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Biomedical subjects

J D Slade

Publications and source records attributed to J D Slade.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Is nicotine more addictive than cocaine?

Is nicotine more addictive than cocaine? That claim is increasingly in vogue, often supported by data showing the high likelihood of progression to daily tobacco use following experimentation and the high percentage of cigarette smokers, compared with cocaine users who appear addicted. In the context of criteria for addiction of dependence presented by the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association, and the US Surgeon General, we consider several lines of evidence, including patterns of mortality, physical dependence potential, and pharmacologic addiction liability measures. Within each line of evidence, we compare nicotine with cocaine. We conclude that on the current evidence nicotine cannot be considered more addicting than cocaine. Both are highly addicting drugs for which patterns of use and the development of dependence are strongly influenced by factors such as availability, price, social pressures, and regulations, as well as certain pharmacologic characteristics.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Effect of divided daily dose prednisone therapy on circulating T cell subsets.

Prednisone induced reductions in the circulating human T cell population follow a characteristic time curve which persists even after a single daily dose of oral prednisone has been administered many times. If prednisone doses are administered every 6 h, so that a dose occurs near the point of maximum response from a previous dose (4-6 h), the reduction in size of the circulating T cell population will persist so long as administration of prednisone continues. A chronically depressed ratio of OKT4+ to OKT8+ cells is observed in most patients when as little as 2.5 mg of prednisone is administered every 6 h.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Lyme disease during pregnancy.

Lyme disease is an increasingly recognized tick-borne illness caused by a spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Because the etiologic agent of Lyme disease is a spirochete, there has been concern about the effect of maternal Lyme disease on pregnancy outcome. We reviewed cases of Lyme disease in pregnant women who were identified before knowledge of the pregnancy outcomes. Nineteen cases were identified with onset between 1976 and 1984. Eight of the women were affected during the first trimester, seven during the second trimester, and two during the third trimester; in two, the trimester of onset was unknown. Thirteen received appropriate antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. Of the 19 pregnancies, five had adverse outcomes, including syndactyly, cortical blindness, intrauterine fetal death, prematurity, and rash in the newborn. Adverse outcomes occurred in cases with infection during each of the trimesters. Although B burgdorferi could not be implicated directly in any of the adverse outcomes, the frequency of such outcomes warrants further surveillance and studies of pregnant women with Lyme disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Prednisone-induced alterations of circulating human lymphocyte subsets.

Peripheral lymphopenia occurs in man after administration of glucocorticoids. By using subset-specific monoclonal antibodies, the number of peripheral T cells (OKT11+) and the number of cells in the helper-inducer (OKT4+) and suppressor-cytotoxic (OKT8+) subsets were determined in four healthy subjects before and after ingestion of 20 mg of prednisone. In all subjects, the number of circulating T cells declined. The mean ratio of OKT4+ to OKT8+ cells dropped from 2.3 to 1.6 at 4 hr after prednisone ingestion and returned to baseline at 24 hr. The changed ratio was due to a disproportionate decrease in OKT4+ cells. A smaller decrease in the absolute number of circulating OKT8+ cells occurred, but the proportion of OKT8+ cells did not change. There was a direct relationship between prednisone dose and the reduction in circulating OKT4+ cells in the one subject who took four different doses of prednisone; there was a lymphopenic effect at the 5 mg dose. In vitro exposure of lymphocytes to methylprednisolone did not result in significant lympholysis or in alteration of the relative numbers of cells in the OKT4+ and OKT8+ subsets. The lymphopenia produced by prednisone in a splenectomized healthy subject was indistinguishable from that observed in nonsplenectomized subjects. The number of circulating B cells was unaffected by 20 mg of prednisone. These studies demonstrate that prednisone-induced lymphopenia involves the OKT4+ subset to a greater degree than the OKT8+ subset. The effect could not be accounted for by lympholysis or by redistribution of lymphocytes to the spleen.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Inherited deficiency of second component of complement and HLA haplotype A10,B18 associated with inflammatory bowel disease.

A patient with inflammatory bowel disease and sacroiliitis had haplotypes A10,B18 and Aw32,b18 at the major histocompatibility locus. Serum total complement and C2 hemolytic complement activities were undetectable; levels of the remaining C1-C9 components were normal. The parents, both siblings, and a child each had half-normal levels of C2 and either the A10,B18 or the Aw32,b18 hla haplotype. In a second unrelated family, an only child and both parents developed inflammatory bowel disease. The father and child had HLA haplotype A10,B18, but, along with the mother, each had normal serum levels of hemolytic C and C2. Homozygous C2 deficiency, often in association with the A10,B18 haplotype, has previously been linked with various autoimmune diseases and with propensity to infection. Our findings suggest that C2 deficiency or this haplotype also may predispose to inflammatory diseases of the intestine.

Adult↗