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Biomedical subjects

P White

Publications and source records attributed to P White.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Predicting psychiatric admission rates.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the numbers of actual and expected psychiatric admissions for the residents of the district health authorities of England and to develop a model to indicate which social, health status, and service provision factors best explain the variation of the actual from the expected psychiatric admissions; to use this model to predict psychiatric admission for district health authorities as an aid to resource allocation. DESIGN: The actual psychiatric admission for district health authority residents were extracted from data of the 1986 Mental Health Enquiry. Expected admissions were calculated using the age, sex, and marital status structure of each district health authority and the national psychiatric admission rates related to age, sex, and marital status. Standardised psychiatric admission ratios were calculated as the ratios of the numbers of actual to expected psychiatric admissions. A wide range of social, health status, and service provision data were used as the explanatory variables in regression analyses to determine which combination of factors best explained the variation between districts of standardised psychiatric admission ratios. SETTING: The 168,652 psychiatric admissions recorded for the 1986 Mental Health Enquiry, after exclusion of mental handicap and psychogeriatric admissions. RESULTS: The actual number of psychiatric admissions varied from 79% above to 54% below the expected number of admissions from age, sex, and marital status for the districts of England. The most powerful variables to explain this variation were the rate of notification of drug misusers, standardised mortality ratios, and levels of illegitimacy in each district. A complex model was developed which could be used to predict district psychiatric admissions as an aid to resource allocation. A simpler model was also developed (which was less powerful than the more complex model) based on the underprivileged area score. One advantage of this model was that it could be used at the level of electoral wards as well as district health authorities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The differentiation of Chlamydia species by antigen detection in sputum specimens from patients with community-acquired acute respiratory infections.

An amplified enzyme immunoassay (IDEIA III: Dako Diagnostics Ltd) for detecting genus-specific chlamydia antigen was evaluated prospectively on 286 respiratory specimens from 275 patients presenting with community-acquired pneumonia or persistent chest infection. Nineteen patients had evidence of recent chlamydial infection, having two or more positive sputum or serological markers. Sputa from two other patients were ELISA-positive in the absence of other positive criteria and were regarded as false-positive results. When compared with a direct immunofluorescence test for chlamydial elementary bodies (EBs) using a genus-specific monoclonal antibody, the ELISA gave a positive predictive value of 91% and a negative predictive value of 99%. Non-specific problems with a wide variety of other micro-organisms isolated from the sputa were not encountered. Attempts to differentiate between Chlamydia psittaci, Chlamydia pneumoniae and Chlamydia trachomatis using genus-specific lipopolysaccharide reactive--and species-specific major outer membrane protein--monoclonal antibodies were encouraging and results were substantiated, in most patients, by the species-specific serological assays of the whole-cell-inclusion immunofluorescence or micro-immunofluorescence assays. The study demonstrated that antigen detection techniques offer scope for routine laboratories to diagnose chlamydial respiratory infections rapidly and reliably and may enable differentiation to species level. Although immunofluorescence offers marginally greater sensitivity and specificity when compared with ELISA, the latter is less subjective and less demanding. Sixty-eight per cent of these infections would have remained undiagnosed despite the general availability of ELISA tests.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Is the pediatric preoperative hematocrit determination necessary?

The usefulness of the preoperative hematocrit determination as a screening test before outpatient pediatric surgical procedures has been questioned. It has been suggested that a careful history and physical examination are of greater importance than routine laboratory tests in determining a child's fitness for surgery. We evaluated the utility of preoperative measurement of hematocrit as a screening test for surgical fitness in healthy children having a variety of elective outpatient surgical procedures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Improved power control during microwave heating in biological applications.

The heating performance of prototype variable power control units attached to two domestic microwave ovens, 500 W and 700 W, was investigated. The units employed the phase control method where rated voltage was obtained by switching AC supply at a particular angular position on the sinusoidal voltage. In order to create experimental conditions employed in a previous study, Sydney tap water (50 mL) was heated at a 10% power level in the 500 W oven. Water boiled at 10 min in both experiments. However, the precision and control of the heating was greatly improved with addition of the control unit. A disinfecting solution (50 mL) and a tissue fixative (10 mL) were included for experiments with the 700 W oven. A power level of only 1% was sufficient to maintain the temperature of the fixative at low temperatures (30-40 degrees C) where many biological reactions occur. The present results indicate that microwave heating power can be controlled by the variable power control method. This will make temperature control possible through the provision of an electronic feedback loop which links a thermocouple with the power control unit.

Heating↗
PubMed1992

Calcium channel blockers.

Calcium channel blockers are widely used in the treatment of ischemic heart disease, hypertension, and supraventricular tachycardia. The prototype agents, verapamil, nifedipine, and diltiazem, represent three classes of calcium channel blockers, each of which has different pharmacologic effects. Nifedipine and the other dihydropyridines primarily are vasodilators and have no clinical effects on cardiac conduction or contractility. Diltiazem and verapamil also are vasodilators, but they possess, to varying degrees, negative inotropic, chronotropic, and dromotropic effects. Side effects of these drugs are relatively rare and usually not serious, with the exception of potential conduction disturbances and heart failure in patients with underlying cardiac disease. To assess patients taking these medications and provide the necessary teaching, the nurse needs an understanding of the pharmacologic properties, clinical indications, and potential adverse effects of the various drugs.

