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Biomedical subjects

E M Webster

Publications and source records attributed to E M Webster.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Labour market forecasting in Australia: the science of the art.

"This article, which is written for the non-economist, overviews recent attempts at labour market forecasting in Australia and summarizes contemporary views on their contribution towards enhancing the efficiency of the Australian labour market. Current methods of forecasting are described and assessed purely from a theoretical perspective. The paper does not attempt to assess the accuracy or otherwise of Australian labour market forecasts...."

Australia↗
PubMed1990

Food induced ("allergic") arthritis: inflammatory synovitis in rabbits.

Progress in understanding rheumatoid (RA) and inflammatory arthritis has been limited in part because there has been no widely accepted animal model of naturally occurring human disease and because the clinical syndrome of RA may reflect the expression of multiple etiologies. We have considered that inflammatory joint disease may be induced and/or exacerbated by food related antigens. To facilitate our investigations, we studied inflammatory synovitis in rabbits induced by oral exposure to environmental antigens. In our preliminary experiments, we examined 9 Florida White, 30 New Zealand White, and 9 Old English rabbits. They were nourished with normal rabbit chow supplemented with either water or cow's milk beginning at age 7 to 26 weeks and observed for 81 to 204 days. Animals were then sacrificed. Histological sections of the knees were examined and graded in a blinded fashion for synovial cell hyperplasia, inflammation, and lymphoplasmocytic infiltration. In addition, serum levels of IgG antimilk, IgG antibovine serum albumin, IgG anticasein, and IgG-C3 complexes were quantified. We found no abnormalities among Florida White rabbits but observed histological synovitis in 53% of the milk fed New Zealand White (9/17), 40% of the water fed Old English (2/5), and all of the milk fed Old English rabbits (4/4) (p = 0.05, milk fed vs water fed animals). Milk fed animals had significantly (p less than 0.0005) greater levels of antibodies and complexes than water fed animals. Our data suggest that environmental antigens may be arthritogenic for some rabbit strains. These observations may provide an important model for the study of inflammatory joint disease analogous to oral, environmental antigen exposure in man.

Animal Husbandry↗
PubMed1987

Technetium pyrophosphate muscle scans in inflammatory muscle disease.

Technetium-99M pyrophosphate (TcPYP) nuclear scans of extremities were performed on 15 patients at 10 minutes and 2 hours after isotope injection. Scans were carried out both to confirm the diagnosis of myositis and to direct subsequent muscle biopsy. Five of six patients with clinical features strongly suggestive of inflammatory muscle disease had positive scans. All muscle biopsies performed at areas of increased isotope uptake showed inflammatory muscle disease. All nine patients not suspected of active inflammatory muscle disease had negative scans. Two of these underwent muscle biopsy with negative results. Our observations suggest that TcPYP muscle scans may be useful both to confirm the clinical suspicion of inflammatory muscle disease and in directing the choice of site for muscle biopsy.

Biopsy↗
PubMed1986

Food-induced (allergic) arthritis. Inflammatory arthritis exacerbated by milk.

Suggestive, but largely unproven, observations have associated arthritis with environmental antigens, including foods. We studied a patient with inflammatory arthritis in a prospective, "blinded," controlled fashion to determine whether her symptoms were associated with food sensitivities. This 52-year-old white woman with 11 years of class I, stage I, active disease, had symptomatic exacerbations allegedly associated with meat, milk, and beans. We observed an increase in symptoms following an unblinded food challenge and then studied her in our clinical research unit. On her normal diet for 6 days, she averaged 30 minutes of morning stiffness, 9 tender joints, 3 swollen joints, 87% subjective assessment (100% = best possible), and 89% examiner assessment. While she was fasting (3 days) or taking Vivonex (2 days), we noted no morning stiffness, tender joint score of 1, swollen joint score of 0, and assessments of 100% (P less than 0.05 versus normal diet). She was then nourished with Vivonex for 33 days without difficulty and challenged in a blinded fashion at mealtimes with lyophilized foods placed into opaque capsules. Four milk challenges (equivalent to greater than or equal to 8 ounces per meal) produced up to 30 minutes of morning stiffness, 14 tender joints, 4 swollen joints, subjective assessment of 85%, and objective assessment of 80% (P less than 0.05 versus fasting-Vivonex), peaking 24-48 hours postchallenge. Placebo and other foods (lettuce and carrots) were without effect.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Food allergies and other adverse reactions to foods.

Adverse reactions to foods do occur. Their true degree of prevalence remains unknown. Many mechanisms are involved, including events at the gut mucosa surface, immunologic pathways, and nonimmunologic and possibly genetic influences, not all of which have yet been well studied. The major manifestations of food allergy have been cutaneous, gastrointestinal, and pulmonary. Others are less convincingly established. Of particular interest is the likelihood that certain rheumatic symptoms may be related to food sensitivity. Establishing a diagnosis of adverse food reaction requires thoughtful clinical evaluation and laboratory testing, confirmatory immunologic studies, and double-blind food challenge. Skin testing is a valuable screening tool and can help direct the physician to those patients for whom double-blind food challenge may be indicated. The simplest therapy is avoidance of foods to which an individual is sensitive. Sodium cromoglycate, antihistamines, prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors, and steroids have been used, but their efficacy has not yet been carefully evaluated.

Dermatitis, Atopic↗