PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

L Irwin

Publications and source records attributed to L Irwin.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Potassium-induced depolarization displaces exogenously incorporated gangliosides from cortical slices.

Freshly diced rat cerebral cortical tissue was incubated with [3H]gangliosides for 30 min, then perfused for 2 h with different physiological solutions. Significantly more labeled (exogenous) gangliosides were displaced when mildly depolarizing concentrations (25 mM) of KCl were included in the perfusion medium. This provides new evidence for an interaction between gangliosides and membrane mechanisms of excitation.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Characteristics of children and adolescents in a psychiatric hospital and a corrections facility.

Popular opinion holds that youngsters in corrections programs are delinquents in need of reform, whereas youngsters in psychiatric settings have mental health problems and need therapy. Yet some literature suggests that youth in the two settings may not differ greatly in their mental health status. The authors compared demographic, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of youngsters placed in public psychiatric hospital and corrections settings, and they found few differences. Child Behavior Checklist scores for social competence and total problems were high and quite similar for youngsters in the two settings. White children scored significantly worse than black children on Child Behavior Checklist Internalizing, Externalizing, and total problems in corrections settings but not in the psychiatric hospital. Moreover, race was the only variable that predicted the site in which youth were placed. The findings suggest a need to study (1) the mental health needs of youngsters in nonmental health settings and (2) the procedures by which youth are assigned to service settings.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Performance-based measurements among elderly drivers and nondrivers.

Although driving is an important ability for maintaining independence in the later years, clinical factors that determine driving status are unknown. Aged male veterans (mean age, 70 years) were recruited from an outpatient clinic (N = 143), including 77 frequent drivers, 41 infrequent drivers, and 25 who drove rarely or not at all. There were 116 (84%) who completed a comprehensive performance-based assessment. There were no significant differences between the three groups in age, formal cognitive testing, or prevalence of stroke history. However, there were significant differences in grip strength, reaction time, static visual acuity, dynamic visual acuity, and peripheral vision. Using stepwise ordinal logistic regression, dynamic visual acuity, nondominant hand grip strength, and total horizontal peripheral visual field were significantly associated with driving frequency (P less than .05), and together explained approximately 45% of the variance. Subtle motor and visual deficits that can be detected by a performance-based assessment may play an important role in determining driving frequency in the elderly.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1987

Treatment of disseminated germ-cell tumors with cisplatin, bleomycin, and either vinblastine or etoposide.

Standard chemotherapy for disseminated germ-cell tumors includes a combination of cisplatin, vinblastine, and bleomycin, but this regimen produces substantial neuromuscular toxicity. In a randomized clinical trial in 261 men with disseminated germ-cell tumors, we substituted etoposide for the vinblastine in this regimen in half the patients to compare the efficacy and toxicity of the two treatments. Among 244 patients who could be evaluated for a response, 74 percent of those receiving the regimen including vinblastine and 83 percent of those receiving the regimen including etoposide became disease-free with or without subsequent surgery (P not significant). Among the 157 patients with high tumor volume, 61 percent became disease-free on the regimen that included vinblastine, as compared with 77 percent on the regimen that included etoposide (P less than 0.05). Survival among the patients who received etoposide was higher (P = 0.048). The regimens were similar in terms of myelosuppressive effects and pulmonary toxicity. However, the etoposide regimen caused substantially fewer paresthesias (P = 0.02), abdominal cramps (P = 0.0008), and myalgias (P = 0.00002). We conclude that etoposide with cisplatin and bleomycin is superior to vinblastine with cisplatin and bleomycin in the treatment of disseminated germ-cell tumors because of diminished neuromuscular toxicity and, among patients with advanced disease, better efficacy.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1987

Doxorubicin and methotrexate on a weekly schedule in patients with sarcomas.

Fifty-five sarcoma patients with advanced measurable disease were treated with a doxorubicin and methotrexate combination in which both drugs were given on a weekly schedule. Patients received doxorubicin and methotrexate at three prospectively evaluated treatment levels with doxorubicin dosage ranging from 0.5 to 0.725 mg/kg/week and methotrexate dosage ranging from 0.25 to 0.375 mg/kg/week. Objective responses were seen in 11 of 39 (28%) patients receiving the two higher doxorubicin-methotrexate treatment levels where doxorubicin dose was greater than 0.5 mg/kg/week compared to only 2 of 16 (12%) patients receiving lower doxorubicin levels (p less than 0.05), suggestive of a dose-response relationship. Toxicity of this regimen was manageable but stomatitis was appreciable, seen in 30% of patients. These results support the activity of weekly doxorubicin in sarcoma therapy. However, no apparent improvement was associated with addition of conventional dose methotrexate to weekly doxorubicin treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Hepatic artery ligation and adriamycin infusion chemotherapy for hepatoma.

Two patients with hepatoma of the liver were treated with ligation of the hepatic artery and continuous infusion of adriamycin into the distal arterial branch. Both patients had tumor replacing 60-75% of the normal liver parenchyma. There was clinical improvement and objective shrinkage of the tumor by liver scan lasting for 5 and 7 months. But both cases died 7 and 11 months later, probably of cardiac toxicity (total dose of adriamycin = 500 mg/m2).

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Lymphangitic carcinomatosis: lung scan abnormalities.

Lymphangitic carcinomatosis of the lung is a late and fatal manifestation of cancer. The diagnosis is seldom made ante mortem. Four patients with breast cancer had autopsy-proven lymphangitic metastases of the lung. Of these patients, two had normal chest x-rays and three had normal ventilation lung scans. The perfusion lung scans of all four showed irregular peripheral perfusion defects. Autopsies showed permeation of the lymphatics by tumor and tumor emboli in small arteries and arterioles.

Adult↗