Calcium Channel Blockers↗
PubMed1992

Beta-agonists and surfactant in eustachian tube function.

The presence of surface tension lowering substances (surfactants) is demonstrable in the Eustachian tube (ET) and the middle ear, both in animals and in humans. In the lungs, beta-adrenoceptor agonists stimulate the secretion of surfactant; and it has been suggested that beta-agonists have a similar effect both in the ET and the middle ear, because opening of the ET is facilitated by the non-selective beta-agonist, isoprenaline in the rat, and by the beta 2-agonist, terbutaline, in humans. Two studies are described: In one, children with otitis media with effusion took terbutaline or placebo twice a day for two weeks and no significant differences were found between the effects of the two treatments; in the other study, it was shown that surfactant markedly facilitated the opening of the Eustachian tube. Lung surfactant prepared from pigs and instilled as a single dose into the middle ear of healthy rats reduced the air pressure necessary to open the Eustachian tube by as much as 15-20% for as long as the experiments lasted (i.e., around one hour). Thus, possibilities of facilitating the opening of the Eustachian tube do in fact exist.

Adrenergic beta-Agonists↗
PubMed1991

Cigarette advertising policy and coverage of smoking and health in British women's magazines.

A survey of cigarette advertising and coverage of health aspects of smoking in 86 British magazines with a large female readership was done in 1989. The findings were compared with the results of a 1985 survey which had led to the introduction of new voluntary restrictions in 1986 on cigarette advertising in magazines. Although there was a decrease in the proportion of magazines accepting cigarette advertising (64% to 42%), the new restrictions failed to cover the most popular magazines, so that an estimated collective readership of 7 million women aged 15-24 years were still exposed to cigarette advertising. Revenue from cigarette advertising by women's magazines increased by 10% in real terms between 1985 and 1988. There was a small decrease in the coverage given to health aspects of smoking; a third of magazines were willing to use pictures of people smoking in their editorial pages. The findings show that the voluntary restrictions introduced in the UK in 1986 have had a small effect on cigarette advertising and have failed to achieve their aim of protecting young women.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Accelerated ageing or selective neuronal loss as an important cause of dementia?

Extensive biochemical analysis of whole temporal lobe from cases of dementia and controls suggests that Alzheimer's disease is a primary degenerative nerve-cell disorder and not the result of accelerated ageing. There is selective loss of neocortical cholinergic neurones. Transmitter systems apart from the cholinergic system appears to be affected, but to a lesser extent, and there are no significant changes in the caudate nucleus. The change in cholinergic neurones has been confirmed in biopsy samples.

Aged↗
PubMed1979

The treatment of femoral fractures by cast-brace and early walking: a review of seventy-nine patients.

Seventy-nine cases of fracture of the femoral shaft treated by cast-brace and early walking have been reviewed. Discrepancy in femoral length was assessed by scanogram. The cases were analysed to relate the incidence of shortening greater than 2 centimetres to the type and site of the fracture, and the time which elapsed from injury until the cast-brace was applied. Such shortening was encountered most frequently when the cast-brace was applied within the first two weeks from injury or after six weeks and in those patients with comminuted fractures of the middle third of the femoral shaft.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Radiology of epidemic adenovirus 21 infection of the lower respiratory tract in infants and young children.

The radiologic features of 18 children admitted to Princess Mary Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand, in the winter and spring of 1977 with adenovirus 21 infection are reported. Attention is drawn to the severity of the disease in the respiratory tract, manifest radiologically as widespread patchy or confluent pulmonary opacification, extensive bronchial wall thickening, or peribronchial linear opacities. No hilar adenopathy was present. Prominent residual bronchopulmonary abnormalities were present in 13 of 15 patients 6--12 months after epidemic. High kilovoltage chester radiography or bronchography demonstrated bronchiectasis in five patients. These findings emphasize the role of adenovirus as a cause of chronic pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis in children.

Adenoviridae Infections↗
PubMed1978

Alzheimer's disease: distribution of protein on sucrose density gradient centrifugation.

Material has been examined from eighteen brains, postmortem and from 3 cortical biopsies. The case were classified on clinical and morphological criteria and include cases of dementia and of nonneurological disease. Fractions were isolated from homogenates of neocortex and caudate nucleus by means of discontinuous sucorse density gradient centrifugation. The fractions were analysed for protein content. The mean protein content of fraction 1, at the interphase between 0.32 M and 0.8 M sucrose, from the cortex of the 6 Alzheimer cases was reduced. (P less than 0.005) by 25%. This deficit in protein content represents less than 5% of the total tissue protein. There were no significant differences in the protein content between other fractions from the control and Alzheimer cases.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Method-specific variations in the calibration of a new immunoglobulin standard suitable for use in nephelometric techniques.

The putative International Federation of Clinical Chemistry immunoglobulin standard, IFCC 74/1, was calibrated against the World Health Organization (WHO) immunoglobulin standard 67/99 by three different methods: automated immunoprecipitation, Laurell rocket immunoelectrophoresis, and radial immunodiffusion. The same antisera were used in all the assays, which were performed in five expert laboratories. With the aid of linearizing transformations for the dilution curves of both materials and use of a carefully weighted statistical evaluation, values in International Units for IgG, IgA, and IgM were ascribed to IFCC 74/1. The values achieved by the three different methods were not statistically different, except in the case of IgA. IgM assays by automated immunoprecipitation were excluded owing to a high degree of imprecision.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