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Biomedical subjects

T O'Neil

Publications and source records attributed to T O'Neil.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Cervical dystonia severity scale reliability study.

Cervical dystonia (CD) is characterized by sustained contractions of the neck musculature, resulting in abnormal head postures. The Cervical Dystonia Severity Scale (CDSS) was developed to provide a reliable measure of treatment response in patients with CD. The CDSS uses a protractor and wall chart to rate the severity of the head's deviation from neutral in each of three planes of motion (rotation, laterocollis, anterocollis/retrocollis), which is then scored in 5 degree intervals (1 degree to 5 degrees deviation = 1; 86 degree to 90 degrees deviation = 18). To test the reliability of the CDSS, four centers, each with two independent examiners, evaluated 42 patients with CD. At each site, each of the two examiners used the CDSS to evaluate the head position of each patient twice, on the same day, for a total of four evaluations. The kappa value for intra-examiner agreement was 0.94 (95% confidence limit of 0.900-0.972), indicating excellent intra-examiner reliability. The kappa value for interexaminer reliability was 0.79 for the first evaluation and 0.86 for the second evaluation (95% confidence limits of 0.668-0.920 and 0.790-0.920) indicating excellent interexaminer reliability. Thus, the CDSS was highly reliable in both intra-examiner and interexaminer scoring comparisons.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Report of the Second Equine Leucocyte Antigen Workshop, Squaw valley, California, July 1995.

The final assignment of antibody clusters for leucocyte antigens and immunoglobulins, as described in detail in Sections 3 and 4, is summarized in Table 4. Together with other mAbs developed outside of ELAW II (Table 9) this pool of reagents represent a powerful array of tools for the study of equine immunity. The Second Equine Leucocyte Antigen Workshop made considerable advances in pursuing the objectives of establishing the specificities of mAbs and achieving consensus on the nomenclature for equine leucocyte and immunoglobulin molecules. Of equal importance, several productive collaborations were fostered among the participating laboratories and observers. Overall, enormous advances have been made in the past decade since mAbs specific for equine leucocyte antigens and immunoglobulins were first reported. There remains enormous scope and need for further studies of equine leucocyte antigens and immunoglobulins, both for the purposes of comparative immunology and for the good of the horse. In the future novel techniques will be required to develop reagents for specific target antigens such as the orthologues of the CD25 or CD45 isoforms. In studies of equine immunoglobulins the functional role of the IgG isotypes must be better established, reagents for IgE must be developed, and cloning of the immunoglobulin heavy chain genes will be essential if the complexities of the IgG sub-isotypes are to be elucidated. The tasks still facing the currently small group of equine immunologists throughout the world remain formidable, and will only be tackled successfully in a spirit of collaboration.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Identification of a major growth factor for AIDS-Kaposi's sarcoma cells as oncostatin M.

Conditioned medium from human T cell leukemia virus type 2 (HTLV-II)-infected T cells supports the growth and long-term culture of cells derived from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-associated Kaposi's sarcoma lesions (AIDS-KS cells). A protein of 30 kilodaltons was purified from conditioned medium that supports the growth of AIDS-KS cells. The amino-terminal sequence of this protein was identical to the amino-terminal sequence of Oncostatin M, a glycoprotein that inhibits the growth of a variety of cancer cells. Oncostatin M from conditioned medium stimulated a twofold increase in the growth of AIDS-KS cells at a concentration of less than 1 nanogram of the protein per milliliter of medium.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1987

A new method using ultrasound for measuring femoral anteversion (torsion): technique and reliability.

This paper reports details of a new method using medical ultrasound for measuring femoral anteversion (strictly torsion), and a reliability study of the method separately on each of 10 healthy children and 20 adults. The method involves using a static-image B-mode ultrasound scanner to obtain scans at the hips and knees of the lower limbs. A technique using bone-surface contours is reported for defining, on each hip scan, the head-neck line and, on each knee scan, the transcondylar line. By superimposing the transcondylar line on the head-neck line, the angle of femoral anteversion (torsion) was calculated for each limb. In the reliability study, scans were obtained three times at both hips and knees of each subject. The femoral anteversion was measured for each limb. The intra-observer error was within +/- 2.3 degrees (95% confidence limits) between scans, which was not statistically significant for the measured anteversion in each of the right and left femora of children and adults separately. To test the validity of the tracing method used to calculate femoral anteversion, one set of scans from the hip and knee of each subject was measured four times; no significant difference was found between tracings for the measurements of femoral anteversion. The ultrasound method is recommended for clinical use. We consider the static-image B-mode scanner to be the instrument of choice for measuring femoral anteversion in living subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

A new method using medical ultrasound for measuring femoral anteversion (torsion): technique and reliability. An intra-observer and inter-observer study on dried bones from human adults.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an ultrasound method on dried femora to decide if it is sufficiently reliable to consider its application to living subjects in health and disease. It reports the application of a standard static image B-mode ultrasound scanner to measure femoral anteversion (strictly torsion) on dried bones. The method involves creating images of bony surface contours at both the upper and the lower ends of the femur placed in a water bath. The calculation of femoral torsion involves measuring the angular difference between a head-neck line at the upper end and a transcondylar line at the lower end of the femur. This approach, using the surface contour of the bone at the upper end of the femur, is similar to that used by Lange & Pitzen (1921) and differs from conventional ways of measuring anteversion in dried bones using a central femoral head-neck axis. It is shown that in ultrasound scanning of the upper end of the dried femur to measure femoral anteversion, the head-neck line must be at, or rostral to, the base of greater trochanter. The intra- and inter-observer reliability was assessed in 10 femora, each scanned ten times by two observers. It is shown that femoral torsion can be measured by the ultrasound method to an accuracy of +/- 2 degrees (95% confidence limits) without a significant difference between the observers. The ultrasound method is compared with a new mechanical method for creating surface contours at both ends of the femur and found not to be statistically different in 37 femora. Two real-time ultrasound methods reported by other workers for measuring femoral anteversion in dried bones are reviewed. It is suggested that in applying ultrasound to measure femoral anteversion in living subjects, the B-mode static image scanner is superior to the use of real-time scanners.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Brief group therapy following myocardial infarction: eighteen-month follow-up of a controlled trial.

Sixty post-myocardial infarction (MI) subjects have been followed for up to eighteen months' time following their MI. Thirty-eight of these subjects completed a brief series of four to six group therapy sessions during their early rehabilitation phase; the others received no group therapy. Both groups were placed on otherwise identical schedules of outpatient follow-up. Group therapy patients have, to date, experienced significantly fewer cardiac complications than controls. Only one death has occurred, and that one patient was in the control group. A coronary heart disease teaching evaluation questionnaire was given to a sample of group therapy patients, a sample of controls, and a comparison group of men without MI. Following their group therapy sessions, these men demonstrated significantly greater knowledge of their disease and its optimal rehabilitation than did control or comparison subjects. Control patients' questionnaire results proved to be insignificantly different from those of the comparison group.

Adult↗