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Biomedical subjects

J Byrne

Publications and source records attributed to J Byrne.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Fetal tissue banks.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗
PubMed1992

Miscarriage study.

In the letter of 19 June 1992 (p. 1613) by Ellen C. Weaver and Stephanie J. Bird of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), an incorrect phone number was given for the AWIS mentoring program. The correct number is 800-886-AWIS.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗
PubMed1992

The prevalence of cancer among adults in the United States: 1987.

No national data exist on the prevalence of cancer in the United States population. The authors report the first estimates of prevalence rates of cancer from a population-based sample of the adult population of the United States. Estimates are based on responses collected from the Cancer Control Supplements of the National Health Interview Survey, a population-based sample survey of all people older than 17 years of age in the United States in 1987. Of 44,123 adults questioned, 1593 said they had a nonskin cancer. In 1987, after adjustments, the overall prevalence rate of all types of cancer, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer, was 3230 per 100,000 adults; the rates for men and women were 1930 and 4412, respectively. The authors estimate that, in 1987, 5.7 million adults in the United States were survivors of nonskin cancer, 3.3% of the adult population. Approximately 89,000 adults had cancer during childhood, or 1.6% of the total. Approximately 3.6 million people were at least 5-year survivors and 900,000 adults had their disease diagnosed during the year before interview. Despite the potential for underreporting and misclassification, these national estimates are in general accord with figures estimated from other sources. Increasing survival after cancer, especially childhood and adolescent cancer, indicates the importance of continued monitoring to provide information needed to plan for adequate health services.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Studies of the permeation properties of glomerular basement membrane: cross-linking renders glomerular basement membrane permeable to protein.

Cross-linking glomerular basement membrane (GBM) has been shown to render it more permeable to protein. Isolated pig GBM was cross-linked with dimethylmalonimidate which reacts selectively with lysine epsilon-NH2 groups or with glutaraldehyde, a less selective cross-linking agent. Studies of the ultrafiltration properties of these materials in vitro using cytochrome c, myoglobin, bovine serum albumin and immunoglobulin showed that cross-linking had markedly increased solvent and protein fluxes as compared with native membranes particularly at higher pressures. Filtration studies with serum demonstrated that the cross-linked membranes were more permeable to serum proteins. Thickness measurements under pressure indicated that cross-linked membrane was less compressed than native membrane as pressure was increased. Pore theory did not provide a suitable model for analysis of the results, but analysis of the results using the fibre-matrix hypothesis indicated that cross-linking had the effect of bundling together the fibres (type IV collagen) in the GBM matrix. The effect of cross-linking on filtration could be explained by a combination of contraction of the membrane, fibre bundling and increased rigidity compared with native membrane. Cross-linking of GBM might lead to long-term damage of the glomerular capillary wall in nephritis, so promoting proteinuria.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Late effects of therapy in adult survivors of osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma.

To study the late consequences of primary bone cancer, we interviewed 82 osteosarcoma and 29 Ewing's sarcoma survivors regarding their health, fertility and offspring, employment, annual income, and activities of daily living. All subjects had been diagnosed before age 20 (mean age, 14.6 years), had survived at least 5 years from diagnosis, and were at least 21 years of age. On average, they were 32.5 years of age at interview. As controls, 151 siblings were interviewed. During the follow-up period, eight survivors had died, and eight survivors had been diagnosed with a second malignancy (7.2%; P = .002). No other health condition distinguished survivors from controls. Although the survivors were more likely than controls to have some difficulty climbing stairs and to have had employment disability, employment status and annual income at follow-up were similar. Deficits in marriage and fertility were not significant. Adult survivors of primary bone tumors diagnosed during childhood or adolescence are at high risk for second malignancies and premature death, making continued medical follow-up of utmost importance. Despite the physical impairment following limb amputation for many, the majority of outcomes we measured did not differ from controls, suggesting few adverse psychosocial outcomes in this group of cancer survivors.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Smoking habits in survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer.

