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Biomedical subjects

H Francis

Publications and source records attributed to H Francis.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Functional capacity and treatment data from a community based study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

A community based study of rheumatoid arthritis was undertaken to determine patient characteristics and the patterns of treatment. Three hundred and eighty subjects were visited in their homes throughout Tasmania (pop. 430 000) by a research team. The median age of the sample was 60 years (interquartile range (IR) 49-69), with a female predominance of 2.65 to 1. The average onset age was 41 years (IR 30-53). Prescribing data indicated that polypharmacy was not common in the community, and that the use of slow acting antirheumatic drugs (SAARDs) and oral corticosteroids was not widespread. At the time of the study 26% of subjects were assayed fully functional--class I of the American Rheumatism Association's (ARA) functional classifications. The functional capacity data provided evidence that the spectrum of rheumatoid arthritis found in the community differed from that found in specialist rheumatology clinics.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Human immunodeficiency virus seroprevalence in pediatric patients 2 to 14 years of age at Mama Yemo Hospital, Kinshasa, Zaire.

Seroprevalence to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was determined among 368 children 2 to 14 years of age who were admitted to the pediatric service at Mama Yemo Hospital in Kinshasa, Zaire. Forty (11%) of these patients and only one (1%) of 92 healthy siblings of these patients were HIV seropositive (chi 2 = 8.68, P less than .01). Seropositivity was associated with previous hospitalization, receipt of a blood transfusion prior to the current hospitalization (odds ratio 3.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 6.4), receipt of medical injections during the past year, and smaller household size. Clinically, HIV seropositivity was associated with the diagnoses of malnutrition and pneumonia. A higher proportion of seropositive children died during the current hospitalization (4/40 v 10/328); when patients with malaria were excluded, the in-hospital mortality of seropositive children was more than eight times higher than that of seronegative children (Fisher exact test, P = .006). Clarification of clinical, immunologic, and epidemiologic features of childhood HIV infection is urgently required because HIV appears to account for or complicate a substantial proportion of pediatric hospitalizations in Kinshasa.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1985

Community Surveillance Study--perceived response of rheumatoid arthritis patients to NSAIDs.

The perceived effectiveness of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was studied in a community population (n=380). The population characteristics of a sample were similar to previous studies. Most patients were on a single NSAID. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was found to have a significant impact in terms of disability and lifestyle. Active inflammation was the main incentive to comply with therapy. However, the patients perceptions about the efficacy of the medication, their attitude towards the medication and their motivations for taking it, also affected compliance. A decreased effectiveness of therapy may also be due in part to tolerance to some medications and some evidence of the induction of salicylate metabolism has been reported. Considerable variation in the patients' perception of other forms of therapy for RA were also observed.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

The Mazzotti reaction following treatment of onchocerciasis with diethylcarbamazine: clinical severity as a function of infection intensity.

To determine definitively whether or not the severity of the Mazzotti reaction was correlated with infection intensity, as determined by skin snip quantification, 21 infected Ghanian patients were evaluated during 7 days of treatment with 200 mg/day of diethylcarbamazine. Serial blood, urine and skin biopsy samples were collected during the progression of the Mazzotti reaction. Hypotension, fever, adenitis and pruritus were all correlated with infection intensity in these patients while arthralgia and tachycardia were not. Peripheral blood eosinopenia and neutrophilia also correlated with intensity of infection and appeared to reflect the accumulation of degranulating eosinophils around "mobilized" microfilariae that migrated from the dermis to the epidermis after diethylcarbamazine (DEC). Other mobilized microfilariae apparently were cleared by the liver and resulted in abnormal liver enzyme levels in the serum which, again, were directly correlated with the patients' microfilarial density. Though the severity of the Mazzotti reaction clearly correlated with intensity of infection, the different times of onset of symptoms, and cellular and serum chemistry changes indicate that there are probably multiple infection intensity-dependent mechanisms responsible for mediating this complex reaction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Severe vascular spasm due to erythromycin-ergotamine interaction.

We report a case of ergotism due to the interaction of erythromycin with a small dose of ergotamine tartrate (2 mg). Besides severe peripheral vasospasm with dysaesthesiae there was transient renal ischaemia. Recovery occurred after several weeks without sodium nitroprusside therapy. Cases previously reported in the literature are reviewed.

Acne Vulgaris↗
PubMed1978

Data into policy.

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Community Medicine↗