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Biomedical subjects

I K Crombie

Publications and source records attributed to I K Crombie.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Diagnosis and treatment of asthma in children: usefulness of a review of medical records.

In order to tackle the problems of underdiagnosis and undertreatment of asthma in childhood general practitioners need to be aware of which children in their practices have or might have asthma. In an effort to identify a cohort of asthmatic or potentially asthmatic children a trained audit facilitator studied all the medical records of children aged between one year and 15 years who were registered with 12 Tayside general practices. From a total of 10,685 medical records the frequency of 'key items' sometimes associated with asthma were as follows: one or more episodes of bronchospasm or wheeze 23.7% of children, persistent cough 23.2%, treatment with anti-asthma therapy in the past 20.0%, exercise induced cough or wheeze 5.2% and history of 'wheezy bronchitis' 4.6%. However, in only 896 children (8.4%) had a formal diagnosis of asthma been made. Of all the children, 5.4% had received a prescription for anti-asthma medication within the past three months. Only 1.2% were taking an inhaled corticosteroid and 1.0% sodium cromoglycate, but many more were taking inhaled bronchodilators (3.1%) and oral bronchodilators (1.7%). The findings suggest that a systematic review of medical records by a trained facilitator can identify those children who could benefit from clinical review. Practices who wish to know which of their children have or might have asthma should consider using medical record review to search for key items associated with asthma.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Racial differences in melanoma incidence.

The incidences of malignant melanoma recorded by 59 population-based cancer registries were investigated to determine the effects of racial and skin-colour differences. White populations exhibited a wide range of melanoma incidences and females commonly, though not invariably, had a higher incidence than males. Non-white populations experienced in general a much lower incidence of melanoma although there was some overlap of white and non-white rates. No predominant sex difference emerged among non-whites. Populations of African descent were found to have a higher incidence than those of Asiatic origin, but it was concluded that this was due largely to the high frequency of tumours among Africans on the sole of the foot. A clear negative correlation between degree of skin pigmentation and melanoma incidence emerged for the exposed body sites. These data provide strong support for the hypotheses that UV radiation is a major cause of malignant melanoma and that melanin pigmentation protects against it. Further research is required to elucidate the aetiology of melanoma of the sole of the foot.

Arm↗
PubMed1979

Variation of melanoma incidence with latitude in North America and Europe.

The relationship between melanoma incidence and latitude was investigated in North American and Europe, using the data collected by 43 population-based cancer registries. In North America melanoma incidence increased with decreasing latitude, supporting the role of UV light in the induction of melanoma. Within England the data from the National Cancer Registration scheme also showed that trend of decreased frequency of melanoma with decreasing latitude. In contrast, across Europe the trend was in the opposite direction, of increasing melanoma incidence with increasing latitude. It is suggested that across Europe there is a range of skin colour from dark in the south to light in the north, which gives rise to a range of susceptibility to the induction of melanoma by UV. The effect of this susceptibility must be large enough to overwhelm the opposing effect of decreased UV intensity at higher latitudes, and this emphasizes the dangers of excessive solar exposure to fair-skinned individuals. The populations of England may be a sufficiently random mix of skin colour, owing to repeated invasions, for the effect of UV intensity to be observed.

Epidemiologic Methods↗
PubMed1976

Control of protein synthesis in herpesvirus-infected cells: analysis of the polypeptides induced by wild type and sixteen temperature-sensitive mutants of HSV strain 17.

The polypeptides induced in cells infected with a Glasgow isolate of HSV-I (17 syn+) have been characterized by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Study of the kinetics of synthesis in three cell lines has detected a total of 52 polypeptides, 33 of which can be identified in polypeptide profiles of purified virions. These include six low mol. wt. polypeptides that have not been previously reported. Several polypeptides were labelled with glucosamine in infected BHK cells. The different polypeptide patterns obtained at permissive (31 degrees C) and nonpermissive (38 degrees C) temperature in cells infected with 16 temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants are reported. The effect of multiplicity of infection (m.o.i.) on the polypeptide profile has been examined for two of the DNA -ve mutants: below ten, the profile varied with the m.o.i. whereas above ten it was constant. All mutants were therefore examined at an m.o.i. of approx. 20. Mutants from the same complementation group showed very similar profiles. A number of general conclusions concerning control of protein synthesis in HSV infected cells can be made: (I) As most of the 16 ts mutants affected the synthesis of several or many polypeptides it follows that a large proportion of genome specifies controlling functions. (2) The high frequency with which some polypeptides were affected suggests they are at or near the terminus of biosynthetic pathways which are under multiple control. (3) Conversely, some polypeptides were affected with a low frequency suggesting that their synthesis is not dependent on the expression of many virus functions. (4) Several individual ts mutations lead to the synthesis of increased amounts of different large polypeptides. (5) Analysis of every band detectably affected by at least one ts mutation has disclosed nine classes of dependence relationship between polypeptide synthesis and the DNA phenotype of the mutants, illustrating that this relationship is complex and different for different polypeptides. (6) The inhibition of host protein synthesis by the virus may not be a simple single step process.

Cell Line↗