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Biomedical subjects

N Caine

Publications and source records attributed to N Caine.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Prospective study of quality of life before and after coronary artery bypass grafting.

OBJECTIVES: Measurement of changes in patients' perceptions of how differing states of health affect their lives and determination of the ability of preoperative variables to predict outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting. DESIGN: Prospective study with completion of questionnaires before coronary artery bypass grafting and at three months, one year, and five years afterwards. SETTING: Regional cardiothoracic centre. PATIENTS: 100 Male patients all aged below 60 at the time of operation, who were patients of two cardiothoracic surgeons. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients' assessment of their health state in terms of functional capacity and aspects of distress, according to the Nottingham health profile and outcome of operation in terms of changes in symptoms, working life, and daily activities determined by self completed study questionnaires before operation and at three and six months afterwards. RESULTS: Intermediate one year results are reported. The differences between the Nottingham health profile scores before operation and at three months afterwards were significantly different (p less than 0.01), indicating an appreciable improvement in general health state, and at one year compared favourably with those from a normal male population. Analysis of responses to the study questionnaire showed that 65 of 89 patients (73%) were working at one year after operation with a further seven (8%) maintaining that they were fit to work but unable to find employment. The proportion of patients complaining of chest pain fell from 90% (88/98) before grafting to 19% (17/89) at one year after coronary artery bypass grafting, when 91% (81/89) patients maintained that their condition was either completely better or definitely improved. The significant positive factors affecting return to work and home activities were working before operation, short wait for operation, absence of breathlessness, and low physical mobility score in the Nottingham health profile (all p less than 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Improvements were evident in general health state, symptoms, and activity at three months and one year after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Interventions likely to influence outcomes included reduction in waiting times for operation; rehabilitation initiatives; and more attention to the quality of information given to patients, their relatives, and the community.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1991

Risk factor analysis for the major hazards following heart transplantation--rejection, infection, and coronary occlusive disease.

This study demonstrates the importance of analyzing survival by cause of death in order to achieve a better understanding of the prognostic indicators involved. It further emphasizes the need for analysis of risk factors in both univariate and multivariate models, and the danger of making judgements based on premature analysis of data on follow-up after heart transplantation. Survival following transplantation is characterized by the major hazards of early death due to infection and rejection and late graft loss due to coronary occlusive disease (COD). This study summarizes the first-graft survival experience for 323 transplant patients at Papworth Hospital, and assesses a number of potential risk factors for (1) early mortality, (2) late mortality from COD, and (3) development of COD. The potential risk factors considered for all hazards are donor and recipient age, sex, blood group, and matching of these factors; donor cause of death and recipient immunosuppression; inotropic support; waiting time; preoperative diagnosis and previous cardiac surgery; ischemic time; and extubation time. In addition, for development of, and graft loss from, COD, perioperative rejection and cytomegalovirus infection; hypertension at discharge; and cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipids at two years were assessed as risk factors. Advances in immunosuppression were observed to have increased overall survival rates and decreased mortality from infection, rejection, and COD, as well as decreasing morbidity from COD. Fatal rejection was found to be more likely in female recipients, recipients over 40 years, recipients of grafts from donors over 30 years old, patients who were transplanted for valvular heart disease, and patients who waited less than three months for their transplant. Male recipients of female donor organs were more likely to lose their grafts as a result of COD. Patients older than 50 and hearts from donors older than 40 conferred a high risk of development of and loss from COD. Patients transplanted for ischemic heart disease were more likely to develop COD. High cholesterol, low HDL, high LDL, and high triglycerides at two years after transplant showed some evidence of high risk for the subsequent development of COD, although these relationships are not statistically significant at this stage. Contrary to other recent studies, cytomegalovirus infection was not found to be a risk factor for the development of COD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Heart and lung transplantation for terminal cystic fibrosis. A 4 1/2-year experience.

From among 112 patients with cystic fibrosis who were assessed for heart-lung transplantation, 83 were accepted. Twenty-six died while awaiting heart-lung transplantation and 32 had the operation. The management and the outcome of these 32 patients is reported. Survival, infection, and rejection rates among these patients were compared with those of 61 patients without cystic fibrosis who underwent heart-lung transplantation between 1984 and 1990. The cumulative survival rate was 72.29% +/- 94.91% at 1 year and 55.59% +/- 7.50% at 3 years. The mortality rate was slightly higher in the group with cystic fibrosis during the first year after the operation but it was lower at 3 years. The difference, however, could have been due to chance alone (p = 0.308). The same was true for the prevalence of rejection (up to 6 months: chi 2 = 1.8141, p = 0.17), and infection (up to 6 months: chi 2 = 2.20, p = 0.14), between the two groups. It is concluded that cystic fibrosis does not constitute an additional risk in terms of survival and morbidity after heart-lung transplantation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

General practitioners' knowledge about patients and use of medical records in out of hours calls.

The medical record is an established adjunct to good care and this paper describes the extent to which general practitioners use patients' records in out of hours calls and how their previous knowledge of their patients affects the decision to visit. Seven general practitioners from three group practices in Cambridge and Newmarket each operating a separate out of hours rota recorded details of out of hours telephone calls. Of 368 calls recorded, 293 (80%) resulted in a visit. In 51% of calls the patient was known to the doctor but the doctors were just as likely to visit patients they knew as those unknown to them. In 41% of the calls the doctors were able to recall a degree of clinically relevant information about the patient. In 47 of the calls (13%) recalled information concerning the patient was an influence in the decision whether to visit. The patient's record was collected before the visit in 30% of visits to the elderly compared with 17% for all age groups. The most often quoted reasons for not collecting the medical record were that it was likely to be unhelpful and/or it was geographically inconvenient. Although doctors who collected the record found it useful in 84% of cases, obtaining the record either before or after the visit rarely changed the management of the patient. On the occasions when it did affect management it was of importance both clinically and medico-legally.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

England↗
PubMed1988

Screening for proteinuria in a rheumatology clinic: comparison of dipstick testing, 24 hour urine quantitative protein, and protein/creatinine ratio in random urine samples.

