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Biomedical subjects

P C Stanley

Publications and source records attributed to P C Stanley.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Toxic trace metals in the mentally ill patients.

Serum Cadmium and lead were measured in 61 in- and out-patients of the Mental Health Unit of a University Teaching Hospital. Diagnosis using the ICD-10 Criteria divided the patients into 21 Depressives, 20 Manic-depressive and 20 Schizophrenics. Twenty "healthy" individuals matched for age and sex were used as controls. The measurements of cadmium and lead were done on admission and at 3 and 7 weeks after the relevant treatment had been given. Serum zinc was also measured because of the interaction between zinc and these toxic metals. Measurement was with the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Results showed that cadmium was raised in depressives (p < 0.02) and reduced in mania patients (p < 0.01). Lead was increased in depressives (p < 0.01) and schizophrenics (p < 0.05) but not in mania patients. Serum zinc was reduced in all mental patients. Serum levels of the toxic metals of the mental patients tended to move towards the values of the control group with treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

An assessment of variable thickness and fiber orientation of the skeletal muscle layer on electrocardiographic calculations.

This paper assesses the effectiveness of including variable thickness and fiber orientation characteristics of the skeletal muscle layer in calculations relating epicardial and torso potentials. A realistic model of a canine torso which includes extensive detail about skeletal muscle layer thickness and fiber orientation is compared with two other uniformly anisotropic models: one of constant thickness and the other of variable thickness. First, transfer coefficients are calculated from the model data. Then torso potentials for each model are calculated from the transfer coefficients and measured epicardial potentials. The comparison of calculated and observed torso potentials indicates that a simple model consisting of a uniformly anisotropic skeletal muscle layer of 1.0-1.5 cm constant thickness significantly improves the model. However, if photographic slices of the canine torso are used to introduce more detailed data about the variation in skeletal muscle thickness and fiber orientation into the model, the agreement and between calculated and measured torso potentials decreased, although a finite element mesh of over 5000 nodes was used to describe the skeletal muscle in the more detailed model. One source of error increase was considered to be due to numerical discretization and could be reduced with a much finer mesh or by utilizing higher order polynomials to represent the potential distribution within each finite element. However, the results presented in this paper show that high precision computation (64-bit word length) on the mainframe IBM 3081 with an attached FPS-164 gives a slow rate of improvement with reduced discretization intervals and that utilizing higher order polynomials within each finite element gives an even slower rate of improvement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Collimator angulation error and its effect on SPECT.

Angulation errors in collimator septa degrade tomographic resolution in SPECT due to mispositioning of events in the projection data. These errors should be small compared to other contributions to SPECT system resolution, such as intrinsic camera and collimator resolution, gantry alignment, and algorithmic smoothing. We describe a radioisotope technique to measure septal angulation errors over the entire collimator surface to +/- 0.05 degrees (RMS). A simple computer simulation is used to estimate a tolerance level, based on a 1% degradation in reconstructed resolution, of 0.25 degrees (RMS) and 0.6 degrees (max.) for collimator septal deviations. We also point out two methods for collimator linearity correction during SPECT reconstruction.

Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon↗
PubMed1989

The combination method: a numerical technique for electrocardiographic calculations.

This paper presents a method for electrocardiographic and other bioelectric calculations combining the Green's function boundary integral technique with the finite element method. Both the boundary integral method and the finite element method have been used extensively in electrocardiography for calculating epicardial and torso potentials. The boundary integral method is well suited for finding potentials in regions of isotropic conductivity and is computationally efficient, requiring unknown potentials to be calculated on the bounding surfaces only. It also compares favorably in accuracy with the finite element method in those regions. The finite element method is used in solving for potentials in regions of anisotropic conductivity since no simplifying assumptions or transformations of anisotropic regions into isotropic regions before solution are required. Combining the two methods, using the boundary integral method in isotropic regions and the finite element method is anisotropic regions, allows the advantages of both methods to be exploited.

Electrocardiography↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Pattern of childhood psychiatric disorders in Port Harcourt, Niger-Delta region of Nigeria (January 1999-December 2002).

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric disorders in children are uncommon but remain a great source of anxiety to parents. In view of the paucity of such studies in Eastern Nigeria, this study has become imperative. METHOD: All children seen in the psychiatric out patient clinics, psychiatric wards and other departments were studied. Diagnosis was made with criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV of 1994. RESULTS: Out of a total number of 1,645 psychiatric cases seen, 411 were children representing 25%; of these 411 cases, 235 were females (57.2%) and 176 were males (42.8%). Depressive illness constituted 35%, anxiety disorders 30%, drug related disorders 17%, conduct disorders 9%, and others 9%. Gender differences were noted in all the conditions listed above except for enuresis, mental retardation, epileptiform psychosis and schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: Government Health Policy to protect the mental health of our children so as to guarantee their full mental development should be developed and implemented.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Socio-demographic and forensic characteristics of alcohol abusers in Jos, Nigeria.

The socio-demographic and forensic characteristics of fifty(50) alcohol abusers were examined in a community survey carried out in Kugiya (a predominantly Christian Berom ethnic group in Jos) who brew and take predominantly a local alcohol, Burukutu. A stratified sampling method was used to select 142 subjects who took part in the study, out of whom 50 (54%) males and 23 (46%) females of ages 16-54 years were identified as Alcohol Abusers through the use of a 4-item CAGE instrument and also the quantity taken. The questionnaire also highlighted the socio-forensic characteristics of the studied group. Alcohol abuse disrupts social, occupational, interpersonal and marital life and tends to induce criminal behaviour.

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Pattern of substance use among secondary school students in Rivers State.

BACKGROUND: The problem of substance use in our secondary schools with cultism has negatively affected learning [corrected]. The aim of this study was to determine the commonly used substances and the factors that influence their use in these adolescents. METHODOLOGY: One thousand and forty-nine students of four secondary schools in Port Harcourt were screened using a self administered 117 items-substance use questionnaires. RESULTS: Males constituted 57.2% and females, 42.8% of the study population. Eighty-seven percent were using at least one substance, at the time of the survey while 3% were past users in the last one-year. Ten percent had never used any of the substances. The substances commonly used included alcohol 65%, kolanut 63.1%, cigarettes 61%, paracetamol 41.5%, butazolidine 39.3%, pemoline 28% and cannabis 26%. Others include tetracycline 25.7% and ampicillin 24.3% and valium 24%. Those that were least used included, heroine, cocaine, latex, petrol, pethidine and ativan. The mean age of onset for alcohol was 4 years, kolanut 8 years, cigarettes 11 years, paracetamol, tetracycline, valium, cannabis was, 12 years, lexotan and ativan, was 12.5 years and, latex inhalation, petrol, pethidine, ativan, cocaine and heroine was 13.17 years. Males predominated in all the substances used. CONCLUSION: The use of substances/drugs among our youths is assuming a dangerous dimension, hence calls for immediate and enduring measures to curb this disturbing trend of abuse of substances.

Adolescent↗