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Biomedical subjects

H Brody

Publications and source records attributed to H Brody.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The importance of primary care for theoretical medicine: a commentary.

Froom and Froom call attention to referral bias as a frequent cause for misinterpreting the medical literature. This is particularly a source of false certainty, and therefore false science, in U.S. practice, where referral centers are often seen as the only legitimate source of medical knowledge and where primary care is discounted as a source of scientific observations. Appreciation of the primary care setting is therefore a critical element in theoretical understanding of medical epistemology.

Humans↗
PubMed1992

CMAP: contig mapping and analysis package, a relational database for chromosome reconstruction.

In the contig mapping and analysis package, CMAP, we provide a foundation for reverse genetics by organizing information about DNA fragments obtained from an organism's genome into a physical map. The user can store information about a particular segment of DNA. This information can be both descriptive, such as any genes contained in a particular DNA fragment, or experimental, such as hybridization profiles or restriction digest patterns for comparison with other fragments. The package can then be instructed to update the physical map or provide information on a DNA fragment within the map, such as its location. The user interface is designed to minimize the learning curve associated with database usage, while eliminating the possibility of entering data outside the ranges of fields through error-checking protocols. Queries are currently accomplished by the use of dynamic SQL (structured query language), which gives the user the ability to build queries based on any combination of the attributes contained within the database without requiring that all possible queries be permanently programmed within the query software. In order to eliminate the need for knowledge of SQL, an interface was designed to allow users to build queries by menu choices. Thus, CMAP is a software package supporting a database for both the production and storage of a physical map as well as being the first step toward the production of a physical mapping workstation.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1992

The aging brain.

A recent interest in aging of the nervous system is related to the remarkable increase in the numbers of elderly persons throughout the world. As a reflection of the added years, pathologies in the older person have also increased. Primary among those which affect the activities and behavior of these people are the dementias, especially Alzheimer's Disease. To focus on such problems, however, requires an understanding of the changes which take place in the normal aging nervous system. This paper reviews some of the accepted criteria for these changes as well as the possible attempts by the nervous system to alter its structure in response to these changes.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Chromosome-specific recombinant DNA libraries from the fungus Aspergillus nidulans.

Development of physical genomic maps is facilitated by identification of overlapping recombinant DNA clones containing long chromosomal DNA inserts. To simplify the analysis required to determine which clones in a genomic library overlap one another, we partitioned Aspergillus nidulans cosmid libraries into chromosome-specific subcollections. The eight A. nidulans chromosomes were resolved by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and hybridized to filter replicas of cosmid libraries. The subcollections obtained appeared to be representative of the chromosomes based on the correspondence between subcollection size and chromosome length. A sufficient number of clones was obtained in each chromosome-specific subcollection to predict the overlap and assembly of individual clones into a limited number of contiguous regions. This approach should be applicable to many organisms whose genomes can be resolved by pulsed field gel electrophoresis.

Aspergillus nidulans↗
PubMed1991

Dietitians' role in decisions to withhold nutrition and hydration.

Decisions to limit nutrition and hydration in irreversibly or terminally ill patients are becoming more frequent in both hospitals and home-care settings. Although clear-cut principles or rules are not always possible, appropriate decisions about any form of life-sustaining treatment, nutrition and hydration included, require conducting a productive moral conversation within the medical management team and/or the institutional ethics committee. In this article, we discuss how dietitians can participate in these medical decisions.

Dietetics↗
PubMed1990

Futility and the ethics of resuscitation.

Recent recommendations that physicians be allowed to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation, without patient consent, from patients for whom it would be futile have drawn objections that such unilateral judgments would undermine respect for patient autonomy. These objections assume that since futility determinations involve value judgments, patient input is always required. However, certain sorts of value judgments must be made unilaterally by physicians as part of reasonable medical practice. Moreover, the mixed messages inherent in requesting patient consent to withhold futile therapy serve to undermine rather than to enhance autonomous choice. Real patient interests can better be saved by a broad public dialogue around judgments of medical reasonableness and medical futility, rather than concern for the form but not the substance of patient autonomy.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Living wills in Michigan. Why the time is right.

