Biomedical subjects

R J Stenstrom

Publications and source records attributed to R J Stenstrom.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1991

Randomized, controlled trial comparing long-term sulfonamide therapy to ventilation tubes for otitis media with effusion.

Several studies have indicated that either the surgical insertion of ventilation tubes (VTs) or long-term treatment with sulfonamide-based antibacterials is effective in the management of otitis media with effusion (OME; otherwise known as serous otitis media, secretory otitis media, and glue ear) when compared with a no-treatment control or placebo. This controlled trial is the first to compare directly the effectiveness of these two treatments for long-standing OME. Outcome variables are treatment success rates, hearing thresholds, recurrent acute otitis media episodes, and side effects of medication or complications of VT placement. One hundred twenty-five children (aged 2.5 to 7 years) who met the usual indications for surgery (long-standing [greater than 3 months] OME and conductive hearing loss) were randomly assigned to "medical" treatment (sulfisoxazole 75 mg/kg per day for 6 months) or "surgical" treatment (bilateral insertion of VTs). Subjects underwent pure-tone audiometry (500, 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz) and otomicroscopic examination at 2, 4, 6, 12, and 18 months. A significantly greater proportion of medical subjects (67%) than surgical subjects (48%) were treatment failures at 6, 12, or 18 months (P = .0208). Surgical subjects had significantly better hearing at 2 and 4 months (P values less than .01) but not at 6, 12, and 18 months (P values greater than .2). A significantly greater proportion of surgical subjects (50%) experienced complications of treatment than did medical subjects (9%) (P less than .001). Thirty-three percent of candidates for VT placement did not require surgery when treated with a 6-month course of sulfisoxazole.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Audiometry, Pure-Tone↗

PubMed1990

Administration of nitrous oxide to pediatric patients provides analgesia for venous cannulation.

To determine whether administration of nitrous oxide, 50% and 70%, could provide analgesia and anxiolysis during venous cannulation in pediatric patients, 165 ASA Physical Status 1 patients scheduled for elective surgery were studied. Children, 3 weeks to 18 yr of age, were randomly assigned either to receive nitrous oxide, 50% or 70% in oxygen, or 100% oxygen via mask or to a group breathing room air, for 3 min prior to and during venous cannulation. A blinded observer using a behavioral scale for rating pain in children performed assessments of behavior and pain before and following venous cannulation. Children who received 50% or 70% nitrous oxide were more likely to be relaxed, 59% and 84%, respectively, and had little evidence of pain. Of those given 100% oxygen or no mask, only 30% and 21%, respectively, were considered relaxed, and 16% and 15% had little evidence of pain during venous cannulation. Side effects were seen in 28% of the group given 70% nitrous oxide and included excitement, dysphoria, nausea, restlessness, and opisthotonic movements. Both 50% and 70% nitrous oxide in oxygen administered to pediatric patients are effective at decreasing the pain and anxiety associated with venous cannulation, but use of the latter is associated with side effects.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1988

Fluctuating hearing losses in children can be migraine equivalents.

Fluctuation of hearing thresholds in an already severely to profoundly deaf child constitutes a stressing condition and a therapeutic challenge. Thorough medical inquiries revealed strong histories of migraine headaches in the parents of 13 severely deaf children (mean age: 7 years) and two of them also presented symptoms of migraine. This disease is viewed as a form of a relatively benign cerebral vasospasm causing an intense transitory vasodilatation of the small vessels of the brain and a subsequent sterile inflammatory reaction. Liberation of histamine, serotonin and plasma kinins appear to interfere with the metabolism of nerve cells. All children in our study had suffered from anoxia at birth, a condition related to a depopulation of cochlear brainstem nuclei. Migraines may therefore produce obvious hearing symptoms when vasomotor disturbances occur in already damaged nervous structures. Treatment with propranolol hydrochloride (HCl), a potent beta-blocker, resulted in cessation of hearing fluctuations in all patients and in an improvement of thresholds in two of them. We presented our results, as well as preliminary studies on asphyxiated rats shortly after birth, with transitory artificially induced cerebral vasodilatation.

Animals↗

PubMed1985

State-dependent learning following electrical stimulation of the hippocampus: intact and split-brain rats.

In experiment 1, electrical stimulation of the posterior hippocampus was shown to produce state-dependent learning (SDL) for a step-out inhibitory avoidance task in rats. Stimulation sites in either the right or left hippocampus were equally effective in producing this effect. Similarly, the presence or absence of afterdischarge (AD) following the stimulation did not differentially affect performance on the task. In experiment 2, forebrain bisection ameliorated the behavioral deficits in the animals receiving stimulation before testing but not before training (N/S group), while those stimulated before training but not before testing (S/N group) remained impaired; thus, providing a demonstration of asymmetrical SDL. Variations in extent of the commissurotomy differentially affected the laterality of the afterdischarge but not the performance in the SDL task. Speculation as to the mechanisms of this SDL effect was presented.

Animals↗

PubMed1985

Systematic changes in perceptual reactance induced by physical fitness training.

The effect of life-change events on perceptual augmentation-reduction was studied in 72 subjects (40 men, 32 women). In three experiments the kinesthetic figural aftereffect was measured prior to and after either a physical fitness program, a course in yoga, or training in Transcendental Meditation. Each program lasted a minimum of 8 wk. Subjects completing fitness training, all of whom were initially classified as augmenters, became reducers by the end of their program. Subjects enrolled in yoga and meditation courses remained relatively stable in their perceptual tendencies.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hypnosis, placebo, and suggestion in the treatment of warts.

Two experiments assessed the effects of psychological variables on wart regression. In Experiment 1, subjects given hypnotic suggestion exhibited more wart regression than those given either a placebo treatment or no treatment. In Experiment 2, hypnotic and nonhypnotic subjects given the same suggestions were equally likely to exhibit wart regression and more likely to show this effect than no treatment controls. In both experiments, treated subjects who lost warts reported more vivid suggested imagery than treated subjects who did not lose warts. However, hypnotizability and attribute measures of imagery propensity were unrelated to wart loss. Subjects given the suggestion that they would lose warts on only one side of the body did not show evidence of a side-specific treatment effect.

Adolescent↗