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Biomedical subjects

E S Sharp

Publications and source records attributed to E S Sharp.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Pregnancy-related mortality in New York City, 1980 to 1984: causes of death and associated risk factors.

To identify causes and risk factors for pregnancy-related mortality in New York City, we analyzed 224 pregnancy-related deaths that occurred from 1980 to 1984. The leading causes of death were ectopic pregnancy complications, embolism, intrapartum cardiac arrest, and hypertension. Mortality ratios were determined by comparing the characteristics of the women whose death was pregnancy-related with those of women who had survived delivery of a live infant in New York City during the same period. Black and Hispanic women had mortality ratios that were respectively 4.2 and 2.0 times higher than those for white, non-Hispanic women. In comparison with women aged 20 to 24, those older than 30 were more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, and those older than 40 were five times as likely to do so. Other factors that were associated with an increased risk of pregnancy-related mortality included 9 to 11 years of education, lack of private medical insurance, more than five previous pregnancies, and fewer than five prenatal visits. This study suggests that changes in current maternal-health and family-planning services will be required to achieve further reductions in preventable pregnancy-related mortality.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1991

Comparison of urinary transforming growth factor-alpha in women with disseminated breast cancer and healthy control women.

In an effort to explore the use of polypeptide growth factors as potential markers for cancer detection, we have identified the presence of transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) in pooled urine of patients with metastatic breast cancer by a commercial radioimmunoassay (RIA) based on a rabbit antiserum raised to the C-terminal 17aa synthetic fragment of rat TGF-alpha. This TGF-alpha RIA detected both high molecular weight (HMW) and low molecular weight (LMW) forms of TGF-alpha in the conditioned media of a breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) and in the urine of healthy women and those with breast cancer. The ratio of HMW to LMW species of TGF-alpha by RIA after Bio-Gel P-100 chromatography was approximately equal in pooled urine samples from both healthy women and those with breast cancer, and in the conditioned media from the cell line MDA-MB-231. Using established procedures for concentrating urinary proteins from 24-h urine samples by adsorption onto methyl-bonded microparticulate silica and selective elution by acetonitrile, TGF-alpha RIA results from women with disseminated breast carcinoma were compared with those of healthy pre- and post-menopausal control women. Analysis indicated a median TGF-alpha value of 981 ng/g urinary creatinine for urine samples from cancer patients (range 608 to 1737) and 642 ng/g creatinine (range 417 to 941) for control urine samples. Although the difference was statistically significant (p less than 0.05), urinary TGF-alpha detection with this assay method appears to have limited usefulness as a diagnostic marker for metastatic human adenocarcinoma of the breast.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Biomarkers, Tumor↗
PubMed1991

The incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid from 1980 through 1986, by year and gestational age.

The annual incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid was analyzed for changes in a total obstetric sample of 45,115 singleton, vertex, liveborn infants over a 7-year study period. The incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid for the total obstetric population was calculated for each year of the study period. The sample was then stratified by estimated gestational age, and the incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid was calculated for each gestational age group. The incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid increased 40.9% over the study period, from 18.8% in 1980 to 26.5% in 1986 (P less than .001). This increase was found to be in a consistent linear trend (P less than .05). The incidence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid was also found to increase significantly in a linear trend as gestational age of the fetus increased. These findings lend support to both the maturational theory and the stress theory of meconium passage in utero.

Amniotic Fluid↗