Somerset; and Antony's vacillation between pleasure and duty recalls a certain Renaissance discourse on sodomy and "kingcraft".

Drama↗

PubMed1992

Relationships among critical thinking skills, academic achievement, and misconceptions about psychology.

Two groups of 60 students each were selected from introductory college psychology classes. One consisted of high academic achievers, the other of average achievers. They were given the McCutcheon Test of Misconceptions, a 65-item, multiple-choice test designed to measure common misconceptions about psychology. Subsequently, they were also given the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. Both groups made many errors on the McCutcheon test, but high academic achievers made significantly fewer errors on both the McCutcheon test and the Watson-Glaser than average achievers. A stepwise multiple regression consisting of Watson-Glaser subscales 1 (the ability to draw valid inferences) and 4 (ability to weigh and interpret evidence) and GPA successfully predicted McCutcheon test scores (R = .43). This suggests that even beginning students with high grades and good critical thinking skills are likely to harbor many misconceptions about psychology.

Achievement↗

PubMed1991

Portable blood glucose meters. Teaching patients how to correctly monitor diabetes.

Self-monitoring of blood glucose is an important component of treatment in patients with diabetes. Recent improvements in glucose meters have made patient self-testing more reliable and less dependent on user technique. However, success of the process depends on the training, reassessment, and support of the patient by the healthcare team.

Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring↗

PubMed1991

Association between urinary symptoms at 7 years old and previous urinary tract infection.

The association between current micturition habits and previous urinary tract infection was analysed among 3553 school entrants aged 7 years by means of a questionnaire. A high incidence of urinary infection, confirmed by urine culture, was found (145 (8.4%) in the 1719 girls and 32 (1.7%) in the 1834 boys). There was a significant association between current symptoms that were suggestive of disturbed bladder function and previous urinary tract infection, but only among girls who were over 3 years of age at the time the first episode was diagnosed.

Age Factors↗