Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G C Bennett.
The multimedia capabilities of modern computers promise a rich contribution to medical education, integrating video, animation and graphics as a single courseware package. Using the new generation of design tools, computer-assisted learning material can be successfully created in-house.
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Evidence has previously been presented that P1 receptors for adenosine, and P2 receptors for nucleotides such as ATP, regulate stimulus-evoked release of biogenic amines from nerve terminals in the brain. Here we investigated whether adenosine and nucleotides exert presynaptic control over depolarisation-elicited glutamate release. Slices of rat brain cortex were perfused and stimulated with pulses of 46 mM K(+) in the presence of the glutamate uptake inhibitor L-trans-pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylic acid (0.2 mM). High K(+) substantially increased efflux of glutamate from the slices. Basal glutamate release was unchanged by the presence of nucleotides or adenosine at concentrations of 300 microM. Adenosine, ATP, ADP and adenosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphoshate) at 300 microM attenuated depolarisation-evoked release of glutamate. However UTP, 2-methylthio ATP, 2-methylthio ADP, and alpha,beta-methylene ATP at 300 microM had no effect on stimulated glutamate efflux. Adenosine deaminase blocked the effect of adenosine, but left the response to ATP unchanged. The A(1) antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1, 3-dipropylxanthine antagonised the inhibitory effect of both adenosine and ATP. Cibacron blue 3GA inhibited stimulus-evoked glutamate release when applied alone. When cibacron blue 3GA was present with ATP, stimulus-evoked glutamate release was almost eliminated. However, this P2 antagonist had no effect on the inhibition by adenosine. These results show that the release of glutamate from depolarised nerve terminals of the rat cerebral cortex is inhibited by adenosine and ATP. ATP appears to act directly and not through conversion to adenosine.
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Osteoporosis is a major health issue in later life, which translates the age-associated increased risk of falls into a hip, shoulder or wrist fracture. The same pathology may result in vertebral crush fracture after minor loading of the axial skeleton. The health burden is enormous. Over a five year period, 10% of the female population of the United Kingdom, over 70 years of age, will suffer a fractured femoral neck, from which up to 20% may die and only a third of the survivors will be fully mobile at six months.
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Norwegian scabies is highly contagious and presents with a psoriasiform dermatosis. It afflicts particularly the elderly and patients with immunosuppression. Two weeks after the admission of an index case of Norwegian scabies to a geriatric ward, 13 and 25 patients and 6 of 18 ward nurses developed scabies. Despite comprehensive treatment, the ward epidemic recurred 6 weeks later probably as a result of inadequate treatment of the index case. This diagnosis should be considered when patients from high-risk groups present with an undiagnosed rash.
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The proliferation of human blood lymphocytes from ageing donors, responding to concanavalin A, showed greater sensitivity to inhibition by X-rays than similar cells from younger donors. This increased sensitivity was associated with deficiency in repair of X-ray-induced damage to nuclear material, as measured by density in sucrose gradients, and with increased incidence of chromosomal damage following exposure of freshly isolated lymphocytes. There was also an increased frequency of spontaneous chromosomal aberrations in ageing subjects whose lymphocytes were deficient in repair of DNA damage.
Mortality in the elderly is affected by external temperature at both extremes. Admissions to a geriatric unit during the hot summer of 1983 were compared with those in the same period in 1982, a typically British summer. There were 382 admissions and 69 deaths in 1982, and 468 admissions and 90 deaths during the same 22-week period in 1983. The principal difference in the cause of admissions was in the group cerebrovascular accidents/transient ischaemic attacks/subarachnoid haemorrhages which rose from 10% in 1982 to 15% in 1983. There was also a small increase in the proportion of respiratory-tract infections in 1983.
This paper describes an outbreak of Clostridium difficile diarrhoea in a ward for the elderly in a 550-bedded District General Hospital. The measures taken to contain it and clinical features, previously undescribed, are highlighted.
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Abuse of old people is an uncomfortable concept for health professionals. The phenomenon raises important questions about how we care for the older members of society and demands scrutiny of many moral precepts, such as respect for autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence. In common with the mistreatment of any group of individuals, elder abuse is not new, but until recently it has not been widely recognized, reflecting professional unfamiliarity with this difficult and challenging problem.