Measurements of protein/creatinine ratio in 'spot' urine samples were compared with measurements of 24 hour quantitative proteinuria and side room 'dipstick' testing in 104 samples from 90 patients presenting consecutively to a rheumatology unit. Linear regression analysis showed a highly significant correlation between the random urinary protein/creatinine ratio and total protein excretion in 24 hour urine samples (r = 0.92, p less than 0.001, y = 6.55x + 0.04). Although an approximation of 24 hour urinary protein excretion could have been made from the regression line: 24 hour urine protein = 6.55 x protein/creatinine ratio + 0.04 (g/l), there was a wide scatter of values, particularly in patients with greater than 1 g/24 h urinary protein excretion. Nevertheless, significant proteinuria (greater than 300 mg/24 h) could have been confirmed or excluded with a sensitivity and specificity of 97% by adopting random protein/creatinine values of less than 0.04 as 'normal'. Specificity and sensitivity could have been increased to 100%, however, by excluding patients with values lying between 0.01 and 0.10 as all the false negatives (n = 3) and false positives (n = 3) lay within this range. In comparison, dipstick testing, although 100% sensitive, had a poor specificity due to the high false positive rate (40/83 (48%] in patients with 1+ to 3+ readings. Assessment of random urinary protein/creatinine ratio may obviate the need for 24 hour urine collections in the initial assessment of suspected proteinuria. A wider application of this technique seems indicated in view of the obvious advantages in terms of cost, time, and patient convenience.

Creatinine↗
PubMed1988

Cardiac surgery for patients aged 65 years and older: a long term survival analysis.

Between January 1973 and December 1984, 562 patients aged greater than or equal to 65 had cardiac surgery at Papworth Hospital. Most had mitral or aortic valve replacements (coronary artery bypass grafting was not introduced for this age group at Papworth until 1977). The overall operative mortality, defined as death within thirty days or death before leaving hospital, was 7.3%. There were no early deaths in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. Questionnaires sent to general practitioners in East Anglia traced 86.0% of the patients who survived to leave hospital. The longer term survival rates for all patients were 88.0%. (95% confidence interval (CI) 85 to 91) at one year and 74.4% (95% CI 69 to 79) at five years. The rates for those patients who survived the initial few months were 96.3% (95% CI 94 to 98) at one year and 81.5% (95% CI 77 to 86) at five years and these rates were no different from those in the general population aged greater than or equal to 65.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

Study of trainer/trainee workload with special reference to the care of the elderly.

A study of the workload of trainers and their trainees in general practice, was undertaken throughout East Anglia. Thirty trainer/trainee pairs returned data over a two-week period and follow-up information was obtained from five pairs, eight months later. A simple encounter form was used.Trainee workloads were found to be similar to those of earlier studies, though there was considerable variation between the workloads. Trainees had little experience with elderly patients, and there was a lack of teamwork between members of the practices in providing care for the elderly.

Efficiency↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Heart transplantation in patients over 54 years of age with triple-drug therapy immunosuppression.

Between April 1, 1986, and December 31, 1989, 206 patients received orthotopic heart transplants with triple-drug therapy immunosuppression (cyclosporine, azathioprine, prednisone). Forty-six patients were aged 55 years or more at the time of transplantation and 160 patients were less than 55 years of age; these two groups were compared. Selection criteria and treatment regimen were the same in both groups. In our experience, although both groups had good postoperative survival, older patients had higher mortality rates early after transplantation, particularly from rejection and infection. Patients over 55 years of age had similar nonfatal rejection rates and were no more likely to have infectious episodes than younger patients. As demand for heart transplantation increases and waiting lists lengthen, the age of potential recipients should be an important factor in deciding how to allocate scarce donated organs, although age should not be exclusive.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Influence of recipient and donor gender on outcome after heart transplantation.

To investigate the effect of recipient and donor genders on the outcome after heart transplantation, a retrospective survey was undertaken of 356 patients (366 transplants: 316 males, 40 females) undergoing transplantation between January 1979 and December 31, 1989, at Papworth Hospital. Ninety-three organs came from female donors; 263 organs came from males. Twelve females (30%; 95% confidence interval 16% to 44%) and 51 males (16%; 95% confidence interval 12% to 20%) died in the early postoperative period (within 90 days of operation). To date, two females (5%) and 51 males (16%) have died in the late postoperative period. Comparison between recipient genders showed no statistically significant difference in early mortality rates from any cause or in actuarial survival overall, although fatal acute rejection was significantly more common in female recipients (7 of 40 female recipients versus 19 of 316 male recipients). The higher incidence of fatal rejection among female recipients was related to the higher proportion of female donors in this group, because recipients of female donor grafts had significantly higher mortality rates, particularly in the early postoperative period and as a result of acute rejection, than did recipients of organs from male donors. Death from rejection after the first 3 months and death from infection were not gender-related. Recipients of grafts from female donors did not suffer significantly more early morbidity, such as rejection and infection, or late morbidity in the form of coronary artery disease. Acute rejection episodes were more common in female recipients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Actuarial Analysis↗