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P Whitty

Publications and source records attributed to P Whitty.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Communication of results of necropsies in north east Thames region.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the adequacy of reporting of results of necropsy to referring clinicians and to general practitioners. DESIGN: Questionnaire survey of referring clinicians and general practitioners of deceased patients in four districts in North East Thames region. Patients were selected by retrospective systematic sampling of 50 or more necropsy reports in each district. SETTING: One teaching hospital, one inner London district general hospital, and two outer London district general hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: 70 consultants and 146 general practitioners who were asked about 214 necropsy reports; coroners' reports were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time taken for dispatch of final reports after necropsy, consultants' recognition of the reports, general practitioners' recognition of the reports or of their findings, and consultants' recall of having discussed the findings with relatives. RESULTS: Only two hospitals dispatched final reports including histological findings (mean time to dispatch 144 days and 22 days respectively). 42 (60%) consultants and 83 (57%) general practitioners responded to the survey. The percentage of reports seen by consultants varied from 37% (n = 13) to 87% (n = 36); in all, only 47% (39/83) of general practitioners had been informed of the findings by any method. Consultants could recall having discussed findings with only 42% (47/112) of relatives. CONCLUSIONS: Communication of results of necropsies to hospital clinicians, general practitioners, and relatives is currently inadequate in these hospitals. IMPLICATIONS AND ACTION: A report of the macroscopic findings should be dispatched immediately after necropsy to clinicians and general practitioners; relatives should routinely be invited to discuss the necroscopic findings. One department has already altered its practice.

Autopsy

Sequence and domain relationships of ntrC and nifA from Klebsiella pneumoniae: homologies to other regulatory proteins.

We have determined the nucleotide sequences of two genes from Klebsiella pneumoniae, nifA, the nif-specific activator of transcription and ntrC, the bifunctional regulatory protein involved in 'nitrogen control'. These sequences differ significantly from those previously published. In particular, nifA extends 40 codons beyond the stop codon reported earlier. This extension encodes a putative DNA-binding domain strongly homologous to the Rhizobium meliloti nifA protein and to some extent to the ntrC protein. In all three proteins this domain is linked by a segment of variable length to a strongly conserved central domain of 240 residues. A short segment having the properties of an interdomain linker joins the central region to an N-terminal domain, which is weakly related in the case of the two nifA proteins. This homology is not shared by the N-terminal domain of ntrC, which is clearly but unexpectedly related to the N-terminal domains of a diverse set of procaryotic pleiotropic control proteins, including ompR, dye and nusA from Escherichia coli and spoOA and spoOF from Bacillus subtilis.

Amino Acid Sequence

Satranidazole: mechanism of action on DNA and structure-activity correlations.

Satranidazole (CG-10213-Go), a novel nitroimidazole possessing a C-N linkage at C2 of the imidazole ring has been examined, during reduction, for its ability to damage DNA. Physical damage to DNA was measured by viscometry, thermal denaturation and renaturation, and hydroxyapatite chromatography. Biologically relevant DNA damage was measured by a bacteriophage transfection assay. The drug produces extensive DNA damage characterized by helix destabilization and strand breakage. Its comparison with other 2- and 5-nitroimidazoles indicate it may be more active towards anaerobes than many 5-nitroimidazoles because its relatively high redox potential may make it more resistant to inactivation by oxygen.

Chromatography