PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J Kidwell

Publications and source records attributed to J Kidwell.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Weight loss in overweight patients maintained on atypical antipsychotic agents.

BACKGROUND: Weight gain and associated medical morbidity offset the reduction of extrapyramidal side effects associated with atypical antipsychotics. Efforts to control weight in antipsychotic-treated patients have yielded limited success. METHODS: We studied the impact of an intensive 24-week program of diet, exercise, and counseling in 17 chronically psychotic patients (10 women, seven men) who entered at high average body weight (105.0+/-18.4 kg) and body mass index (BMI) (36.6+/-4.6 kg/m(2)). A total of 12 subjects who completed the initial 24 weeks elected to participate in an additional 24-week, less intensive extension phase. RESULTS: By 24 weeks, weight-loss/patient averaged 6.0 kg (5.7%) and BMI decreased to 34.5 (by 5.7%). Blood pressure decreased from 130/83 to 116/74 (11% improvement), pulse fell slightly, and serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations changed nonsignificantly. With less intensive management for another 24 weeks, subjects regained minimal weight (0.43 kg). CONCLUSIONS: These findings add to the emerging view that weight gain is a major health problem associated with modern antipsychotic drugs and that labor-intensive weight-control efforts in patients requiring antipsychotic treatment yield clinically promising benefits. Improved treatments without weight-gain risk are needed.

Adult↗

Domain-specific gender comparisons in identity development among college youth: ideology and relationships.

Gender comparisons were conducted in six social domains of identity development on 210 college students: occupation, religion, politics, dating, sex roles, and friendship. The identity research literature often combines domains to create more global estimates of identity development. Such an approach may obscure differences among the domains, each of which may have different implications for different societal contexts, and for males and females. Analyses were made for each domain, and for the combined ideological, interpersonal, and overall domain scores. Several gender differences were apparent when domain-specific analyses were examined. Males were more likely to explore and commit in politics, whereas females were more likely to explore in sex roles and to commit in religion and dating. In politics, fewer males were in the diffused status; in contrast, for dating and sex roles, there were fewer females in the diffused status. However, when combined scores were examined, there were no gender differences in identity status. The results suggest that some gender differences still remain in specific domains. The utility of including domain-specific analyses is suggested when gender comparisons are examined. Regardless of gender, more youth were diffused in political identity than in any other domain, suggesting political apathy among today's college youth.

Adolescent↗

Regulated expression of the Alcaligenes eutrophus pha biosynthesis genes in Escherichia coli.

A novel poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) production system in which the expression and gene dosage of the Alcaligenes eutrophus pha biosynthetic operon were effectively regulated by cultivation temperature was constructed in Escherichia coli. The pha operon was fused to the negatively regulated tac promoter and cloned into a vector in which the copy number is temperature dependent. A two-phase process was employed to produce PHB during fed-batch growth. In the growth phase, the culture was maintained at a low temperature. Under this condition, the plasmid copy number was depressed and the number of LacI proteins was sufficient to repress tacupha transcription. The production phase was initiated by temperature upshift. At the elevated temperature, the number of plasmids surpassed the number of LacI repressors, which resulted in rapid induction of tacupha transcription, synthesis of poly-beta-hydroxyalkanoate-specific proteins, and polymer synthesis. During the production phase, the PHB production rate was 1.07 g of PHB liter-1 h-1 under optimized conditions. This rate is comparable to that of bacteria which naturally produce this polymer.

Alcaligenes↗

Nursing management in an endoscopy setting.

Textbooks and articles that address the issues and responsibilities of a nurse manager generally focus on the role of the nurse manager in a hospital setting. While many of the principles set forth in these publications may be appropriately used by the nurse manager working in an endoscopy setting, certain characteristics of GI nursing are unique in terms of managing the delivery of patient care, managing staff, and managing self. This article describes these critical "3Ms" of nursing management and offers practical guidelines to the GI nurse manager.

Appointments and Schedules↗

DEET (N,N-diethyltoluamide) does not affect sperm number, viability and head morphology in male rats treated dermally.

DEET (N,N-Diethyltoluamide) was applied dermally to groups of 80 Sprague Dawley rats 5 days/week for 9 weeks (63 days), at three dose levels, (100, 300, and 1000 mg/kg). The undiluted material was applied with micropipettes to shaved patches. There was no run off and the material wet out onto the skin. Dose levels were calculated based on mean weights and adjusted weekly by reweighing half the animals in each group and calculating a mean body weight. Animals were scheduled for kill at three times; days 36-37, 65-66 and 95-96 after initiation of treatment. Data collected at each kill included sperm count, viability as assessed by ATP levels and morphology; testes histopathology (control and high-dose groups only) and body and organ weights (liver, kidneys and testes). DEET, when applied dermally, did not alter sperm count, sperm morphology, sperm viability, body weight or food consumption at any dose level tested.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Limited benefit of atropine as premedication for colonoscopy.

A prospective double-blind trial was performed comparing atropine (0.5 mg) by slow intravenous administration to placebo as premedication for colonoscopy, to assess the possible beneficial effects of this vagolytic agent on the performance and safety of the procedure. A total of 77 patients was randomly assigned to receive atropine (38 patients) or placebo (39 patients) before colonoscopy in conjunction with our standard initial medications for conscious sedation (meperidine, 0.4 mg/kg and midazolam, 0.03 mg/kg). Total procedure time was 31 min for the atropine group and 35 min for the placebo group (p greater than 0.05), and there was no overall difference in the total amount of intra-procedural medications required. No statistically significant differences were observed relative to the number or severity of vagal episodes, and neither the endoscopist nor the patients noted any differences in the ease or tolerance of the procedure (p greater than 0.05). Although these results fail to demonstrate a significant benefit of atropine when given routinely as premedication for colonoscopy, this study does not rule out the potential usefulness of atropine in counteracting vagal episodes when they occur.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗

Prospective evaluation of complications in an endoscopy unit: use of the A/S/G/E quality care guidelines.

In 1989, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy released a quality assurance monograph in which a procedure review process was outlined. The major elements of the program for quality assurance in gastrointestinal endoscopy included: (1) procedure reports, (2) an endoscopic unit record, and (3) a procedure review. This study was designed to use the procedure review process to determine the incidence of complications, to identify quality assurance issues, and to determine whether audits and/or studies would result from this process. To make a meaningful interpretation as to what constitutes an important complication, a classification to define potential problems was established. Using this classification, a complication was identified in 64 of 3287 procedures (1.9%). These complications were discussed in a monthly morbidity and mortality conference. Additionally, 21 quality assurance issues were identified that led to four studies addressing these quality assurance issues.

District of Columbia↗

International Interface Standard for Food Databases.

An International Interface Standard for Food Databases is under development to help overcome the technical and semantic barriers to the use of food-related databases. The Interface Standard is a system for efficient storage of all relevant descriptive information about foods. The schema for the Standard consists of ten components--food/food product identification, food names, LANGUAL factors, other food descriptors, other descriptive coding systems, ingredients/recipes, standards, substances, organizations, and data sources. The Interface allows for retrievals of data associated with specific foods from databases by using queries based on any of a wide variety of descriptive terms. The schema of the Interface has been completed; the remaining work is to build the computer software to provide access to, and use of, the schema.

Computers↗