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Biomedical subjects

L Fish

Publications and source records attributed to L Fish.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Education of parents of infants and very young children with asthma: a developmental evaluation of the Wee Wheezers program.

A randomized control trial of the Wee Wheezers asthma education program was conducted with 76 children < 7 years of age, 31% of whom were on a medication regimen consistent with mild, 51% with moderate, and 18% with moderately severe/severe asthma. Treatment children showed improved morbidity at 3-month follow-up relative to the changes in the controls: increased symptom-free days in the preceding 2 weeks (mean change of +2.2 vs. -2.6 in the controls; p = .004) and month (+2.0 vs. -3.8; p < .02), fewer nights of parental sleep interruption in a typical week (+0.7 vs. +1.8; p < or = .05), and a trend toward fewer asthma sick days (-0.2 vs +0.7; p = ns). These improvements were accompanied by significantly better parental asthma management compared with controls (more consistent use of preventive medications, p < or = .01; early symptom intervention, [corrected] p < or = .05) and trends toward more restrictions on smoking in the home (p < .07) and decreased parental confusion about asthma treatment (p < .11). This study provides evidence that a multisession program of asthma education for parents can improve parental asthma management and clinical outcomes in very young children and provides information on the validity and sensitivity of various asthma outcome measures in this age group.

Asthma↗
PubMed1995

Long-term patient self-management of oral anticoagulation.

BACKGROUND: The management of oral anticoagulation is fraught with difficulties. This study assessed a new model of anticoagulation management regarding the ability, safety, and efficacy of patients to self-monitor and self-adjust the dose of their oral anticoagulants guided by a capillary whole-blood prothrombin time (PT) monitor. METHODS: This investigation is a retrospective cohort study of 20 patients compared with 20 matched control patients receiving oral anticoagulation at a tertiary medical institution. RESULTS: Study patients monitored their PTs 2153 times during a mean interval of 44.7 months compared with 1608 PTs in matched control patients during a mean interval of 42.5 months. Study patients made an average of 11.5 dosage changes per patient, contrasted with 22.7 changes per control patient (P < .001). The PTs in study patients were within the recommended therapeutic range in 88.6% (95% confidence interval, 87.2 to 89.9) of the determinations compared with 68.0% (95% confidence interval, 65.7 to 70.3; P < .001) of the determinations made by the matched control patients. In response to the 2153 PTs, study patients made 67 (3.1%) dosage decisions that were considered incorrect based on physician guidelines. None of these changes led to adverse outcomes. There was no significant difference in complication rates between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Results from what is the first long-term study of patient self-monitoring of PTs and self-adjustment of the warfarin sodium dosage for oral anticoagulation suggest that patients can successfully measure their own PTs, adjust their own warfarin dosage, and achieve a degree of therapeutic effectiveness at least as good, if not better than patients managed in an anti-coagulation clinic. Larger, prospective, randomized trials are needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of this new approach to therapy and to assess its cost-effectiveness.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1994

Cross-protective immunity induced by Babesia bovis clones with antigenically unrelated variable merozoite surface antigens.

Babesia bovis merozoite surface antigen 1 (MSA-1) induces antibodies capable of neutralizing merozoites in vitro. Both MSA-1 and the co-expressed MSA-2 are encoded by a polymorphic multigene family and are antigenically variant among strains isolated from widely separated geographic regions. In this study, cross-protective immunity between two B. bovis clones, Mexico Mo-7 and Israel-C, that have antigenically unrelated MSA-1 and MSA-2 surface proteins was assessed. Cattle immunized by infection with either clone were significantly protected against challenge with the uncloned Israel Bbv strain. This indicates that epitopes capable of inducing partial protection are shared among different strains and that immunity is not solely dependent upon MSA-1 or MSA-2. However, cattle immunized with the Israel-C clone, derived from the Israel Bbv strain, were significantly better protected against BbV challenge than were cattle immunized with the Mexico Mo-7 clone bearing antigenically unrelated MSA-1 and MSA-2. The significant difference in immunity induced by the homologous strain versus an antigenically variant strain indicates that epitope variation among strains is relevant to immunity against babesiosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Effective and ineffective management behaviors of parents of infants and young children with asthma.

To define the specific objectives of a planned behavioral intervention directed toward parents of very young children with asthma, 574 detailed descriptions of ineffective and effective asthma management behaviors of parents of infants and young children (through 6 years of age) with asthma were collected via interviews with 117 physicians and other health professionals and 112 parents. Analysis of these data resulted in the identification of 130 ineffective and effective asthma management behaviors of parents that could be grouped in five major areas of responsibility: symptom intervention; symptom prevention; use of medical and educational resources; communication among caregivers; and child development and family relationships. This report presents the methodology of the study, describes the identified behaviors, and discusses implications of the results for the development of a behavioral intervention to improve asthma management by parents.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

More on SI units.

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International System of Units↗
PubMed1992

Lyophilised bovine serum as a substitute for frozen serum in the cultivation of Babesia bigemina and B bovis.

Lyophilised serum offers significant advantages over frozen serum when it comes to shipping such material over long distances. Babesia bigemina and B bovis were cultured in medium supplemented by either frozen-thawed or lyophilised-rehydrated serum. There were no significant differences between the two types of medium in the growth of parasites and percentage of infected cells during subcultivation for 18 days.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Atrial natriuretic peptide suppresses osmostimulated vasopressin release in young and elderly humans.

