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Biomedical subjects

J Tarpey

Publications and source records attributed to J Tarpey.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Reducing smoking. The effect of suggestion during general anaesthesia on postoperative smoking habits.

In a double-blind randomised trial, 122 female smokers undergoing elective surgery were allocated to receive one of two prerecorded messages while fully anaesthetised. The active message was designed to encourage them to give up smoking whilst the control message was the same voice counting numbers. No patient could recall hearing the tape. Patients were asked about their postoperative smoking behaviour one month later. Significantly more of those who had received the active tape had stopped or reduced their smoking (p < 0.01). This would suggest a level of preconscious processing of information.

Acoustic Stimulation

Validation of a croup score and its use in triaging children with croup.

The Syracuse croup scoring system was validated in 165 children with croup who were admitted to an intensive therapy unit for assessment over a one year period. The unit served as a croup triage point for Cardiff and its environs. A score of > 5 was taken as an indication that a patient was at risk of upper airway obstruction and was used to support a triage decision by the junior hospital doctor to admit a patient to the intensive therapy unit. All patients with an initial score < or = 5 were considered safe for transfer to a general paediatric ward and none of these required subsequent admission to intensive care. This score was then tested on a further 134 children with croup, in order to identify those patients who required specialised monitoring, observation or treatment in intensive care. A score of > 5 gave a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity of 80%. Croup scoring continued after admission on the general paediatric wards. Two patients who were originally admitted to the intensive therapy unit with a score > 5 improved within 6 h and were transferred to the general ward with a score < or = 5. These children subsequently required readmission to the intensive therapy unit. Our tracheal intubation rate of 2% was low and may relate to the routine use of regular adrenaline nebulisation. We recommend this scoring system to other paediatric departments for initial triaging decisions and for documenting progress on the wards.

Child

Iatrogenic anaemia? A survey of venesection in patients in the intensive therapy unit.

In 30 consecutive patients admitted to the Intensive Therapy Unit, the volume of blood taken for investigations was recorded. Results were available for 26 patients. Total venesection volume averaged 336 ml. Venesection volume averaged 55.7 ml/day after the first 24 hours. The mean haemoglobin on admission was 11.5 g/d litre. Blood loss was related to both APACHE score and length of stay (APACHE.day), to the presence of arterial and central venous catheters, and to the need for mechanical ventilation. Iatrogenic blood loss of this magnitude will cause anaemia if it continues.

Anemia

Adhesive and degradative properties of human placental cytotrophoblast cells in vitro.

Human fetal development depends on the embryo rapidly gaining access to the maternal circulation. The trophoblast cells that form the fetal portion of the human placenta have solved this problem by transiently exhibiting certain tumor-like properties. Thus, during early pregnancy fetal cytotrophoblast cells invade the uterus and its arterial network. This process peaks during the twelfth week of pregnancy and declines rapidly thereafter, suggesting that the highly specialized, invasive behavior of the cytotrophoblast cells is closely regulated. Since little is known about the actual mechanisms involved, we developed an isolation procedure for cytotrophoblasts from placentas of different gestational ages to study their adhesive and invasive properties in vitro. Cytotrophoblasts isolated from first, second, and third trimester human placentas were plated on the basement membrane-like extracellular matrix produced by the PF HR9 teratocarcinoma cell line. Cells from all trimesters expressed the calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecule cell-CAM 120/80 (E-cadherin) which, in the placenta, is specific for cytotrophoblasts. However, only the first trimester cytotrophoblast cells degraded the matrices on which they were cultured, leaving large gaps in the basement membrane substrates and releasing low molecular mass 3H-labeled matrix components into the medium. No similar degradative activity was observed when second or third trimester cytotrophoblast cells, first trimester human placental fibroblasts, or the human choriocarcinoma cell lines BeWo and JAR were cultured on radiolabeled matrices. To begin to understand the biochemical basis of this degradative behavior, the substrate gel technique was used to analyze the cell-associated and secreted proteinase activities expressed by early, mid, and late gestation cytotrophoblasts. Several gelatin-degrading proteinases were uniquely expressed by early gestation, invasive cytotrophoblasts, and all these activities could be abolished by inhibitors of metalloproteinases. By early second trimester, the time when cytotrophoblast invasion rapidly diminishes in vivo, the proteinase pattern of the cytotrophoblasts was identical to that of term, noninvasive cells. These results are the first evidence suggesting that specialized, temporally regulated metalloproteinases are involved in trophoblast invasion of the uterus. Since the cytotrophoblasts from first trimester and later gestation placentas maintain for several days the temporally regulated degradative behavior displayed in vivo, the short-term cytotrophoblast outgrowth culture system described here should be useful in studying some of the early events in human placen

Antigens, Surface

Volatile agent use: perception and practice. A survey of agent use over a 3-year period.

We calculated the quantity, as MAC hours and MAC hours anaesthetic, of halothane, enflurane and isoflurane, used in this Health District over a 3-year period. Halothane accounted for 77% of anaesthesia in the first year and for 57% in the final year. Overall usage of volatile agents decreased. Fifteen consultants and 19 senior registrars perceived, in a survey of practice, only a change in relative use of volatile anaesthetic agents with a large swing from halothane to both enflurane and isoflurane. Half the anaesthetists stated that the medicolegal consideration was the prime reason for their change. The perceived total demise of halothane does not appear to have been realised, despite individual anaesthetist's perceptions.

Anesthesia, Inhalation