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Biomedical subjects

I Sturgess

Publications and source records attributed to I Sturgess.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Unrecognized visual problems amongst residents of Part III Homes.

A survey of visual function and ophthalmic pathology of 100 residents of three residential homes for elderly people was carried out in Lambeth London. The main pathologies were cataracts detected in half of the subjects (6% were referred for extraction) and chronic simple glaucoma in 17%. Unrecognized significant refraction errors were found in 34% of subjects. Only eight of the 14 residents eligible for blind or partially sighted registration had been already registered. It is suggested that old people entering residential care should have a competent geriatric or psychogeriatric assessment and, in addition to the annual general practitioner assessment for residents aged 75 and over, regular ophthalmic evaluation should be offered to residents of homes.

Aged↗

Ulcerative colitis developing after amoebic dysentery in a haemophiliac patient with AIDS.

Severe diarrhoea in patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is usually a manifestation of gastrointestinal infection by a variety of organisms. We report a patient with low CD4 T cell counts who developed ulcerative colitis after amoebic dysentery. He subsequently developed acute ulcerative colitis with toxic dilatation while he was severely immunocompromised. He responded to corticosteroids and mesalazine and remains well on maintenance therapy.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Clinical versus biochemical assessment in thyroxine replacement therapy: a retrospective study.

A retrospective audit of a thyroid clinic revealed that only 67% of clinical assessments of thyroid status in patients receiving thyroxine replacement therapy were correct. The identification of patients on excessive doses of thyroxine appears to be the most difficult by clinical assessment alone, only 10% of those patients with a suppressed TSH level being identified. This study emphasises the importance of thyroid function tests in the assessment of patients on thyroxine replacement.

Adult↗

Effects of exercise and fat ingestion on high density lipoprotein production by peripheral tissues.

The peripheral production of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and of the subclasses HDL2 and HDL3 was assessed by measurement of the arteriovenous fluxes across the human forearm, at rest and after 20 min isometric exercise in the forearm. Eight subjects were studied twice--fasting and after a high-fat meal--and one other subject was studied only after fat loading. In the fasted state the net fluxes of HDL2 and HDL3 cholesterol were slightly negative in the resting forearm, but they became positive during exercise, indicating greater production during short-term muscular activity. The effect of exercise, particularly that on HDL3 cholesterol, was greatly increased by a high-fat meal; the difference in HDL3 cholesterol arteriovenous flux between rest and exercise was significant (-0.06 [SEM 0.05] vs 0.51 [0.17] mumol/100 ml forearm/min). By contrast, there was no peripheral production of HDL2 or HDL3 cholesterol during exercise in two patients with lipoprotein lipase deficiency. These findings suggest that formation of HDL3 during lipolysis by lipoprotein lipase in the muscle capillary bed is influenced by the supply of chylomicrons and other lipoprotein substrates for this enzyme. Muscle blood flow may therefore be an important determinant of HDL production by this mechanism. The effect of exercise in raising HDL cholesterol, and the inverse relation between exercise and coronary heart disease, may be partly the result of this process.

Adult↗

Diurnal variation in TSH and free thyroid hormones in patients on thyroxine replacement.

Eleven patients with treated hypothyroidism were investigated to examine the effects of time on their thyroid function tests. Each patient was clinically and biochemically euthyroid on once daily thyroxine replacement therapy, taken in the morning. TSH followed a diurnal rhythm with a peak level at 23.30 h and a trough level at 14.30 h. Four subjects had TSH trough levels within the normal range, but with peak levels outside this range. FT4 and FT3 levels fell from their highest levels some three hours after ingestion to the lowest levels just prior to the next dose. This study shows that there are significant time-related variabilities in TSH and thyroid hormone levels in treated hypothyroid patients. This should be taken into account when interpreting results of their thyroid function tests.

Aged↗