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Biomedical subjects

R P Bowler

Publications and source records attributed to R P Bowler.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Extracellular superoxide dismutase attenuates lung injury after hemorrhage.

Reperfusion of the lung after hemorrhage generates free radicals such as superoxide (O(2)(.)) that may injure the lung; however, the relative importance of intracellular versus extracellular free radicals is unclear. The superoxide dismutases (SOD) are the primary enzymatic method to reduce superoxide. We examined whether lung-specific overexpression of extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) would attenuate hemorrhage-induced lung injury. Wild-type mice and mice overexpressing the human EC-SOD gene with a lung-specific promoter were hemorrhaged by removing 30% of blood volume. After hemorrhage, the lung wet to dry weight ratios increased from 5.4 +/- 0.11 in unmanipulated control mice to 6.3 +/- 0.16 in wild-type mice, but to only 5.60 +/- 0.17 in the EC-SOD transgenic mice (p < 0.05 compared with hemorrhaged wild-type). Hemorrhage-induced lipid peroxidation, as assessed by lung F(2) isoprostanes, was lower in the EC-SOD transgenic mice (3.4 +/- 0.3 microg/lung) compared with wild-type mice (1.9 +/- 0.2 microg/lung; p < 0.05). Compared with wild-type, EC-SOD transgenic mice had attenuated the hemorrhage-induced increase in both pulmonary nuclear factor kappa B (NK-kappaB) activation (relative absorbance 1.1 +/- 0.2 for EC-SOD transgenic versus 2.5 +/- 0.1 for wild-type; p < 0.05) and myeloperoxidase activity (5.1 +/- 0.87 units/g for EC-SOD transgenic versus 11.3 +/- 1.8 units/g for wild-type; p < 0.01). Thus, overexpression of pulmonary EC-SOD in the mouse lung attenuates lung injury after hemorrhage.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Isolated pulmonary capillaritis and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in rheumatoid arthritis and mixed connective tissue disease.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate that pulmonary capillaritis and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) occur and are isolated to the lung and therefore not part of systemic vasculitis at the time of the DAH episode in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). DESIGN: Lung biopsy specimens from patients with DAH were reviewed and those with the histologic features of pulmonary capillaritis were identified. SETTING: The patients were selected from seven Denver-area general hospitals. PATIENTS: Fifty-eight patients with biopsy specimen proved pulmonary capillaritis (1991 to 1997) were identified and classified according to disease. Three patients met the American Rheumatism Association criteria for RA and one patient fulfilled clinical and serologic criteria for MCTD. INTERVENTIONS: All clinical, laboratory, and radiographic data on initial presentation and at follow-up periods were extracted from the charts of the four study patients. Histologic slides were reviewed and immunofluorescent studies of lung tissue were performed. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: All four patients had a connective tissue disease diagnosis prior to the DAH episode. Symptoms referable to pulmonary capillaritis were of short duration (2 to 14 days) and there was no clinical or serologic evidence for an accompanying systemic vasculitis, in particular glomeronephritis. Three patients, two with RA and one with MCTD, demonstrated pulmonary immune complex deposition. Three resolved their illness following IV methylprednisilone and cyclophosphamide therapy. One RA patient died following a myocardial infarction. In the three survivors, no further episodes of DAH have occurred after a mean of 24 months (range, 10 to 48 months). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, these are the first cases of DAH due to pulmonary capillaritis documented to complicate RA and MCTD. The capillaritis was not part of a systemic vasculitis at the time of the DAH episode, but rather represented an isolated small-vessel vasculitis of the lungs in this group of patients. Immune complex deposition may be involved in the pathogenesis.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Stability of psychological impairment: two year follow-up of former microelectronics workers' affective and personality disturbance.

For the past twenty years women's complaints in the microelectronics industry have often been diagnosed as mass psychogenic illness, despite evidence of potential exposure to organic solvents, which have been associated with affect and mood changes. In the present study, the standard version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was used to evaluate affective and personality disturbance among 63 former microelectronics workers (56 women and 7 men) over a two-year period of time. In both 1986 and 1988, the former workers obtained mean scale score elevations beyond two standard deviations above the normative sample (T = greater than 70) on the MMPI clinical scales of schizophrenia, hypochondriasis, psychasthenia, depression and hysteria. For most scales, 86-88 mean score differences did not attain the 0.05 significance level (two-tailed paired t-test) and no significant differences were observed for 86-88 comparison scale scores = greater than 70 (McNemar paired statistic). Although there were too few men to perform gender comparisons, men scored higher than women on 5 scales and all of the men had scores = greater than 70 on hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychasthenia and schizophrenia. These findings reveal that these former microelectronics workers manifested affective and personality disturbances, consistent with organic solvent toxicity, which persisted over a two year period, indicating that they were not reactive, transient hysterical neurosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Computer searching for occupational medicine.

Occupational and environmental medical literature that confronts a physician is difficult to grasp. The development of the microcomputer makes it easier for the occupational medicine physician to perform computer literature searches. Occupational medical residents and physicians both familiar and unfamiliar with computers submitted identical searches to identify strengths and weaknesses of combinations of computer databases and assisting software. The combination of DIALOG databases and In-Search software were judged to be the most useful for the occupational medicine physician.

Occupational Medicine↗