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Biomedical subjects

J A Burgess

Publications and source records attributed to J A Burgess.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Changes of the cortex proteome and Apolipoprotein E in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's Disease.

Transgenic mice carrying human Amyloid Precursor Protein mutations present amyloid plaque deposition in the brain upon aging. In this study, we characterized the changes of cortex proteome and endogenous Apolipoprotein E in these mice. Differential analysis of two-dimensional electrophoresis images revealed spots altered upon aging, transgene addition and plaque deposition. Alpha-synuclein and cytochrome oxidase polypeptide Va were up-regulated in transgenic mice. Upon aging, expression of ATP synthase alpha, alpha enolase, UMP-CMP kinase, and dihydropyrimidinase like-2 protein was modified. These proteins and their modification probably play a role in the amyloid aggregate formation in these mice.

Alzheimer Disease↗

Effect of impact and injury characteristics on post-motor vehicle accident temporomandibular disorders.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the potential effects of motor vehicle accident impact and injury characteristics on post-motor vehicle accident temporomandibular disorders in terms of presenting signs and symptoms, diagnoses, treatment regimens, and outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective chart review of 50 patients with post-motor vehicle accident temporomandibular disorders from a private oral medicine practice was undertaken. Various demographic data and data related to temporomandibular disorders and motor vehicle accident impact and injury characteristics were collected. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests and multiple regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Patients involved in front-end collisions or motor vehicle accidents resulting in severe vehicle damage reported more direct orofacial injury. However, those in rear-end collisions or accidents resulting in minimal vehicle damage required more treatment. Direct head or orofacial injury was therefore not a prognostic indicator. From multiple regression analyses, indicators of a poorer prognosis were minimal vehicle damage, lack of headrest use, driver position, and settlement of insurance claim. CONCLUSIONS: In this patients group several prognostic indicators for patients with post-motor vehicle accident temporomandibular disorders were identified; these indicators may influence the management approach for this patient population.

Accidents, Traffic↗

Viracept (nelfinavir mesylate, AG1343): a potent, orally bioavailable inhibitor of HIV-1 protease.

Using a combination of iterative structure-based design and an analysis of oral pharmacokinetics and antiviral activity, AG1343 (Viracept, nelfinavir mesylate), a nonpeptidic inhibitor of HIV-1 protease, was identified. AG1343 is a potent enzyme inhibitor (Ki = 2 nM) and antiviral agent (HIV-1 ED50 = 14 nM). An X-ray cocrystal structure of the enzyme-AG1343 complex reveals how the novel thiophenyl ether and phenol-amide substituents of the inhibitor interact with the S1 and S2 subsites of HIV-1 protease, respectively. In vivo studies indicate that AG1343 is well absorbed orally in a variety of species and possesses favorable pharmacokinetic properties in humans. AG1343 (Viracept) has recently been approved for marketing for the treatment of AIDS.

Administration, Oral↗

Temporomandibular disorders, headaches, and neck pain after motor vehicle accidents: a pilot investigation of persistence and litigation effects.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: There is a lack of long-term follow-up studies that involve post-motor vehicle accident temporomandibular disorders and compensation. PURPOSE OF STUDY: The purposes of this retrospective pilot study were (1) to assess patients who had previously been treated for temporomandibular disorders after motor vehicle accidents to determine the nature of their symptoms in terms of jaw, head, and neck pain and jaw dysfunction and (2) to determine whether there was a difference in the pain and dysfunction between those who had settled and those who had not settled their insurance claims. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty previously treated patients with temporomandibular disorders after motor vehicle accidents were questioned by telephone regarding litigation status and current jaw, head, and neck pain and jaw dysfunction symptoms. They did not differ substantially from a smaller group who were not able to be interviewed. Descriptive statistics were calculated and statistical tests were performed. A total of 22 patients had their claims settled. RESULTS: Approximately three fourths had persistent complaints of jaw pain, jaw dysfunction, and headache, and more than 80% reported persistent neck pain. No apparent differences were found between those who had and had not settled their insurance claims. CONCLUSION: Jaw, head and neck pain, and jaw dysfunction continued to be problems for the majority of this patient population, regardless of litigation status in this retrospective study.

Accidents, Traffic↗

A comparison of TMD patients with or without prior motor vehicle accident involvement: initial signs, symptoms, and diagnostic characteristics.

