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S Lawrence

Publications and source records attributed to S Lawrence.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Algorithms for a location database.

The algorithms that drive the ldb location database are described. The program captures data on genetic and physical maps and combines information from different sources into a summary map. To assure portability it was developed in Fortran on a SUN SPARCStation under Unix. The algorithms, which combine rule-based seriation with a minimum deviance bootstrap, allow investigators and chromosome committees to produce a composite location in Mb that integrates partial maps. The program and manual are now available from the authors.

Algorithms

"Satellite" haemodialysis.

Thirty of the 39 patients treated at the Blacktown Dialysis Centre, the first "satellite" dialysis centre in the greater metropolitan Sydney, had been referred from four Sydney renal units for long-term dialysis therapy. The move save approximately 150 kilometres in travelling and eight hours time each week for each of these patients. The cost of running the unit was approximately $10,000 per patient per year in the first year--no greater than that of home dialysis, and less than that of dialysis in a teaching hospital. The advantages of establishing satellite dialysis centre, the method of operation, and the results of the first year of operation of the Blacktown Dialysis Centre are described.

Adult

The complement system in infectious mononucleosis.

The complement system was investigated in 34 patients with infectious mononucleosis. Three had specific complications: one haemolytic anaemia, one severe arthralgia/myalgia and one proliferative glomerulonephritis. Complement changes consistent with classical pathway consumption were seen in ten of the uncomplicated group and the patients with haemolytic anaemia and arthralgia/myalgia. The patient with glomerulonephritis showed evidence of alternative pathway utilisation including C3 splitting activity and the deposition of properdin on renal biopsy. The complement findings suggest that circulating immune complexes are common in such patients and are likely to play a role in the pathogenesis of the complications. It is proposed that both complement pathways may be required for the effective clearance of viral material from the circulation.

Complement C1 Inactivator Proteins

Acute hepatitis: significance of changes in complement components.

Serial measurements of complement components were performed in fifty-nine patients with acute, uncomplicated hepatitis and twelve with alcoholic cirrhosis. Thirty-one of the former group had detectable hepatitis B antigen. Abnormal complement profiles were observed in nine patients with hepatitis B and seven with antigen-negative hepatitis. Low levels of C4, C3 and factor B were common in the subjects with cirrhosis and confined to those cases with severe reduction in serum albumin and/or prothrombin index. By contrast, the complement changes in the patients with hepatitis occurred without significant alteration in these parameters; certain subjects also had reduction in C1q and C5 and a significant number had C3d detectable in fresh plasma. The pattern of abnormality suggests predominant involvement of the classical pathway and it is concluded that this results, at least in part, from an immune process evident only in the early clinical phase of hepatitis. Such gross changes in complement are likely to reflect immune-complex activity and it is proposed that these complexes may be important in the clearance of virus material. The data supports a previous suggestion that recovery from acute hepatitis is primarily dependent on host immune competence rather than viral cytotoxicity or generation of immune complexes.

Acute Disease