This issue of Michigan Medicine marks a turning point in MSMS posture regarding advance directives ("living wills"). For many years, MSMS has discussed the issue and has supported legislation, more or less behind the scenes. We are now involved in a more proactive stance, trying to encourage more discussion and wider use of these devices, whether or not legislation is enacted. In this article I will: 1) review some basic terms and ethical principles; 2) recount the deliberations of the MSMS Committee on Bioethics on this topic; and 3) indicate why the time is now ripe for more action by Michigan physicians.

Advance Directives↗
PubMed1979

A quantitative study of the pigmented neurons in the nuclei locus coeruleus and subcoeruleus in man as related to aging.

The nuclei of the locus coeruleus and subcoeruleus were examined in human brains from individuals of 14 to 87 years. Serial counts were performed on every tenth Nissl stained paraffin section of melanin containing cells within the entire length of these nuclei. After 63 years, the neuronal population in these nuclei decreased 40%. This significant decrease in cell number is the first reported for a brain stem structure. In view of the relation of these noradrenaline containing cells to the catecholaminergic system and the widespread projections between these nuclei and other central nervous system structures, this decrease may be a factor in alteration of some central nervous system activities with increasing age.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Changes in the permeability of the blood-brain barrier under hyperbaric conditions.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) has been used in the treatment of cerebral edema with variable results. Two different actions of HBO, one decreasing and the other increasing cerebral edema, have been postulated. We examined the permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in rats and cats. Animals of each species were treated for 90 min/d with 100% oxygen at a pressure of 2.5 atm for 5 consecutive days. Following treatment, cadmium-free ferritin was injected intravenously. Sections of the brain were prepared for electron microscopic evaluation of the capillaries and their neighboring structures. Perivascular edematous zones were observed. Ferritin particles penetrated through the capillary endothelium and into the pericapillary structures. Hyperbaric oxygenation appears to increase the permeability of cerebral vessel walls in normal animals. Further work on this phenomenon may provide a more rational basis for the treatment of cerebral edema with HBO.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

A study of aging in the human abducens nucleus.

As part of a continuing study of the relationship between age and neuronal number within the human brainstem, the abducens nucleus was examined in a total of 20 brains. While the nucleus almost doubles in length between birth and adulthood; there is no significant change in cell number after birth. With the exception of some specimens which may indicate an individual variation, the average number of cells in this nucleus for all specimens examined was found to be 6,454. Approximately the same number is found in the nucleus of the newborn (6,500); confined within a length of 1.5 mm. With maturity, the nucleus enlarges to 3.0 mm but since the cell number does not significantly change, the cell density in any one section of the nucleus is considerably decreased, thus emphasizing the importance of absolute counts in such studies. At least among the brainstem nuclei already examined by various investigators it appears that neuronal loss is not a concomitant of aging as has been described for the cerebral and cerebellar cortices.

Abducens Nerve↗
PubMed1977

An investigation into the psychological effects of hysterectomy.

The major aim of the present study was to determine whether women exposed to a hysterectomy procedure showed any greater evidence of postsurgery mood disorder than a cholecystectomy control group. In addition, the investigation also considered whether sterilization by hysterectomy resulted in more frequent mood disturbance than in tubal ligation where the uterus remains undisturbed. Fifty-five hysterectomy patients were compared with 38 cholecystectomy and 60 tubal ligation patients by means of the Profile of Mood States. Presurgery, 6-weeks postsurgery, and 3-months postsurgery measures were obtained. No evidence was found to support the view that the special psychological significance of the uterus results in greater postsurgery mood disturbance than occurs with a control procedure such a cholecystectomy. Neither did the results suggest that sterilization involving organ removal was psychologically more traumatic than where the sterilization procedure left the uterus undisturbed. The two significant group X occasion interactions implied that the groups differed in their pattern of responding to surgery with respect to the Tension-Anxiety and the Fatigue-Inertia variables.

Adult↗