PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

J Goodall

Publications and source records attributed to J Goodall.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Helping a child to understand her own testicular feminisation.

Children do not think as adults do. They would therefore be less worried than adults are about a diagnosis with serious or ominous implications, yet they are commonly left uninformed until someone judges that they are old enough to understand. For most, this means delivery of painful information during the very vulnerable teenage years. A better approach is to unfold the truth stage by stage, matching simple statements to the child's conceptual growth until the personal implications are finally realised as part of a maturing process. Use of this approach for a child with testicular feminisation is described.

Androgen-Insensitivity Syndrome

Assessment of an immunoturbidimetric method for measuring equine serum haptoglobin concentrations.

Serum haptoglobin was measured by immunoturbidity in Thoroughbreds stabled in three Newmarket yards for nine months. The mean serum haptoglobin value for horses housed in Stable 1 was 1.43 +/- 0.68 g/litre, similar to values in grazing adult ponies. The mean monthly haptoglobin values remained constant. For horses in Stable 2 there was an increase in serum haptoglobin values in June and July whereas, in Stable 3, the increases early in the training season were associated with an increase in serum viral titres. In equine serum, haptoglobin values estimated in g/litre by immunoturbidimetry were twice the haemoglobin binding capacity (HbBC). The correlation coefficient, between the methods, exceeded 0.96. Surgical interference caused a 2- to 3-fold increase in serum haptoglobin, with levels peaking between three and five days post surgery. The concomitant presence of haematomata following surgical interference (castration) resulted in the disappearance of haptoglobin from the circulation. There was no significant increase in serum haptoglobin levels following vaccination of Thoroughbreds against influenza and tetanus. However inhalation of influenza virus by vaccinated and non-vaccinated ponies resulted in a 2- to 3-fold increase in both groups of ponies, peaking seven to 10 days post infection. Serum haptoglobin proved to be a useful indicator of infection/inflammation and haemolytic disease in the horse and could be used to monitor the health status of stabled Thoroughbreds.

Animals

What do parents expect antenatally and do babies teach them?

Antenatal inquiry of 658 parents in the North Staffordshire District Health Authority showed at least 13% to lack knowledge about a baby's potential for personal interaction when under 1 week old. Mothers and fathers varied significantly, independent of parity. Experienced parents expected later smiles. Two hundred and seventy eight of the same families were questioned three to four months after birth. Most parents had observed their baby's early responsiveness. Specific responses (Looking, listening) were noted earlier when anticipated and looked for. Significant among postnatal non-responders was their antenatal selection of predominantly impersonal stimulation for a baby. The greatest degree of warmth noted in postnatal observations correlated notably with a father's antenatal interest and postnatal support from him and their friends, a mother's commitment to breast feeding and her knowledge that a very young baby can see, like faces, and cries for emotional reasons. This highlights areas for antenatal tuition and postnatal encouragement, aiming to enhance warm early mutual regard between parents and child.

Adolescent

Love and loss. Conversations with parents of babies with spinal bifida managed without surgery, 1971-1981.

Looking back over the span of years surveyed, it appears that a sad experience, even many years ago, commonly leaves residual pain. This can be modified by sympathetic support enabling parents and baby to interact, although such interaction is not without painful as well as pleasurable effects. Coming to terms with loss may take longer than was previously thought. This study highlights the need for bereavement care, which aims to leave families with positive rather than negative feelings. Perhaps, for mental health, the eventual feelings about past happenings are more important than the happenings themselves, although we have also shown that a greater insight into the needs of parents at the time modified their long-term feelings for the good, some even indicating that they had been enriched by the whole experience. The interviews suggested that parents who were involved with their baby's care were more able to accept the reality of their loss and to adjust to the experience of pain and grief than was possible for those who had been kept apart from their children. This supports conclusions by other grief counsellors (e.g. Warden 1983).

Adaptation, Psychological

On the mechanism involved in the ability of meptazinol to potentiate the effects of sympathetic nerve stimulation.

