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Biomedical subjects

P R Fawcett

Publications and source records attributed to P R Fawcett.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Polyunsaturated fatty acids in treatment of acute remitting multiple sclerosis.

One hundred and sixteen patients with acute remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) took part in a double-blind controlled trial of treatment with polyunsaturated fatty acids and were randomly allocated to one of four groups. Two groups received linoleic acid, one alone as a spread and one with gamma-linolenic acid in capsules (Naudicelle); and two control groups received oleic acid, one as a spread and one in capsules. Rates of clinical deterioration and frequencies of attacks were not significantly different between treated and control groups. Exacerbations were shorter and less severe in patients receiving a high dose of linoleic acid than in controls, but those receiving a lower dose--that is, Naudicelle--showed no such difference. Thus supplementing the diet with 20 g linoleic acid marginally affected the duration and severity of relapses of MS but had no effect on overall disability. The dose of Naudicelle used provided insufficient supplementation.

Adult

Becker-type muscular dystrophy.

This is a review of clinical, cardiologic, electrophysiologic, pathologic, and serum creatine kinase changes in eight families with slowly progressive X-linked Becker-type muscular dystrophy. All but one of the patients were able to walk until the age of 16 years, and most lived beyond 20. In every family, electromyography and muscle biopsy showed features which, on the basis of classical criteria, were interpreted as those of both myopathy and denervation, although among patients and among families, one or the other of these processes predominated. The most frequent biopsy picture was of fiber atrophy and hypertrophy, with many split and angulated fibers, and clumps of pyknotic nuclei. Necrosis, phagocytosis, regeneration, endomysial fibrosis, and some fatty infiltration were commonly seen. Review of a family originally described by Becker showed a similar biopsy picture; These pathologic changes are separable from those of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but they often overlap with those seen in other chronic neuromuscular diseases.

Adolescent