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Biomedical subjects

S A Dyer

Publications and source records attributed to S A Dyer.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Myocardial tissue characterization using pattern recognition procedures on backscattered ultrasonic signals.

Pattern recognition techniques were applied to backscattered signals obtained in vitro from normal and abnormal canine and human heart samples. Orthogonal transforms, in conjunction with the variance criterion, comprised the feature extractors. The minimum-distance (MD) and nearest-neighbor (NN) rules were used as classification. When the MD rule was used, the magnitude of the DFT gave the best performance for both canine and human samples. When the NN rule was used, all the transforms performed comparably. The classification performances were improved for both species when the NN rule was used with feature extractors containing phase information.

Animals

Specific methods to identify plasma binding abnormalities in euthyroid hyperthyroxinemia.

Methods to identify the plasma T4-binding abnormalities that can cause euthyroid hyperthyroxinemia were evaluated in patients with excess T4-binding globulin, familial dysalbuminemic hyperthyroxinemia, prealbumin-associated hyperthyroxinemia, and autoantibody binding of T4. Familial dysalbuminemic hyperthyroxinemic serum showed a unique persistence of abnormal [125I]T4 binding when diluted 1:100 in phosphate buffer with added 1000-fold excess of unlabeled T4 (10(-6) M T4). Immunoprecipitation of [125I]T4 by antibody to prealbumin, precipitation of [125I]T4 by polyethylene glycol 6000 19%, and in vitro resin uptake of T3 were specific for prealbumin-associated hyperthyroxinemia, autoantibody binding of T4, and T4-binding globulin excess, respectively. These simple methods facilitate investigation of patients with euthyroid hyperthyroxinemia and will identify individuals and families at risk of misdiagnosis by standard methods. Use of these techniques rules out the known binding abnormalities in hyperthyroxinemic patients and may make the diagnosis of generalized hormone resistance more specific.

Humans

Relationship between thyrotropin and thyroxine changes during recovery from severe hypothyroxinemia of critical illness.

In a prospective study of critically ill hypothyroxinemic we assessed the relationship between serum TSH and T4 during the return of serum T4 to normal during recovery. In this longitudinal study of 60 patients with a variety of critical illnesses, including burns, septicemia, and acute renal failure, serum T4 fell to less than 2.7 micrograms/dl (35 nmol/liter) in 24 patients, of whom 14 survived with return of T4 to normal. A rise in total T4 of more than 1.9 microgram/dl (25 nmol/liter) within 96 h occurred 13 times in 10 patients, while 4 patients had slower increases in T4. All 13 episodes of rapid T4 rise [1.7 +/- 0.8 (+/- SD) to 5.6 +/- 2.1 micrograms/dl] were associated with a marked increase in serum TSH (1.1 +/- 0.8 to 7.0 +/- 5.2 mU/liter), and TSH was transiently above normal during 8 episodes of T4 recovery. In the 6 episodes with sampling less than 6 h apart, the TSH rise consistently preceded the T4 rise. In the 4 patients who received dopamine, TSH and T4 remained low until cessation of therapy. During the TSH rise, only minor changes, which could not account for the increase in total T4, occurred in T4-binding globulin (12.9 +/- 3.3 to 14.8 +/- 3.3 mg/liter), prealbumin (208 +/- 73 to 234 +/- 82 mg/liter), and albumin (28.3 +/- 2.9 to 31.9 +/- 2.9 g/liter). Mean free T4 increased (0.60 +/- 0.34 to 1.45 +/- 0.56 ng/dl), as did total T3 (16 +/- 14 to 76 +/- 44 ng/dl), during the phase of TSH rise, suggesting that the increase in TSH was not simply a consequence of diminished negative feedback due to increased plasma binding. The very close and consistent temporal relationship between TSH and T4 during the recovery phase suggests that TSH may have an essential role in the return of T4 to normal during recovery from critical nonthyroidal illness.

Adult

Effect of tetanus toxin on the accumulation of the permeant lipophilic cation tetraphenylphosphonium by guinea pig brain synaptosomes.

Accumulation of the permeant lipophilic cation [(3)H]tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP(+)) by synaptosome preparations from guinea pig brain cerebral cortex is inhibited 1:10 by medium containing 193 mM K(+) and by veratridine. A further 1:10 to 1:15 decrease in TPP(+) uptake occurs under nitrogen and in the presence of mitochondrial inhibitors such as oligomycin, whereas starvation and succinate supplementation have no effect. These data indicate that, in analogy to intact neurons, there is an electrical potential (DeltaPsi, interior negative) of -60 to -80 mV across the synaptosomal membrane that is due primarily to a K(+) diffusion gradient (K(+) (in)-->K(+) (out)). The data also indicate that mitochondria entrapped within the synaptosome but not free mitochondria make a large contribution to the TPP(+) concentration gradients observed. Conditions are defined in which tetanus toxin binds specifically and immediately to synaptosomes in media used to measure TPP(+) uptake. Under these conditions tetanus toxin induces dose-dependent changes in TPP(+) uptake that are blocked by antitoxin and not mimicked by biologically inactivated toxin preparations. The effect of tetanus toxin on TPP(+) uptake is not evident in the presence of 193 mM K(+) or veratridine but remains under conditions known to abolish the mitochondrial DeltaPsi. Moreover, tetanus toxin has no effect on TPP(+) uptake by isolated synaptosomal mitochondria. The results thus define an in vitro action of tetanus toxin on the synaptosomal membrane that can be correlated with biological potency in vivo and is consistent with the in vivo effects of tetanus toxin on neuronal transmission.

Anaerobiosis