The role of trauma in the etiology of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is controversial. The objectives of this study were to compare presenting signs, symptoms, and diagnoses in patients who had motor vehicle accident trauma-related TMD to patients who had nontrauma-related TMD. Files of 50 trauma and 50 matched nontrauma TMD patients were reviewed. Information concerning presenting pain, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and related symptoms, examination findings, and diagnoses was recorded. Posttraumatic TMD patients reported higher facial (P = .006) and headache (P = .0001) pain ratings, neck symptom frequency (P < .01), ear-related symptoms (P = .02), sleep disturbance (P < .001), and occupational and avocational disability frequencies (P < .0001). They had greater masticatory muscle (P < .001), neck muscle (P < .001), and TMJ tenderness (P = .01) scores and myofascial pain (P = .006) and arthralgia/capsulitis (P = .008) diagnoses. The nontrauma group had more subjective (P = .02) and objective (P = .05) TMJ crepitus and higher self-reports of parafunctional jaw habits (P = .05). Trauma may be an important etiologic factor for some TMD patients.

Accidents, Traffic↗

A comparison of TMD patients with or without prior motor vehicle accident involvement: treatment and outcomes.

The influence of previous trauma in the management of patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) is controversial. The objectives of this study were to compare treatment regimens and outcomes in motor vehicle accident trauma-related versus nontrauma-related TMD patients. Files of 50 trauma and 50 matched nontrauma TMD patients were reviewed. Information concerning treatment received, progress of symptoms with treatment, and findings from the final examination were recorded. As a whole group, posttraumatic TMD patients tended to receive more types of treatment (P < .0001), have more medications prescribed (including analgesics, P < .001; nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, P = .001; muscle relaxants, P = .001; and tricyclic antidepressants, P < .001), have more oral medicine clinic visits (P = .07) over a longer period of time (P = .06), and have a poorer treatment outcome (P < .001) as compared to the nontrauma group. When the patients were separated into TMD diagnostic classification subsets, only some of these differences between trauma and nontrauma patients were seen, but the subset group sizes were small and only a few of the groups could be compared. There did not seem to be a significant effect from settling insurance claims prior to the last clinic visit. Trauma may be an important prognostic factor in the management of some TMD patients.

Accidents, Traffic↗

When did you first begin to feel it? -- locating the beginning of human consciousness.

In this paper we attempt to sharpen and to provide an answer to the question of when human beings first become conscious. Since it is relatively uncontentious that a capacity for raw sensation precedes and underpins all more sophisticated mental capacities, our question is tantamount to asking when human beings first have experiences with sensational content. Two interconnected features of our argument are crucial. First, we argue that experiences with sensational content are supervenient on facts about electrical activity in the cerebral cortex which can be ascertained through EEG readings. Second, we isolate from other notions of a 'functioning brain' that which is required to underpin the view that a cortex is functioning in a way which could give rise to rudimentary conscious experiences. We investigate the development in the human fetus of the anatomical and chemical pathways which underpin (immature) cortical activity and the growth and maturation of the electrical circuitry specifically associated with sensational content in adult experience. We conclude (tentatively) that a fetus becomes conscious at about 30 to 35 weeks after conception; an answer based on a careful analysis of EEG readings at various stages of cortical development. Finally, we survey the possible ethical ramifications of our answer.

Beginning of Human Life↗

Motor vehicle accidents and TMDS: assessing the relationship.

Patients involved in a motor vehicle accident, or MVA, may experience signs and symptoms suggesting temporomandibular joint or masticatory muscle injury. Because there are no published clinical studies assessing the potential relationship among reported variables suggesting injury, examination findings, and crash impact and postural variables, the authors gathered data from 219 patients identifying TMD after an MVA. The results suggest that TMJ or masticatory muscle injury may be associated with varying postural characteristics and impact events, including speed, direction of impact and vehicular damage.

Acceleration↗

Temporomandibular disorders, headaches, and neck pain following motor vehicle accidents and the effect of litigation: review of the literature.