Mouse isolated vas deferens responded to field stimulation (0.1 Hz) with twitch responses which were abolished by alpha beta-methyleneadenosine 5'-triphosphate (0.5 microM) and were potentiated 2 to 3 fold by meptazinol (5-300 microM). Exogenous adenosine 5'-triphosphate (4-30 microM) also caused a twitch response but was unaffected by meptazinol (30 microM) as was the response to phenylephrine. The effect of meptazinol on the electrically-induced twitch was reproducible, fast in onset, easily reversed by washing and was still seen in the presence of prazosin (1 microM), yohimbine (1 microM), propranolol (0.1 microM), atropine (0.1 microM), physostigmine (1 microM), cocaine (1 microM) or desmethylimipramine (0.3 microM) indicating that the mechanism involved does not depend on adrenoceptors, cholinergic mechanisms or blockade of uptake. Mouse isolated atria responded to stimulation (1, 2 or 5 Hz) of their sympathetic nerves via transmural electrodes with chronotropic responses which were abolished by atenolol (5 and 50 microM) but were unaffected by alpha beta-methyleneadenosine 5'-triphosphate (0.5 microM). Meptazinol (100 microM) failed to potentiate the responses. It is suggested that meptazinol potentiates the effects of the non-adrenergic non-cholinergic transmitter thought to be involved in the response of the mouse vas deferens to electrical stimulation.

Adenosine Triphosphate

Appropriate conditions for maintenance of chimpanzees in studies with blood-borne viruses: an epidemiologic and psychosocial perspective.

Based on the know epidemiology of the viruses that account for the bulk of the need for chimpanzees in biomedical research--hepatitis B virus (HBV), non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis virus, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)--as well as the psychosocial needs of this species, requirements for appropriate isolation conditions for these animals have been reviewed. We believe that animals should generally be housed in groups of at least two in the same cage, and that cages encased in solid-walled isolator boxes for housing of single chimpanzees are unnecessary for virologically adequate isolation for studies of HBV, NANB and HIV, and cause sensory and psychosocial deprivation, which contravenes their psychological well-being.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Babies with spina bifida treated without surgery: parents' views on home versus hospital care.

From 1971 to 1981, 98 babies born with meningomyelocoele at the North Staffordshire Hospital Centre's district maternity hospital, were thought not suitable for surgery. Sixty three survived for more than one week. Over the period the hospital's policy changed: initially all such babies were kept in hospital, but later parents were given the choice of taking their baby home for palliative and terminal care. In an attempt to determine parents' views on the care of their baby the parents of 44 of the babies who survived to one week were traced in 1985-6, five to 14 years later; 80 of them were asked how they felt about the lives and deaths of their babies. Eighteen babies had been taken home, and they had lived longer than the 26 who had been cared for in hospital. Parents whose baby had remained in hospital were sadder than those who had taken their baby home when they looked back at their experiences, and they also considered that their baby's life had been of poor quality. Most of those who had taken their baby home had a more positive view of their child's life. The figures suggest that the bereavement process after a baby's death is longer than has been thought, but despite residual sadness just over half of the parents interviewed thought that something positive had come out of their experience.

Attitude to Health

Chimpanzees and AIDS research.

Pressure is mounting to relax the regulations on importation of chimpanzees for research. Such a policy is unnecessary and would deepen the plight of an already endangered species.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Trypsin-sensitive neutralization site on VP1 of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis viruses.

We generated Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus mutants resistant to several neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) having their epitopes near a trypsin cleavage site of VP1. Neutralization and Western blot (immunoblot) studies suggest that two of the MAbs have identical epitopes that partly overlap the epitope of a third MAb. Sequencing of RNA of the mutants localized the epitopes to a site near the carboxyl end of VP1. The limited diversity of nucleotide changes seen in the mutants and the immunodominance of the site suggest that the carboxyl end of VP1 may have an important function.

Animals

Meptazinol has a similar agonist action on opioid receptors in field-stimulated mouse vas deferens and guinea-pig ileum.

The effects of the opioid receptor agonist RX783006 and of the opioid receptor partial agonist (+)-meptazinol have been examined on electrically induced twitch responses of the guinea-pig isolated ileum and of the mouse isolated vas deferens. Log10 concentration-tissue state curves were determined for (+)-meptazinol and RX783006, alone, in combination and in the presence of naloxone (30 nM). Analysis of these log10 concentration-tissue state curves using the null equations derived and tested in the preceding paper indicates that the opioid agonist action of (+)-meptazinol on mouse vas deferens is quantitatively similar to that on guinea-pig ileum. The results also suggest that (+)-meptazinol acts as a functional antagonist on the guinea-pig ileum as well as on the mouse vas deferens. The potency of (+)-meptazinol relative to RX783006 has been measured by an indirect method which should eliminate any functional antagonistic action of (+)-meptazinol. This method gives a relative potency of (+)-meptazinol in both tissues which is three to six times greater than that measured directly on guinea-pig ileum. This discrepancy may be due to experimental error but it may also indicate that direct measurements on guinea-pig ileum underestimate the agonist potency of this compound on opioid receptors.

Animals