PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

K Cooke

Publications and source records attributed to K Cooke.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Radioprotection of mice by recombinant rat stem cell factor.

Treatment with recombinant rat stem cell factor (rSCF) protects mice from the lethal effects of irradiation. Mice treated with a single dose of rSCF prior to irradiation of up to 1150 rads [given as a split dose (1 rad = 0.01 Gy)] resulted in > 80% long-term survival, whereas a single injection given after the last dose of irradiation was not radioprotective. The combination of pre- and posttreatment (-20 h, -2 h, and +4 h) with rSCF resulted in 100% survival of otherwise lethally irradiated mice. Using this optimum schedule of rSCF administration, a radioprotective factor of 1.3-1.35 was achieved. The major cause of death in the control animals was massive bacteremia consisting of enteric organisms. The rSCF-treated animals had a much lower frequency of septicemia, due primarily to a rapid hematopoietic recovery of bone marrow function not evident in control animals.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Primary malignant melanoma of skin in four regions of New Zealand.

AIMS: to describe the incidence and thickness of a representative collection of melanomas occurring in recent years in New Zealand. METHODS: all pathology reports of primary malignant melanoma of the skin, in defined periods in 1987-9, were collated for four regions of New Zealand. RESULTS: nonMaori incidence rates were 52 and 58 melanomas per 100,000 person years for men and women, respectively. These rates are much higher than the 24 per 100,000 person years for melanoma registrations in 1983-4. The age standardised invasive melanoma rate of 35 per 100,000 person years was higher than those of most Australian states and close to the rate for Queensland in 1986. Preinvasive melanomas comprised 26% of all melanomas. Of invasive melanomas, 58% in men and 55% in women were less than 0.76 mm in thickness; 7% of invasive melanomas in men and 5% in women were at least 3.5 mm thick. CONCLUSIONS: increasingly early detection of malignant melanomas in successive years is likely to have contributed to the recent increase in incidence, perhaps to a major degree, but an environmental cause cannot be excluded.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Growth in children after bone marrow transplantation for advanced neuroblastoma compared with growth after transplantation for leukemia or aplastic anemia.

The linear growth of 26 children with progressive and advanced neuroblastoma treated with high-dose chemotherapy, total body irradiation, and bone marrow transplantation between 1978 and 1988 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was compared with the growth of 33 children who had transplants for leukemia and of 12 who had transplants for aplastic anemia. The mean growth velocity, expressed as a standard deviation score, for the children who underwent bone marrow transplantation for neuroblastoma was -2.83. This was significantly (p less than 0.005) less than the standard deviation scores for children with transplants for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, and aplastic anemia, which were -0.98, -0.07, and -1.05, respectively. A 6-year follow-up study of 32 long-term survivors of cancer revealed that the 11 patients with neuroblastoma continued to grow poorly, whereas a comparison group of 21 survivors of bone marrow transplantation for leukemia had essentially normal growth 2 years after the procedure. Major therapeutic differences between the two groups included the doses of local radiotherapy and the type and number of cytotoxic agents used. In comparison with the relatively mild growth-inhibiting effects of preparative regimens for leukemia and aplastic anemia, the very intensive preparative regimens used in patients with neuroblastoma have significant negative effects on growth.

Anemia, Aplastic↗
PubMed1991

Trends in nonmelanoma skin cancer mortality.

Nonmelanoma skin cancer mortality rates for recent decades show a biphasic pattern: from 1950-65 rates decreased; from 1966-86 rates increased. Age standardised mortality rates for 35-74 year old males increased from 1.6 (95% CI, 1.3-1.9) deaths per 100,000 person years in 1966-72 to 2.3 (95% CI, 2.0-2.5) deaths per 100,000 person years in 1980-86. Rates in women were lower but showed a similar percentage increase (46%), between these periods, to that observed for men (44%). The increased mortality from 1966 was presumably a result of increased ultraviolet exposure.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The health effects of aluminium--a review.

This review covers the occurrence of aluminium in soil, air, water and food. In addition, aluminium levels in body tissues and its movement within the body have been considered. The adverse effects of aluminium that have been reported in recent years include Alzheimer's disease, dementia and hyperactivity and learning disorders in children.

Aluminum↗
PubMed1990

Perceptions of pain relief after surgery.

