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Biomedical subjects

J H Ferguson

Publications and source records attributed to J H Ferguson.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The Consensus Development Program. Detecting changes in medical practice following a consensus conference on the treatment of prostate cancer.

The treatment of prostate cancer was reviewed at a U.S. National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference in June 1987. Data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results tumor registries were analyzed and showed that the proportion of eligible prostate cancer patients receiving the recommended therapies did not increase at a faster rate after the conference than before.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Analysis of the National Institutes of Health Medicare coverage assessment.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is periodically asked to conduct assessments of new medical technologies to assist in coverage decisions made at the Office of Health Technology Assessment (OHTA) for the Health Care Financing Administration coverage policy. Analysis of NIH assessments indicates that even though most NIH assessments rely only on expert opinion, OHTA agreed with NIH recommendations in over 90%.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗
PubMed1978

Hemifacial spasm and the facial nucleus.

Spontaneous and associated hyperkinetic facial movements and contracture which follow injury to the seventh cranial nerve (postparalytic hemifacial spasm) or arise without known previous injury (cryptogenic hemifacial spasm) are pathological motor phenomena not found in the distribution of other cranial or somatic motor nerves. The commonly expressed hypotheses of pathogenesis--aberrant regeneration and fiber excitation by false synapse formation (ephapses) at the site of injury--cannot account for all aspects of these phenomena or for the uniqueness of such movements to the distribution of the seventh nerve. The suggestion is made that the existing diversity of facial motor behavior, which encompasses voluntary, emotional, and especially automatic, associated, and reflexive movements, is based on a unique central organization that sets it apart from other motor groups. I hypothesize that because of this organization, the changes following axonal injury--which include selective deafferentation, glial response, axonal sprouting, functional reconnection, and hyperexcitability from dendritic spike generation--can unmask and augment automatic, associated, and reflexive movements already present in the facial neuronal network to result in facial hyperkinesia.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Effect of photoperiod and cold acclimation upon plasma free fatty acid levels in the white rat.

1. Animals were acclimated at 3 +/- 1 degrees C and at room temperature (22 degrees C) for 3 weeks. 2. At each acclimation temperature animals were maintained under either an 8:16 L:D cycle or a 16:8 L:D cycle. 3. Blood samples were taken before and after exposure to -38 degrees C for 30 min. 4. Free fatty acid levels were greatest in cold acclimated animals which were maintained on a short light cycle. 5. Interaction between acclimation and photoperiod was apparent.

Acclimatization↗
PubMed1977

A different form of "pure agraphia": syntactic writing errors in a patients with motor speech and movement disorders.

Three patients are described who displayed syntactic writing errors in combination with a motor speech disturbance and impaired motor limb function. Two of the patients had bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Agraphia appeared when verbal communication was no longer possible. Autopsy in one patient disclosed only lesions consistent with ALS. The third patient had palilalia and chorea and although not aphasic, his written language showed persistent syntactic errors. We hypothesize that the agraphia in these patients occurred because of the combination of disordered feedback from the motor speech apparatus and limbs.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Spontaneous infarction in pituitary tumors: neurologic and therapeutic aspects.

In addition to progressive endocrine dysfunction and progressive visual loss, pituitary neoplasms may annouce their presence by the more catastrophic alternative of spontaneous tumor infarction. In two patients reported, illness due to the spontaneous infraction of pituitary tumors was heralded by sudden onset of focal headache associated with diplopia. Stupor, confusion, and evidence of increased intracranial pressure occurred without subarachnoid hemorrhage or massive extrasellar extension of tumor. One patient developed inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion with spontaneous infarction in a large but clinically silent chromophobe adenoma. In both patients, skull x-rays suggested a long-standing intrasella mass. Both underwent prompt treatment with endocrinologic replacement therapy and subsequent successful transsphenoidal removal of voluminous, infarcted, pituitary masses.

Adenoma, Chromophobe↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effective diagnosis and treatment of hypertension by the primary care physician: impact of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has been described as an effective method for the diagnosis and formulation of the treatment of hypertension by the primary care physician. METHODS: Sixty patients selected from a suburban private primary care practice participated in a study that compared measurements of office blood pressures using a mercury sphygmomanometer with the same pressures recorded by ABPM. RESULTS: Blood pressures and blood pressure loads measured by ABPM were significantly lower than blood pressures and pressure loads recorded in the office setting. CONCLUSIONS: Blood pressure recorded by ABPM differed from the same measurements made by office or casual sphygmomanometry. Use of ABPM changed diagnosis or treatment of hypertension in borderline and antihypertensive drug-treated patients. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a useful tool for the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension by the primary care physician. It can be used to identify white-coat hypertension in various patient populations.

Adult↗