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) may suppress vasopressin release, but the dynamics of this interaction as well as the influence of age have not been defined. We studied six or seven young (19-40 yr old) and seven elderly volunteers (65-83 yr old) under two circumstances: 1) after infusion of 5% saline (0.04 ml.kg-1.min-1) for 2 h and 2) after the same infusion given with simultaneous synthetic human ANP (0.05 micrograms.kg-1.min-1). Hypertonic saline alone produced a progressive rise in plasma vasopressin with increasing serum sodium. During hypertonic saline alone, vasopressin levels began to rise at an increment in serum sodium of 1.67 +/- 0.35 mM in the young and 1.43 +/- 0.32 mM in the elderly and rose linearly with increasing serum sodium. When ANP was infused with hypertonic saline (with peak ANP levels of approximately 1,000 pM), vasopressin levels began to rise at an increment in serum sodium of 4.43 +/- 0.67 mM in the young and 4.57 +/- 0.43 mM in the elderly (P less than 0.01 vs. saline alone). Furthermore, the vasopressin response for any given serum sodium was significantly reduced in both young and elderly subjects, resulting in a rightward displacement of the curve relating vasopressin response to sodium concentration (P less than 0.001). In conclusion, ANP not only suppresses vasopressin but raises the threshold for release of vasopressin in response to osmotic stimulation in both young and elderly individuals. High circulating ANP levels may be responsible in part for the suppression of vasopressin levels and water diuresis seen during states of volume expansion.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Characterization of beta-amyloid precursor proteins with or without the protease-inhibitor domain using anti-peptide antibodies.

Alternative splicing of the transcript encoding the beta-amyloid precursor protein (BAPP) of Alzheimer's disease produces multiple mRNA species. Translation of these mRNAs predicts protein products of 770, 751, and 695 amino acids. The difference arises from the inclusion in BAPP-770/751 of a 56-residue insert region which is homologous to Kunitz-type protease inhibitors. We have prepared and affinity-purified anti-peptide antibodies that react specifically with either BAPP-770/751 (insert-specific) or BAPP-695 (junction-specific). A detectable level of the mRNA corresponding to the BAPP-770/751 protein was found in all cell lines tested. Immunoprecipitation of 35S-labeled proteins from these cell lines showed them to contain one or two Mr 105,000 bands reactive with the insert-specific serum, i-291. In contrast, only cos-7 cells and the human neuroblastoma cell line, IMR-32, contained mRNA species that encode the BAPP-695 protein, as shown by Northern analysis with a junction-spanning oligonucleotide probe. A band of Mr 95,000 was immunoprecipitated specifically from these two cell lines using the junction-specific serum, J-284. Indirect immunofluorescence labeling of cells corroborated these findings. All cells reacted with the insert-specific antibodies, i-291 and i-324. Only cos-7 and IMR-32 cells reacted with the junction-specific antibody, J-284. These results demonstrate the usefulness of anti-peptide antibodies for the differential detection of the BAPP-695 and BAPP-770/751 proteins.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1987

Use of long-acting oxytetracycline in the immunisation of cattle against Babesia bovis and B bigemina.

Forty Friesian one-year-old calves were vaccinated simultaneously with live Babesia bovis and B bigemina vaccines. Three groups of 10 calves each were treated with two, three or four doses of 20 mg kg-1 long-acting oxytetracycline (OTC/LA) at six- to seven-day intervals starting from day 6 after vaccination. Ten animals remained untreated. The treated calves showed considerably fewer days of patency and higher packed cell volumes than the vaccinated untreated calves. All calves developed serum antibodies to both parasites following vaccination. Five months later the 40 vaccinated and 30 new calves were challenged with syringe-transferred virulent parasites of both species. The vaccinated calves showed no parasites or clinical manifestations while calves of the new group exhibited severe clinical babesiosis. These results show that when OTC/LA is administered following anti-babesial vaccination, parasitaemia and red blood cell destruction are significantly reduced without, however, inhibiting the development of immunity.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

An HLA-B locus probe clarifies endonuclease polymorphism of major histocompatibility complex class I genes.

A DNA probe specific for the HLA-B locus has been isolated from a broadly cross-reactive HLA class I genomic clone. Locus specificity of the probe appears to be derived primarily from a stretch of approximately 180 nucleotides comprising the last (7th) intron of the original B7 gene. Use of the probe to analyze Southern blots of genomic DNA from unrelated individuals provides the first direct demonstration of intragenic localization of an HLA allele-specific restriction endonuclease site. Availability of this probe should make practicable the study of HLA-B locus restriction fragment length polymorphism as genetic markers of disease susceptibility, and should provide a model for developing probes specific for other HLA class I loci.

Cloning, Molecular↗
PubMed1977

Surgical-orthodontic correction of open-bite deformity.

The combined simultaneous anterior and posterior maxillary ostectomy has proved to be a useful method of treating skeletal open-bite. It is indicated primarily in patients with lip incompetence, excessive exposure of maxillary anterior teeth, long lower-face height, contour-deficient chin, and Class II malocclusion. Primary contraindications are the Class III skeletal open-bite and lip competence. We have used the procedure as routine treatment for many open-bites over the past 5 years since we first described it. Clinically, the results have been most gratifying, with marked improvement in facial appearance and stability of the open-bite correction. A preliminary study of stability following this procedure indicated good stability with regard to the vertical repositioning of the maxillary segments. A recently completed study by us on thirty-two patients treated with this procedure and followed for an average of 1.5 years showed excellent stability. This is by no means the only method by which open-bite may be successfully treated, but it is one more method to add to our armamentarium. The surgical procedure must be carefully planned and executed to attain the best possible results. Furthermore, the orthodontic procedures, particularly those involving vertical forces, must be provided at the proper time so that the surgical results are not compromised. Nevertheless, with proper planning, attention to detail, and meticulous execution, the results are rewarding.

Adolescent↗