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T Farrell

Publications and source records attributed to T Farrell.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Abdominal pain.

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Abdomen

Functional classification of undernourished populations in the Republic of El Salvador. Methodological development.

Typical government nutrition programmes usually lack precise information on the size of groups that could benefit from interventions, on the different types of potential beneficiaries and their location, and on socio-economic and cultural characteristics through which they could readily be identified. In the functional classification approach to the definition of nutritional problems, detailed information on human behaviour and social constraints is collected at family and community levels. The data are then interpreted in general terms in order to understand how these factors contribute to inadequate levels of nutrition within larger groups. This new approach should enable more effective measures for reducing the numbers of those living under conditions of deprivation to be presented to planners and decision makers.

El Salvador

Evaluation of receiver operator characteristics--optimum time of day for the assessment of heart rate variability after acute myocardial infarction.

The study reports a mathematical method for deciding which clinical data are of importance for treatment decisions in a given clinical setting. The method comprises the following steps: (A) the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) functions of the compared sets of data are computed; (B) the design and aim of the clinical study is expressed as an integral measure on the space of sensitivity values (this reflects the preference of low or high sensitivity values dependent on the clinical targets); (C) the sets of data being compared are characterised by the non-linear integrals of their ROC functions. The approach has been used to compare mean heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) data calculated in 5113 different portions of 24-h ECG recordings and assessed in 365 patients surviving acute myocardial infarction, in order to evaluate the utility of Holter recording of varying lengths and starting times for the prediction of sudden cardiac death and/or serious arrhythmic events. The results of the study show that this approach is capable of evaluating and comparing the sets of medical data used for identification of patients who are at increased risk. The experimental part of the study showed that the optimum recording interval for the assessment of HR and HRV data in patients who survived acute myocardial infarction depends on the aim of the identification of increased risk patients. The optimum interval of recording is different for an identification which requires a low number of false negative cases and permits a higher number of false positive cases, than for the situation where a low number of false positive cases are required and a higher number of false negative cases are permissible.

Circadian Rhythm

Keratomalacia.

Xerophthalmia and keratomalacia are public health problems of great magnitude which are usually associated with multiple vitamin and protein deficiencies. The authors report the case of a 27-year-old commune member who subjected herself to a bizarre protein and vitamin deficient diet for many months. This ultimately produced nyctalopia, xerophthalmia and keratomalacia with bilateral corneal perforation. Despite therapy, she remained comatose and expired shortly after admission. Ocular pathological changes included bilateral corneal melting with prolapse of intraocular contents, conjunctival epidermidalization, goblet cell atrophy and thinning of the outer nuclear layer of the retina. It is noted that ocular findings in pure avitaminosis A produced experimentalyy include epithelial atrophy followed by keratinization.

Adult