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Biomedical subjects

R Fernando

Publications and source records attributed to R Fernando.

83 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Preventable acute organophosphate poisoning deaths.

Poisoning with cholinesterase inhibiting insecticides such as organophosphates (OP) is a major health problem in Sri Lanka, with over 10,000 hospital admissions and over 1,000 hospital deaths annually. Atropine and pralidoxime are the most useful antidotes in the treatment of OP poisoning. Three cases of fatal OP poisoning are described where although the initial diagnosis and therapy were correct, patients did not survive due to inadequate atropine therapy. The need for continuous monitoring and administering adequate doses of atropine in OP poisoning for several days is stressed.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1988

Respiratory failure from severe organophosphate toxicity due to absorption through the skin.

Organophosphates are the most common group of chemicals involved in poisoning in Sri Lanka. Usually, poisoning is by ingestion for suicidal purposes, although accidental poisoning is not uncommon. Poisoning due to absorption through intact or damaged skin is rare. A 32-year-old man was admitted to a peripheral hospital following assault with a 100-ml bottle of insecticide called Monocrotophos, an organophosphate. He had a 2-in. long laceration just above his left eyebrow and there was spilling of the liquid contained in the bottle over his head and face. The liquid was wiped off but the head or face was not washed. After about 3 h the patient developed symptoms and signs of early organophosphate poisoning which were treated with atropine and pralidoxime. On the 3rd day, while on therapy, the patient developed severe weakness of limbs and respiratory distress needing intubation and assisted ventilation. The patient was transferred to the neurology intensive care unit of the General Hospital, Colombo, on the eighth day. His serum potassium levels were low and an ECG showed prominent U waves in all leads. The plasma cholinesterase levels were within 37.5-50% of normal even on the 20th day indicating severe exposure.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Reliability of HbA1 assay in the mass survey for diabetes mellitus, with special reference to the preservation and transportation of blood samples.

Studies on the reliability of the HbA1 assay in mass surveys for diabetes mellitus were carried out with special reference to the preservation and transportation of blood samples. It is essential to confirm that the preservation and transportation of samples have no effect on values for HbA1, since most of the mass surveys are carried out as field works. In our experience the levels of HbA1 remained unchanged for one week, both in samples kept at 4 degrees C, and in frozen samples kept at -40 degrees C or -80 degrees C and transported on solid CO2. The levels of HbA1 in the samples transported from Manila to Wakayama by the above-mentioned methods did not differ from those obtained in corresponding fresh samples. There was a good correlation between levels of HbA1 and levels of plasma glucose obtained 1 or 2 hr after breakfast (PPG). It was concluded that the use of both criteria (HbA1 of more than 8.00% and PPG of more than 120 mg/100 ml) in the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus is more reliable than use of either one alone.

Blood Glucose↗
PubMed1982

Evaluation of the Tamari-Kaplitt LVAD.

Experience with a modern inexpensive, unichambered heparinized "left ventricular assist device" in the closed chest unheparinized dog is described. The pumps were driven with EKG activated air drives. These functioned well. The major physiologic problems were absolute limitation of inflow and late mural and valve disk thrombus formation at pump times approaching 5 to 6 hrs, under the limitations of the experiment. The inexpensiveness of this LVAD, its obvious practicality in terms of application as a counter pulsator in human open heart surgery and now in experimental animals, provides some hope that an inexpensive, practical, functional preanticoagulated LVAD of this type may ultimately result in a significant improvement in the utility and cost effectiveness of this approach to left ventricular failure.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Childhood poisoning in Sri Lanka.

Poisoning in children is a common accident and poison information services should be aware of the toxic agents responsible for poisoning in the community. A retrospective hospital based study was performed, before the establishment of the National Poisons Information Centre in Sri Lanka. There were 4,556 admissions of poisoning to the selected hospitals in the Western Province in 1986 and of this, 540 (11.4%) were below 15 years. Males accounted for 66%. Kerosene oil was responsible for 47% of the poisoning cases in less than 5 years age group, while kerosene oil, pesticides and plants/mushrooms were the commonest toxic agents in the 5 to 14 years age group. The case fatality rate was 3.2%.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Analysis of mercury in hair of EPA region V population.

A scoping study, the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) was conducted in EPA Region V from July 1995 to May 1997. This probability-based population study provided an opportunity to examine the mercury levels in 182 participants who provided hair samples. A sensitive analytical procedure based on atomic fluorescence spectrometry was developed and evaluated for the analysis of Hg in approximately 5 mg of human hair. The correlation coefficient (r), the precision, and bias were 0.9983, < or = 1.6%, and < or = 8%, respectively, for standard curves in the hair matrix. The method detection limit (MDL), recovery of Hg in a certified sample (NIES-13), precision (% RSD) for duplicate extract analysis, and precision for duplicate sample analysis averaged 12 ppb (range 4 to 22 ppb), 100 +/- 3% (N=27), 4.6 +/- 2.8 (N=18), and 12.5 +/- 7.4 (N=17), respectively, over the 7 to 8 months of sample analysis. The low MDL yielded 95% of the samples with measurable values, permitting the entire distribution of Hg levels to be characterized. Comparison of annualized Hg distribution in hair with and without background correction revealed a negligible bias on the distribution (1.47% at the 90th percentile). Also, a comparison of the unweighted and nonannualized weighted Hg levels throughout the percentile distribution indicated a small deviation in the upper tail (95th percentile) and is attributable to the small sample size (N=182). The mean, median, and maximum of the annualized Hg levels in hair were 287, 204, and 3505 ppb, respectively. The 75th percentiles were 335 and 368 ppb for the weighted annualized and unweighted distributions, respectively. The percent of individuals in three age categories (0-24, 25-49, and 50 years and older) who exceeded the 75th percentile showed a linear increase with age. Males (N=81) had 10% and 20% lower mean levels than females (N=101) for unweighted and annualized weighted Hg data, respectively. The application of this methodology for characterizing hair Hg levels in fish-eating populations is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Development of the human dispermic embryo.

In a recent CD-ROM, we portrayed the microstructure of the pre-implantation human embryo (Sathananthan et al., 1999), which was a multimedia production with computer colour-enhanced electron micrographs of mainly monospermic embryos. This disk portrays light and electron micrographs of over 250 tripronuclear (3PN), dispermic, human embryos during pre-implantation development, viewed in thick and thin Araldite sections, as well as appearances of whole embryos flat embedded in Araldite blocks visualized with the light microscope. The 100 figures were computerized (IBM TIFF format), edited and labelled using Adobe Photoshop 5. Some of the figures were coloured on computer. The early development of 3PN embryos overtly resembles that of normal embryos but there are important differences in their microstructure which are portrayed in this presentation. This is a multicentric study involving researchers from four IVF centres.

Aneuploidy↗