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Biomedical subjects

Robert Burton

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Burton.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Preventing chronic diseases in China.

Chronic diseases now account for an estimated 80% of deaths and 70% of disability-adjusted life-years lost in China. Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are the leading causes of both death and the burden of disease, and exposure to risk factors is high: more than 300 million men smoke cigarettes and 160 million adults are hypertensive, most of whom are not being treated. An obesity epidemic is imminent, with more than 20% of children aged 7-17 years in big cities now overweight or obese. The government of the People's Republic of China must confront these major challenges. The national cancer prevention and control plan (2004-10) is being implemented, and a national chronic disease prevention and control plan is due to be completed this year. Encouraging progress has been made in some areas, with current smoking prevalence in men declining at about 1% per year for a decade, and even better results in large demonstration programmes. Much remains to be done, and resources and sustainability are major issues. However, the surveillance and intervention mechanisms needed to ameliorate the increasing burden of chronic diseases are developing rapidly, taking account of the lessons learned over the past two decades.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Simplified method to automatically count bacterial colony forming unit.

Bacterial colony counting is a significant technical hurdle for vaccine studies as well as various microbiological studies. We now show that an automated colony counter can process images obtained with a digital camera or document scanner and that any laboratory can efficiently have bacterial colonies enumerated by sending the images to a laboratory with a colony counter via internet.

Colony Count, Microbial↗
PubMed2004

Efficacy and safety profile of treatment with etoricoxib 120 mg once daily compared with indomethacin 50 mg three times daily in acute gout: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of etoricoxib and indomethacin in the treatment of patients with acute gout. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, active-comparator study was conducted at 42 sites. A total of 189 men and women (> or =18 years of age) who were experiencing an acute attack (< or =48 hours) of clinically diagnosed gout were treated for 8 days with etoricoxib, 120 mg/day (n = 103), or indomethacin, 50 mg 3 times a day (n = 86). The primary efficacy end point was the patient's assessment of pain in the study joint (0-4-point Likert scale) over days 2-5. Safety was assessed by adverse experiences (AEs) occurring during the trial. RESULTS: Etoricoxib demonstrated clinical efficacy comparable to that of indomethacin in terms of the patient's assessment of pain in the study joint. The difference in the mean change from baseline over days 2-5 was -0.08 (95% confidence interval -0.29, 0.13) (P = 0.46), which fell within the prespecified comparability bounds of -0.5 to 0.5. Secondary end points over the 8-day study, including the onset of efficacy, reduction in signs of inflammation, and patient's and investigator's global assessments of response to therapy, confirmed the comparable efficacy of the two treatments. The etoricoxib-treated patients had a numerically lower incidence of AEs (43.7%) than did the indomethacin-treated patients (57.0%) and a significantly lower incidence of drug-related AEs (16.5% versus 37.2%; P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Etoricoxib at a dosage of 120 mg once daily was confirmed to be an effective treatment for acute gout. Etoricoxib was comparable in efficacy to indomethacin at a dosage of 50 mg 3 times daily, and it was generally safe and well tolerated.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed2002

Safety of allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes for patients with refractory EBV-related lymphoma.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes lymphomas in immunocompromised individuals such as recipients of stem cell or organ transplants and patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). EBV has also been detected in the Reed-Sternberg cells of approximately 50% of all cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD). The purpose of this study was to examine the safety, and the clinical and immunological effects of infusing allogeneic EBV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) for patients with refractory EBV-positive malignancies. In this pilot study, we have treated four patients with EBV-related lymphoma using allogeneic EBV-specific CTL. Two patients received EBV-specific CTL derived from partially human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-matched donors and the other two from HLA-matched siblings. No complications were observed as a result of the CTL infusions and all patients showed increased levels of EBV-specific CTL precursors (CTLp) post infusion. Of the two organ transplant patients, one had refractory disease and has sustained a complete remission following the T-cell infusions. The second has also been disease free since T-cell infusions, although the efficacy cannot be definitively attributed to CTL therapy because this patient received local radiation therapy prior to immunotherapy. A patient with AIDS-related, EBV-positive lymphoma had disease progression following CTL infusions. One HD patient received HLA 4/6 matched T cells from an unrelated donor and showed a decrease in the size of affected lymph nodes and resolution of B-symptoms post infusion. In conclusion, adoptive immunotherapy with allogeneic EBV-specific CTL is safe and may have efficacy in patients with high-risk or refractory EBV-related tumours.

Cell Culture Techniques↗