PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

P Rush

Publications and source records attributed to P Rush.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Childhood linear scleroderma: a possible role of thermography for evaluation.

Linear scleroderma is a rare, at times debilitating, disease with an unpredictable course. Currently, there is no satisfactory objective method for assessment of disease activity upon which to base therapeutic decisions. We evaluated 11 children with 18 linear scleroderma lesions (mean age 11.7 years, mean duration of disease 5.1 years) for disease severity and the presence of immunologic abnormalities, and attempted to correlate these results with thermography. Positive thermography was defined as warmer than surrounding skin or opposite limb by 0.5 degrees C. Six patients were thermography positive. Mean age, sex, disease duration and the presence of hypergammaglobulinemia and autoantibodies were similar in thermography positive and thermography negative patients. Six of 18 linear scleroderma lesions were thermography positive. All 3 new or expanding lesions were thermography positive. All 3 lesions that were resolving clinically were thermography negative. Three of 12 lesions that were clinically unchanged over a 6-month period were also thermography positive. In summary, thermography is a noninvasive test that appears to demonstrate active lesions in linear scleroderma. It is not influenced by previous soft tissue damage induced by linear scleroderma and may enable better monitoring of the effectiveness of proposed therapies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Tender shins and steroid therapy.

To quantify previously described shin tenderness in patients receiving chronic steroid therapy, we studied 54 patients, 26 treated with steroid, by dolorimetry at 4 control, 4 "fibrositic," and 4 shin sites. To measure observer variation, assessments were done by 2 or 3 of 10 observers, one of whom examined each subject. The specific increase of tenderness at shin sites associated with steroid therapy was confirmed, with a mean (SD) threshold in the steroid group of 3.0 (1.7) kg, and in the control group 5.6 (2.4). Other effects which were not site specific were found. There was a 2.0 kg increase in control site tenderness associated with steroid therapy, and a similar general increase in tenderness in patients with lupus and in women, independent of steroid therapy, affecting control as well as fibrositic sites. Underlying mechanisms must act generally as well as being site specific.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Paramacular telangiectasis.

Forty six patients with paramacular retinal telangiectasis were reviewed; unilateral telangiectasis was present in 26 and bilateral disease was present in 20. Patients with unilateral macular telangiectasis had the more extensive vascular involvement associated with exudation and were more likely to have peripheral telangiectasis. Bilateral macular telangiectasis was associated with pigment epithelial changes and sub-retinal scars. Visual acuity was mildly reduced in the majority of patients; severe loss of vision was most frequent in patients with bilateral macular disease. The evolution of vascular changes was very slow and only 5 patients lost vision of two lines or more during an average period of 40 months. The high incidence of peripheral changes in unilaterally involved patients implies the possibility of a primary defect of the retinal vessels in these patients. There is evidence to suggest that there may be a primary defect of the retinal pigment epithelium in some patients with bilateral involvement.

Adult↗