Because of their increased risk for second cancers, childhood cancer survivors are people who really should not smoke, but available evidence suggests that they do. We studied the smoking habits of long-term childhood cancer survivors in data collected from 1289 adult survivors of childhood cancer and 1930 of their sibling controls. Survivors were diagnosed with cancer between 1945 and 1974 when they were less than 20 years old. Using matched analyses that controlled for the influence of family, survivors were 8% less likely than controls to be current smokers, 13% less likely to be ever-smokers, but 12% less likely to have quit smoking; these differences were not statistically significant. In a logistic regression analysis there was a significant difference by year of diagnosis for current smoking rate ratios (RR); survivors were less likely to be current smokers if diagnosed in recent years (RR = 0.76; 95% confidence intervals = 0.58-0.98, between 1965-74) and quite similar to controls if diagnosed in earlier years (RR = 1.05 between 1945 and 1954). In our group of long-term cancer survivors, the reduction in current smoking came about because survivors were more inclined never to start smoking than controls. Once addicted to tobacco, they were less likely to quit. While the fact that survivors are less likely to start smoking is encouraging, the persistence of smoking habits strongly suggests the need for continuing efforts to prevent smoking in this most vulnerable group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Early menopause in long-term survivors of cancer during adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: We attempted to investigate the risk of early menopause after treatment for cancer during childhood or adolescence. STUDY DESIGN: We interviewed 1067 women in whom cancer was diagnosed before age 20, who were at least 5-year survivors, and who were still menstruating at age 21. Self-reported menopause status in survivors was compared with that in 1599 control women. RESULTS: Cancer survivors, with disease diagnosed between ages 13 and 19, had a risk of menopause four times greater than that of controls during the ages 21 to 25; the risk relative to controls declined thereafter. Significantly increased relative risks of menopause during the early 20s occurred after treatment with either radiotherapy alone (relative risk 3.7) or alkylating agents alone (relative risk 9.2). During ages 21 to 25 the risk of menopause increased 27-fold for women treated with both radiation below the diaphragm and alkylating agent chemotherapy. By age 31, 42% of these women had reached menopause compared with 5% for controls. CONCLUSION: Treatment for cancer during adolescence carries a substantial risk for early menopause among women still menstruating at age 21. Increasing use of radiation and chemotherapy, together with the continued trend toward delayed childbearing, suggests that these women should be made aware of their smaller window of fertility so that they can plan their families accordingly.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Allelic loss on chromosome 11p is a less frequent event in bilateral than in unilateral Wilms' tumours.

Analyses to detect loss of heterozygosity (LOH) were performed at 11 polymorphic loci on chromosome 11 and, using a polymorphic CA repeat sequence in the WT1 gene, on a series of 39 tumours from 28 unilateral and 10 tumours from 6 bilateral Wilms' tumour (WT) patients. LOH was seen in 13 out of 35 patients including 12 out of 29 unilateral tumours, but only one of 10 bilateral tumours. This suggests that bilateral WT represents a subgroup of WT in which tumour initiating events less frequently involve LOH on chromosome 11 and that either epigenetic events, point mutations or another non-chromosome 11p locus are important in bilateral tumours. The observation of LOH in one WT but not another WT in a bilateral WT patient provides evidence that these tumours arising in the same patient are not monoclonal proliferations and most likely arise via different molecular pathways.

Alleles↗
PubMed1992

A preliminary report on the usefulness of monoclonal antibodies to CA 15-3 and MCA in the detection of micrometastases in axillary lymph nodes draining primary breast carcinoma.

The most critical factor affecting survival in patients with breast carcinoma is axillary nodal involvement. Monoclonal antibodies raised against specific human mammary tumour associated antigens may increase detection of micrometastases. This preliminary report examines two of these antigens; CA15-3 antigen and mucin-like carcinoma associated antigen (MCA) in the detection of such deposits. Specimens from 39 stage 1 (node negative) breast carcinoma patients were assessed. Two further 'negative' sections were stained with antisera to CA15-3 and MCA antigens. Micrometastases were detected in 5 patients and in each, MCA and CA15-3 identified the same micrometastases. 3 of these patients had disease progression compared with 3/34 of the remaining patients. The use of monoclonal antibodies to CA15-3 and MCA significantly (P less than 0.05) increases detection rates of micrometastases and this is associated with significantly worse disease-free survival rates (P less than 0.001).

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Immunization status of casualty attenders: risk factors for non-compliance and attitudes to 'on the spot' immunization.

