PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Forrest

Publications and source records attributed to M Forrest.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Differing roles for platelet-activating factor during inflammation of the lung and subarachnoid space. The special case of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Although well-characterized in the lung, the role of platelet-activating factor (PAF) in inflammation in the central nervous system is undefined. Using rabbit models of meningitis and pneumonia, PAF was found to induce significant blood-brain barrier permeability and brain edema at doses five times lower than those required to generate leukocyte recruitment to the subarachnoid space. Both leukocytosis and increased vascular permeability occurred in response to PAF in the lung. Antibody to the CD-18 family of leukocyte adhesion molecules inhibited leukocyte recruitment in response to PAF in the brain (greater than 80%); a similar level of inhibition in the lung required treatment with a combination of a PAF receptor antagonist (L-659,989) and anti-CD18 antibody. Treatment with L-659,989 decreased abnormal cerebrospinal fluid cytochemical values induced by intracisternal challenge with pneumococci but not Haemophilus influenzae, indicating a special role for PAF in pneumococcal disease. Antibodies directed at phosphorylcholine, a unique, shared determinant of bioactivity of PAF and pneumococcal cell wall, obviated the inflammatory potential of both agents. However, no evidence for a direct PAF-like activity of pneumococcal cell wall components was detected in vitro by bioassay using platelets or neutrophils. It is concluded that PAF can induce inflammation in the subarachnoid space. In brain, PAF effects appear to be mediated through CD-18-dependent events, while in lung, PAF effects independent of CD-18 are also evident. At both sites, PAF is of particular clinical importance during inflammation induced by pneumococci apparently due to a unique proinflammatory relationship between the pneumococcal cell wall teichoic acid and PAF.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

An exploratory study of drawings by bereaved children.

Bereaved and non-bereaved children made drawings of a person, themselves, their family, and a topic of their choice; the drawings were then analysed to investigate whether the experience of bereavement was expressed in drawing in any reliable way. Bereaved children were no more likely than non-bereaved children to include indicators of emotional disturbance in their human figure drawings. Bereaved children, however, were reliably more likely than non-bereaved children to include themselves in a drawing of their family.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

The effect of the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil on the sequels of diazepam given before upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. A double-blind randomized trial.

The prolonged sedation of benzodiazepines may be inconvenient for the patient. Reversal of sedation, therefore, would be desirable. Accordingly, we assessed the efficacy of the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil in a placebo-controlled randomized trial including 40 adults undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy under diazepam (Diazemuls) sedation. We found no significant differences between groups with regard to either performance (two tests) or duration (within 240 min) of sedation. There were no noticeable side effects.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Immunoblot patterns of Giardia duodenalis isolates from different hosts and geographical locations.

Eighteen isolates of Giardia duodenalis from animal and human sources were studied for protein differences by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and for antigenic differences by immunoblot analysis. The polyacrylamide gels showed that whilst the isolates were for the most part homogeneous in their protein banding patterns, some isolates did show some differences. The immunoblot analysis yielded many bands, including prominent bands of 32 and 66 kilodaltons. Five of the six isolates that showed differences in protein banding pattern also showed differences in antigenic reactivity. Our findings suggest that differences can be seen with the use of immunoblotting and that this technique is a tool that may be useful for isolate differentiation when used in conjunction with other techniques.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

[Scientific articles in Ugeskrift for Laeger during a 25-year period. Types of articles and experimental design].

The purpose of this study was to examine possible trends in the research designs used in Ugeskrift for Laeger during 25 years. The scientific articles in 12 issues of the journal selected at random from each of the years 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, and 1984 were reviewed. From each article, the following information was obtained: type of article (original paper, case report, or review), origin of the paper and number of authors. For the original papers, it was noted whether it was a longitudinal or a cross-sectional study, and whether it was a cohort or a trohoc study. Furthermore the number of subjects and the use of control group, randomization and blinding were registered. The number of articles and the number of authors per article increased during the period. Contrary to similar studies of some widely circulated English-language journals, we could not demonstrate any increase of the frequency of studies with weak research design. On the other hand, no striking improvement was observed either. Most studies had no control group and randomization and blinding were used in less than 10% of the original papers. The present study does not permit an evaluation of whether the research designs used i Ugeskrift for Laeger are satisfactory.

Denmark↗
PubMed1989

[Scientific articles in Ugeskrift for Laeger during a 25-year period. Analysis and interpretation of research results].

During a period of 25 years from 1959 to 1984, no essential alteration in the employment of descriptive statistics was observed in the original articles in the Ugeskrift whereas analytical statistics was employed to an increasing extent. In all of these volumes, defective, incorrect or less suitable employment of statistics could be demonstrated. Common problems were: analyses of materials in which some patients participated once while others participated on several occasions; debatable analyses of data on ranking scales; employment of 2-group tests on several groups; insufficient analysis of cross-over trials; lack of confidence intervals, and circular reasoning.

Denmark↗
PubMed1989

Assessment of pain: a comparison between patients and doctors.

In a trial based on 52 patients admitted because of acute abdominal pain, we compared the assessment of pain intensity by doctors and patients according to a visual analogue scale. We found significant differences with regard to the median score of the doctors (3.4 cm) compared to the patients (6.1 cm). The correlation was 0.64 while the differences in dispersion were insignificant. Our findings indicate that it is far from unimportant who makes the pain assessment--the patient who experiences it or the doctor who evaluates it--but they also suggest that the differences could be a matter of scaling.

Abdomen↗
PubMed1989

Pain relief following herniotomy: a double-blind randomized comparison between naproxen and placebo.

Sixty consecutive out-patients were randomly assigned to have either a non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (naproxen 500 mg) or an identical placebo administered as suppositories half an hour before unilateral herniotomy. Within 1.5 h after the end of surgery, pain scores were significantly improved in patients receiving naproxen (P less than 0.02). The long-term analgesic effect was measured indirectly by registering the postoperative requirement for supplementary analgesic doses of acetylsalicylic acid 1 g plus codeine 20 mg. The time elapsing before the first demand for additional analgesics was prolonged by median 1.5 h, and the need for further analgesic treatment during 24 h was significantly reduced (P less than 0.003) in the naproxen group (median, 2 doses) compared to the placebo group (median, 4 doses). No statistically significant difference was found between the groups with regard to the occurrence of side-effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Ordinal scale and statistics in medical research.

A survey of the 1982 editions of 12 medical journals showed that in at least 70% of 175 papers employing ordinal measurement scales, statistical methods were used, which do, in fact, assume a more refined measurement scale. Non-parametric methods suited for analysis of ordinal data are listed.

Research↗
PubMed1986

Pharmacokinetics and effects of isoxicam on renal function in patients with renal insufficiency.

The pharmacokinetics of isoxicam, a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, were studied in 20 osteoarthritis patients with varying degrees of renal insufficiency. A wide variation in pharmacokinetic parameters was seen between individuals but there was no suggestion that renal function influenced pharmacokinetics. Steady state plasma isoxicam concentrations varied from 20 micrograms/ml to 130 micrograms/ml, while the plasma half-life varied from 23 hours to 58 hours. Despite a reduction in urinary prostaglandin E2 excretion, isoxicam administration did not alter renal function over a 4-week period.

Aged↗