Biomedical subjects

F R Heath

Publications and source records attributed to F R Heath.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1990

Environmental context-dependent homophone spelling.

Two experiments provided evidence of environmental context-dependent memory using a homophone spelling test (e.g., Jacoby & Witherspoon, 1982), an implicit, indirect measure of memory (Richardson-Klavehn & Bjork, 1988). Context reinstatement significantly increased priming in both experiments. The finding of environmental context reinstatement effects with this implicit memory test and others (Garberg & Radtke, 1986; Graf, 1988) indicates that the effect can be found reliably using a test that does not encourage subjects to generate their own context cues from memory.

Attention↗

PubMed1982

Epidemiologic and prognostic factors for lung cancer in a county hospital.

This is a study of 269 patients with lung cancer at the Erie County Medical Center who were admitted between 1973 and 1978. They were analyzed for sex, race, age, history of smoking, occupation, tumor cell type, cytology, incidence of metastases, changes in liver function, mode of treatment, and survival. The incidence of cancer was highest in white males. Only 1.5% of patients were under age 40. Smoking was a predisposing factor. Not enough information was available to determine the relationship of occupation to lung cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common (53.9%), followed by adenocarcinoma (16.0%) and small-cell carcinoma (12.6%). Sputum cytology was 28.3% sensitive, and bronchial washings were 52.2% sensitive. A greater incidence of bone metastases from a small-cell primary (50%) was found than is reported in the literature. Changes in SGOT and/or SGPT liver enzymes correlated significantly with liver metastases, but not with tumor cell type. Changes in alkaline phosphatase correlated well with bone metastases. Radiation was the most commonly used mode of therapy. The best survival was achieved in patients treated by surgery (22.6 months), followed by surgery and radiation (16.2 months); those treated by radiation alone had a mean survival time of 8.7 months. Untreated patients had a mean survival time of 2.4 months. Treated patients with adenocarcinomas had the longest survival (18.5 months), compared to 13.0 months for those with squamous cell carcinomas and 8.4 months for those with small-cell carcinomas. Only three patients survived 5 years, all of whom were treated surgically for adenocarcinoma. No patients with tumors of other cell types survived 5 years. The 5-year survival rates are 2.1% (3 of 141) for all histologic types of lung cancer and 12.5% (3 of 24) for adenocarcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Physical examination as a screening test for pelvic fractures in blunt trauma patients.

This article describes our study of 82 awake, alert blunt trauma victims over the age of 18 with Glasgow Coma Scores of 14 or 15. The purpose was to assess whether the examining physicians were able to determine without benefit of X-ray whether the patients had pelvic fractures. Physicians were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding pain on examination of the pelvis, and were then asked if they believed a fracture was clinically present. Seventy-one patients were tested for alcohol; 15 were positive, and 11 had levels greater than 100 mg%. Fifty-five were tested for mind-altering drugs; 20 were positive. Nine had pelvic fractures; seven required no treatment. Eighteen had pain on examination in at least one plane. Seven of these had fractures; six were suspected clinically. Sixty-four patients had no pain; two had fractures that were not suspected clinically and required no specific treatment. We conclude that selective use of pelvic x-rays in awake, alert blunt trauma patients does not result in any clinically significant missed fractures.

Adult↗