Biomedical subjects

Steve King

Publications and source records attributed to Steve King.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Lessons learned in preparing to receive large numbers of contaminated individuals.

Traditionally, medical radiation emergency plans have provided for the receipt and care of a limited number of individuals, usually no more than two or three at any given time. Large numbers of contaminated, uninjured individuals cannot be effectively handled in the emergency departments (EDs) of hospitals as they present a risk of forcing the ED to close because of contamination and they divert ED personnel away from patients needing medical attention. Alternative locations and plans for handling large numbers of contaminated but otherwise uninjured patients must be considered. Such plans developed at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center (HMC) during the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (TMI) were resurrected post 9/11 and used there in developing and upgrading plans and capabilities for handling large numbers of contaminated, uninjured individuals.

Disaster Planning↗

PubMed2005

Rearrest and linkage to mental health services among clients of the Clark County mental health court program.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined rearrest and linkage to mental health services among 368 misdemeanants with severe and persistent mental illness who were served by the Clark County Mental Health Court (MHC). This court, established in April 2000, is based on the concepts of therapeutic jurisprudence. This study addressed the following questions about the effectiveness of the Clark County MHC: Did MHC clients receive more comprehensive mental health services? Did the MHC successfully reduce recidivism? Were there any client or program characteristics associated with recidivism? METHODS: A secondary analysis of use of mental health services and jail data for the MHC clients enrolled from April 2000 through April 2003 was conducted. The authors used a 12-month pre-post comparison design to determine whether MHC participants experienced reduced rearrest rates for new offenses, reduced probation violations, and increased mental health services 12 months postenrollment in the MHC compared with 12 months preenrollment. RESULTS: The overall crime rate for MHC participants was reduced 4.0 times one year postenrollment in the MHC compared with one year preenrollment. One year postenrollment, 54 percent of participants had no arrests, and probation violations were reduced by 62 percent. The most significant factor in determining the success of MHC participants was graduation status from the MHC, with graduates 3.7 times less likely to reoffend compared with nongraduates. CONCLUSIONS: The Clark County MHC successfully reduced rearrest rates for new criminal offenses and probation violations and provided the mental health support services to stabilize mental health consumers in the community.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Recent experiences with shielding a PET/CT facility.

Since the photon energy of positron emitting radionuclides is significantly higher than the maximum kVp of diagnostic x rays, designing a shielding plan for a PET/CT imaging facility requires careful consideration of future workloads and potential occupancy of surrounding spaces. The shielding calculations can be done by hand or with the aid of available software. In calculating the shielding, specific considerations arise. Some of these are presented as a checklist of things to consider when preparing to calculate the shielding required for a PET/CT facility.

Environmental Exposure↗

PubMed2004

Potential dose to nuclear medicine technologists from 99mTc-DTPA aerosol lung studies.

Air sampling performed during 190 Tc-labeled DTPA aerosol lung ventilation studies indicated that the maximum airborne concentration to which the nuclear medicine technologists might be exposed was 7.1 x 10(-1) Bq mL(-1) (1.9 x 10(-5) microCi mL(-1)). If a single technologist performed ALL the aerosol studies, at this maximum airborne concentration, based on the Annual Limit on Intake (ALI), the resulting dose equivalents could be either 1 mSv (100 mrem) to the lungs or 0.1 mSv (10 mrem) to the total body. However, the procedures are shared by the technical staff, the times of exposure are represented by only a fraction of the overall procedure time, and the average airborne concentrations were found to be more than an order of magnitude lower than the maximum. This resulted in a projected average annual dose equivalent of 7.0 x 10(-3) mSv (0.7 mrem) to the lungs or 7.0 x 10(-4) mSv (0.07 mrem) to the whole body from the performance of these procedures.

Aerosols↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Obesity-related differential gene expression in the visceral adipose tissue.

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the expression patterns in human adipose tissue, and identifies genes that may be involved in the abnormal energy homeostasis. METHODS: Subjects were prospectively recruited from morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery and from non-obese organ donors. Extensive clinical data and visceral fat specimens were obtained from each subject at the time of surgery. A group of 50 obese patients and 9 non-obese controls were selected for further study. Two custom two-color cDNA microarrays were produced with 40,173 human individual cDNA clones. Microarray experiments were performed for each sample, and a selected group of gene expression values were confirmed with real-time RT-PCR. RESULTS: A comparison of gene expression profiles from obese and non-obese patients identified 1,208 genes with statistically significant differential expression between the 2 groups. Most prominent among these genes are multiple glycolysis enzyme encoding genes; others are involved in oxysterol biosynthesis and signaling, or are ATP-binding transporters and solute carriers. CONCLUSION: Differential gene expression in the adipose tissue of morbidly obese patients includes genes related to lipid and glucose metabolism, membrane transport, and genes promoting the cell cycle. These findings are a first step toward clarifying the molecular pathogenesis of obesity and identifying potential targets for therapeutic intervention.

Adipose Tissue↗