A literature review concerning the relationships between motor vehicle accidents and temporomandibular disorders, whiplash, headache, neck pain, and litigation was undertaken. The review shows that many patients recover or resume work prior to settlement, but most unsuccessfully treated patients do not generally recover following the settlement of legal claims; the postinjury problems are not strictly psychologic. Litigating patients and nonlitigating patients are often not dramatically different in most important regards (including pain and return to work), with litigating patients deserving the same treatment as other patients with chronic pain. It was found that postinjury neck symptoms and headaches can be persistent. Employment appears to be a better predictor of long-term outcome than compensation and litigation. In addition, limited consensus is available concerning prognostic factors. Patients with postinjury temporomandibular disorders tend to respond less well to treatment than do noninjury patients with temporomandibular disorders, as do litigating compared to nonlitigating temporomandibular disorders patients, but a cause and effect relationship is not known. The incidence of temporomandibular disorders following motor vehicle accidents may not be as high as has been claimed in whiplash cases. More research is required in the area of temporomandibular disorders, motor vehicle accidents, and litigation.

Accidents, Traffic↗

The great slippery-slope argument.

Whenever some form of beneficent killing--for example, voluntary euthanasia--is advocated, the proposal is greeted with a flood of slippery-slope arguments warning of the dangers of a Nazi-style slide into genocide. This paper is an attempt systematically to evaluate arguments of this kind. Although there are slippery-slope arguments that are sound and convincing, typical formulations of the Nazi-invoking argument are found to be seriously deficient both in logical rigour and in the social history and psychology required as a scholarly underpinning. As an antidote, an attempt is made both to identify some of the likely causes of genocide and to isolate some of the more modest but legitimate fears that lie behind slippery-slope arguments of this kind.

Beneficence↗

Pharmacological management of recurrent oral mucosal ulceration.

A number of diseases can cause recurrent intraoral ulceration. This review focuses principally on drug management of intraoral ulceration associated with local and systemic conditions most likely to be observed on an outpatient basis by the general practitioner. These consist of recurrent aphthous stomatitis, erosive lichen planus, benign mucous membrane pemphigoid (BMMP), erythema multiforme. Behçet's disease, allergic stomatitis and infection. Information is provided on a spectrum of medication found useful in ulcer management, including topical antimicrobial and antifungal agents, topical and systemic corticosteroids, topical and systemic analgesics, and systemic immunosuppressive and anxiolytic drugs, plus details of dosage, important adverse reactions and interactions. A treatment guide for management of recurrent aphthae is presented. The reader is presumed to be familiar with differential diagnosis and the importance of establishing an accurate impression before starting drug therapy.

Humans↗

Short-term effect of two therapeutic methods on myofascial pain and dysfunction of the masticatory system.

In conclusion, a short-term intervention with IS therapy was found to result in a substantial decrease in facial pain for most of the subjects treated. Generally, groups were not found to be significantly different in respect to palpation pain change from session 1 to session 2. Neither therapy significantly altered the range of mouth opening. EMG findings were variable but suggest that RI therapy may alter muscle myoelectric activity. From these findings, ice and stretch of the masticatory and neck musculature would appear to be a good short-term adjunctive therapy to control pain with little apparent risk of negative effects.

Adult↗

Partially transformed, anchorage-independent human diploid fibroblasts result from overexpression of the c-sis oncogene: mitogenic activity of an apparent monomeric platelet-derived growth factor 2 species.

A human c-sis cDNA in an expression vector was introduced into human diploid fibroblasts by transfection or electroporation. Fibroblast clones showing an aberrant, densely packed colony morphology were isolated and found to overexpress a 3.6-kilobase sis mRNA species and associated immunoprecipitable platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) 2 proteins. Parallel analyses in cell clones of sis mRNA expression and colony formation in agar indicated that, above a threshold, a linear, positive correlation existed between sis overexpression and acquired anchorage independence. The sis-overexpressing cells formed transient, regressing tumor nodules when injected into nude mice, consistent with the finite life span which they retained. Protein products generated from the transfected c-sis construct in two overexpressing clones were immunoprecipitated with anti-human PDGF antibodies. One clone contained an apparent PDGF dimer of 21 kilodaltons; the second clone contained only an apparent PDGF monomer of 12 kilodaltons, which was shown to account for all of the mitogenic activity present in the cells, essentially all of which was concentrated in the membrane fraction. The results demonstrate a clear link between sis overexpression and acquisition of a partially transformed, anchorage-independent phenotype, and when combined with previous observations of sis overexpression in human tumors, clearly implicate sis overexpression as a genetic mechanism which contributes to human cell transformation.

Cell Adhesion↗