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T Buxton

Publications and source records attributed to T Buxton.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Asthma training in third-year medical students.

To assess the educational experiences of physicians-in-training with asthma patients, we had medical students complete asthma surveys at the beginning and end of their internal medicine clerkship (IMC). At the beginning of the IMC, all students received a 1-hr asthma lecture and half of the students received a compilation of pocket cards containing many of the algorithms from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute asthma guidelines. We found that students had relatively few encounters with asthmatic patients during the IMC. Students were good judges of asthma severity but performed poorly on survey questions pertaining to asthma treatment. Confidence in treating and assessing patients improved by the end of the IMC, but remained low. We conclude that the usual 1-hr lecture and limited contact with asthma patients during the IMC may be in adequate to train students to care for patients with asthma.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

In vitro study of the effect of photodynamic therapy on pituitary adenomas.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been employed in the management of recurrent cerebral gliomas, but its activity against pituitary adenomas has not been specifically studied. An in vitro study of the effects of PDT against a variety of pituitary adenomas was conducted. It was found that PDT using haematoporphyrin derivative as a photosensitizer showed dose dependent activity against a variety of pituitary adenomas. The activity of PDT against pituitary adenomas should be investigated further and may hopefully provide a useful form of adjuvant therapy for preventing recurrence of micro-invasive pituitary adenomas or dealing with established recurrence after surgery and radiotherapy.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1992

Use of uncalibrated biplanar radiography for the measurement of skeletal coordinates around the shoulder girdle.

Mechanical modelling of the musculoskeletal system is dependent upon information regarding the bony attachments of the relevant muscles; in order to study the biomechanics of the shoulder girdle the authors have identified the muscle attachments in three embalmed cadavers. A simple biplanar radiographic technique was then used to determine the attachment coordinates using frames of reference defined for each bone. This technique, using hand positioning without special fixtures was believed to be sufficiently accurate, bearing in mind the likely degree of biological variation. In order to test this assumption, the accuracy of the technique has been studied by measuring the agreement between the two measurements of the common coordinate in the pairs of radiographs. It was found that for the trunk, the errors in the common coordinate were always less than the natural variation; for the scapula they were of a similar magnitude but, for the humerus, the measurement errors frequently exceeded the variation in the coordinates of muscle attachments. It was concluded that, in general, uncalibrated biplanar radiography was sufficiently accurate for the determination of the spatial coordinates of muscle attachments.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Discontinuous counterimmunoelectrophoresis in the diagnosis of antibiotic-associated colitis.

Discontinuous counterimmunoelectrophoresis (DCIE) was employed to detect the toxin of Clostridium difficile, etiologic antibiotic-associated colitis (AAC), in bacteria-free stool filtrates from 51 patients with diarrhea. Stool samples from 31 patients contained C. difficile toxin as determined by tissue-culture assay. A positive result was obtained by DCIE in 20 of the 31 patients (65%) and was influenced by the titer of toxin present. When toxin was present by tissue-culture assay in a dilution of less than or equal to 10(-2) (11 samples), DCIE was positive in only 2 (18%). However, DCIE yielded positive results in 18 of the 20 samples (90%) containing toxin titers greater than or equal to 10(-3). The combination of DCIE and sigmoidoscopy of colonoscopy was superior to either alone in the diagnosis of AAC irrespective of the toxin titer. Nine of 11 patients (82%) whose stool samples contained C. difficile toxin in a dilution of less than or equal to 10(-2) were recognized by DCIE, endoscopy, or both. In stool samples containing toxin in titers greater than or equal to 10(-3), no false-negative results were encountered (sensitivity equals 100%). Thus, 29 of 31 patients whose stool samples contained C. difficile toxin were identified when the results of DCIE and endoscopical examination were combined (sensitivity 93.5%). Neither endoscopical examination nor DCIE yielded positive results in the 20 patients whose stool samples lacked C. difficile toxin (specificity equals 100%). DCIE is a rapid, moderately sensitive, and specific method for detecting C. difficile toxin. When DCIE is combined with endoscopy, the vast majority of patients requiring specific therapy for AAC can be identified.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