Outbreaks of vaccine preventable infections have focused attention on 'missed opportunities' for immunizing children. The immunization status of 520 consecutive children attending Casualty during a 10 day period was studied. Only 70% of children had received their diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP) and poliomyelitis immunization at the appropriate time, 13% had completed the schedule later than recommended and 17% had immunizations overdue by 4 weeks or more. For measles (mumps/rubella) vaccine (MM or MMR) 75% were up to date, 10% were given late and 15% were overdue. A subset of 171 families was interviewed to evaluate factors affecting compliance. Families possessing a Social Security 'Health Care Card', whose father was unemployed, who spoke poor English or who had lived in Australia for 5 years or less were significantly more likely (P < 0.02) to be inadequately immunized. There were 84 children whose immunization was overdue and who were well enough to be immunized. The parents of 70 (83%) of these 84 said that they would agree to 'on the spot' immunization if it were available; 14 (17%) parents refused, the commonest reason for refusal being that the parents felt that the child was too sick at the time to be immunized.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Incidence of dementia: preliminary findings from the Nottingham Longitudinal Study of Activity and Ageing.

In a 4-year follow-up of 1,042 randomly sampled elderly people (aged 65+), levels of dementia were assessed using a two-phase case finding procedure (screening followed by clinical interview) among survivors. Clinical information on those not re-interviewed was provided by death certificates, hospital case notes or postal questionnaires. The unweighted 4-year cumulative incidence of dementia was 4.3%, with age-specific rates of 0.9, 2.8, 5.2, 9.0 and 8.7% for the age groups 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, and 85-89, respectively.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1992

The presence, characterisation and synthesis of neuromedin B in the human pituitary gland.

Neuromedin B is a 10-amino-acid mammalian peptide of the bombesin family. We have used a specific radioimmunoassay and Northern blot hybridisation to investigate the possible synthesis of neuromedin-B-like immunoreactivity in the human pituitary gland. The concentration of immunoreactive neuromedin B in whole human pituitary was 15.2 +/- 4.2 pmol/g wet weight in males and 12.8 +/- 2.7 pmol/g wet weight in females (mean +/- SEM, n = 10). In pituitary tumour extracts, neuromedin B immunoreactivity was 9.1 +/- 1.7 pmol/g wet weight (mean +/- SEM, n = 14) in inactive tumours, 18.4 +/- 6.9 pmol/g wet weight (mean +/- SEM, n = 4) in somatotrophs and 10.4 +/- 2.7 pmol/g wet weight (mean +/- SEM, n = 2) in prolactinomas, with no apparent significant difference between the groups. Gel permeation chromatography of pituitary extracts revealed two immunoreactive peaks, the major one of which corresponded in position to that of neuromedin B-32 and a later minor peak to the position of the neuromedin B-10 standard. On fast protein liquid chromatography, neuromedin-B-like immunoreactivity again eluted in two peaks, a minor peak corresponding to the synthetic neuromedin B standard, and a major more hydrophobic peak which was the big neuromedin B form. Northern blot analysis of poly(A)+RNA from human pituitaries revealed the presence of a hybridising band of between 750 and 850 base pairs. These results suggest that neuromedin B is synthesised in the human pituitary gland where it may be of importance in the regulation of pituitary function. Furthermore, the adenomatous condition is not associated with abnormal levels of this peptide.

Aged↗
PubMed1992

An evaluation of the usefulness of primary tumour expression of MCA and CA15-3 as prognostic indicators in breast carcinoma.

CA15-3 antigen and mucin-like carcinoma associated antigen (MCA) show potential as clinically useful serum markers of breast carcinoma. Recently, immunohistochemical versions of these monoclonal antibodies have become available but few data are available as to their clinical usefulness. The aims of this study were (i) to assess CA15-3 and MCA expression by primary breast tumours and to correlate tumour immunoreactivity with tumour behaviour, and (ii) to investigate the relationship between immunohistological staining and oestrogen receptor (ER) status. Pathological material from 39 stage 1 (node free) breast carcinoma patients was assessed. The mean age was 51.3 (range 34-70) years, 19 were premenopausal and the mean duration of follow-up was 3.6 years (range 0.8-14 years). In each case two further sections were stained with antisera to the CA15-3 and MCA antigens. Staining of primary tumour was achieved in 38 cases. Low (less than 30% tumour cell staining) and intermediate (30-60% of cells staining) grade immunoreactivity with both monoclonals correlated with significantly shorter disease free intervals (P less than 0.05). Neither monoclonal can predict ER status. We conclude that the use of monoclonal antibodies to CA15-3 and MCA in staining primary breast carcinoma tumours and their axillary nodes may be a significant (P less than 0.05) prognostic indicator of future tumour behaviour and that this requires further evaluation.

Adult↗