OBJECTIVE: To assess patients' satisfaction with postoperative pain relief. DESIGN: A descriptive and questionnaire study of patients' experience. SETTING: Two surgical and two gynaecological wards. PATIENTS: 50 Patients admitted to hospital for cholecystectomy and 51 admitted for hysterectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Visual analogue scales with no divisions were completed by the patients immediately after each dose of postoperative analgesia was administered throughout their stay in hospital. A questionnaire completed on the fifth postoperative day recorded patients' recollections of their experience. Opinions were also sought from medical and nursing staff. RESULTS: During the first 24 hours after surgery recorded pain levels were 60% of the maximum and were not influenced by age, sex, or the type of operation performed. The median interval between the return of pain and a further injection of analgesic was 2 hours (interquartile range 1 to 3.5 hours). Expectations of pain relief were low, and for 70% of the patients the pain was at least as bad as they had expected. Only half of the medical and nursing staff questioned thought that postoperative analgesia should relieve pain completely; drugs were prescribed and administered with too little attention to the patient's response and too much concern about adverse effects and opioid dependence. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the standard of postoperative pain relief is poor because of inadequate education of patients in what to expect (and demand), and of medical and nursing staff in how to prescribe and administer analgesia with reference to individual drug response.

Analgesics↗
PubMed1989

On the role of long incubation periods in the dynamics of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Part 1: Single population models.

In this study, we investigate systematically the role played by the reproductive number (the number of secondary infections generated by an infectious individual in a population of susceptibles) on single group populations models of the spread of HIV/AIDS. Our results for a single group model show that if R less than or equal to 1, the disease will die out, and strongly suggest that if R greater than 1 the disease will persist regardless of initial conditions. Our extensive (but incomplete) mathematical analysis and the numerical simulations of various research groups support the conclusion that the reproductive number R is a global bifurcation parameter. The bifurcation that takes place as R is varied is a transcritical bifurcation; in other words, when R crosses 1 there is a global transfer of stability from the infection-free state to the endemic equilibrium, and vice versa. These results do not depend on the distribution of times spent in the infectious categories (the survivorship functions). Furthermore, by keeping all the key statistics fixed, we can compare two extremes: exponential survivorship versus piecewise constant survivorship (individuals remain infectious for a fixed length of time). By choosing some realistic parameters we can see (at least in these cases) that the reproductive numbers corresponding to these two extreme cases do not differ significantly whenever the two distributions have the same mean. At any rate a formula is provided that allows us to estimate the role played by the survivorship function (and hence the incubation period) in the global dynamics of HIV. These results support the conclusion that single population models of this type are robust and hence are good building blocks for the construction of multiple group models. Our understanding of the dynamics of HIV in the context of mathematical models for multiple groups is critical to our understanding of the dynamics of HIV in a highly heterogeneous population.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1986

Child disablement, family dissolution and reconstitution.

The results of a study of a nationally representative sample of disabled children and controls are presented. The findings suggest that although, at any one time, families containing a disabled child are not no more likely to be one-parent families, disabled children do appear to be more likely to experience a spell in a one-parent family at some time in their lives. Where these spells occur, they are of longer duration than for the general population, which suggests that family reconstitution may be more difficult where a disabled child is present.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Short-term kidney preservation: to perfuse or not to perfuse with the new Belzer perfusate.

Delayed graft function is ischaemically induced and the consequence of high energy phosphate depletion. A new perfusate, described by Belzer, has been used in 43 kidney preservations, 16 of which had prolonged cold ischaemia. The overall immediate function rate was 37 of 43 kidneys or 86 per cent. Of 18 kidneys cold-stored during the same period, only nine functioned immediately. Twenty-six of these patients received cyclosporine for immunosuppression without an increase in delayed graft function or evidence of increased nephrotoxicity because of ischaemic injury or prolonged preservation.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Housing circumstances and standards of families with disabled children.

Research on the impact of a disabled child on family resources suggests that housing standards are likely to be lower for these families than for other families. This article attempts to assess the extent to which this is actually the case. The article employs data from a nationally representative sample of disabled children and compares their housing standards according to five criteria with those of a control sample. Families with disabled children were found to be significantly more likely than control families to be living in local authority housing, more likely to be living in overcrowded accommodation and less likely to have central heating and certain consumer durables in the household.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Grading severity of childhood disablement: comparing survey measures with a paediatrician's assessment.

This study investigates the relationship between a paediatrician's assessment of the overall severity of disablement in a sample of 10-year-old children and the survey data on which this assessment was based. An attempt was made to identify disabilities or combinations of disabilities which were good predictors of the paediatrician's assessment. It was possible to do this with some success with children assessed as severely disabled but it was much more difficult to do so where the degree of disablement was assessed as mild or moderate. The implications of these findings for the assessment of children with disabilities which are less than severe are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