Patient-proxy response comparability on measures of patient health and functional status

The present study evaluates the response comparability between 361 elderly hip fracture patients admitted from the community to seven Baltimore area hospitals between 1984 and 1986 and interviewer selected proxies on items pertaining to patients' pre-fracture health and functional status. Agreement across items ranges from very poor to good and varies with respect to the health or functional area assessed. Proxies tend to overestimate patient disability relative to the patients themselves, especially with regard to capacity to perform instrumental activities of daily living. Although proxies who report the greatest contact with patients respond most comparably to the patients, when they do disagree, proxies with the greatest patient contact tend to overestimate patient disability. The authors suggest that attention to item construction and phrasing may improve response comparability.     

Relating food composition data to iron availability from plant foods

Correlation studies were performed relating iron availability estimated in vitro using a simulated digestion system to the concentration of protein, sugar, fibre, phytate, ascorbate and citrate in 33 different plant foods. Protein, sugar and fibre showed no significant correlation with iron availability. Phytate was significantly negatively correlated with diffusible iron in cereals, legumes and nuts. Both ascorbate and citrate were highly positively correlated with diffusible iron in vegetables and fruits. It is concluded that iron availability may be related on a quantitative basis to certain components of plant foods.     

Segregation analysis of leprosy in families of northern Thailand

Sixty-three families with multiple instances of leprosy were identified through a major leprosy treatment center in northern Thailand. Complex segregation analyses for single major genes or polygenic inheritance were performed using the maximum-likelihood routine POINTER to determine the most likely etiologic model of genetic susceptibility. Liability differences between men and women were considered in these models. When individuals were considered to be affected because they had any form of leprosy, a generalized major gene model with nearly dominant parameters on the liability scale, but additive penetrances, was found to be the most likely. When only those individuals who had tuberculoid forms of leprosy were considered to be affected, a recessive model was found to be the most likely; however, the discrimination between various models was poor. Further analyses are necessary to delineate genetic mechanisms to explain these apparently divergent results. In particular, methods of testing two locus models should be considered.     

Relation between energy expenditure and body composition in man: specific energy expenditure in vivo of fat and fat-free tissue

The relationship between energy expenditure and body composition, in terms of fat and fat-free masses, has previously been described by a variety of predictive regression equations with parameters devoid of physiological content. We present here results obtained by calculating the specific energy expenditure, ie, the energy expenditure per unit of mass, of fat and fat-free tissue on the basis of measurements of the total energy expenditure (EE), the masses of fat (FM), and fat-free (FFM) tissue using the following simple model: EE = k1.FM + k2.FFM where k1 and k2 are the specific energy expenditures of fat and fat-free tissue, respectively. The results of observations on 104 women at rest yielded values for k1 and k2 of 0.31 and 1.35 watts/kg of fat and fat-free mass, respectively, with standard errors of estimate of 0.074 and 0.052 watts/kg, respectively. Analysis of several series of measurements, from other sources and on smaller samples of subjects, yielded similar values at rest but with larger standard errors of estimate. Data from subjects performing varying amounts of work in 24-h measurements showed, as expected, larger values for both tissues. The results explain to a very large extent the well-established relation between resting metabolic rate and body weight, ie, a linear relation with a non-zero intercept. The results also offer a clear-cut explanation for the well known difference in energy expenditure between men and women with the same body weight.     

Re-evaluation of normal human urinary proteins fractionated by one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Proteins in normal human urine were clearly fractionated into 26 bands with molecular weights from 14,000 to 230,000 by means of one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) coupled with silver staining. The main band contained uromucoid, and the second main band had albumin. However, when urine samples from healthy persons were electrophoresed in the absence of SDS using polyacrylamide gel or agarose gel, or a cellulose acetate membrane, albumin but not uromucoid, frequently formed the main protein band. It is suggested that this is due to the complexing of uromucoid subunits to form a large molecule which cannot penetrate into the gel. In order to correctly fractionate all the proteins contained in normal human urine, it was concluded that it was best to treat a urine sample with SDS with pre-condensation, fractionate it by SDS-PAGE and stain fractionated proteins by a highly sensitive method such as silver staining.     

Risedronate Reduces the Risk of First Vertebral Fracture in Osteoporotic Women

Risedronate treatment reduces the risk of vertebral fracture in women with existing vertebral fractures, but its efficacy in prevention of the first vertebral fracture in women with osteoporosis but without vertebral fractures has not been determined. We examined the risk of first vertebral fracture in postmenopausal women who were enrolled in four placebo-controlled clinical trials of risedronate and who had low lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) (mean T-score =–3.3) and no vertebral fractures at baseline. Subjects received risedronate 5 mg (n= 328) or placebo (n= 312) daily for up to 3 years; all subjects were given calcium (1000 mg daily), as well as vitamin D supplementation (up to 500 IU daily) if baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were low. The incidence of first vertebral fracture was 9.4% in the women treated with placebo and 2.6% in those treated with risedronate 5 mg (risk reduction of 75%, 95% confidence interval 37% to 90%; P= 0.002). The number of patients who would need to be treated to prevent one new vertebral fracture is 15. When subjects were stratified by age, similar significant reductions were observed in patients with a mean age of 64 years (risk reduction of 70%, 95% CI 8% to 90%; P= 0.030) and in those with a mean age of 76 years (risk reduction of 80%, 95% CI 7% to 96%; P= 0.024). Risedronate treatment therefore significantly reduces the risk of first vertebral fracture in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, with a similar magnitude of effect early and late after the menopause. Received: 12 September 2001 / Accepted: 11 December 2001     

QT prolongation under sevoflurane in infants

Introduction   QT interval prolongation may cause the potentially lethal tachyarrhythmia torsades de pointes ( 1 ). The cause of the QT interval prolongation may be a congenital mutation in genes encoding cardiac potassium and sodium channels ( 2 ) or be acquired following drug administration ( 3 ) or metabolic disorders ( 4 ). Among a few other drugs volatile anaesthetics prolong the QT interval. During the last few years sevoflurane has become the most used volatile anaesthetic for the induction of anaesthesia in infants.
Methods   This investigation, on infants aged from 1 to 6 months, was approved by the institutional ethic committee. Thirty-six otherwise healthy infants due to elective surgery were included in our study The patients were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Group S ( n  = 24) was anaesthetised with sevoflurane, Group H was anaesthetised with halothane. ECG recordings were taken before the anaesthesia onset, 15 min after the first contact with the volatile anaesthetic and 60 min after the ending of the volatile gas exposition. QTc interval was calculated using the Bazett's formula ( 5 ).
Results   QTc interval was significantly ( P < 0.0002) (Table 1) lengthened 15 min after anaesthesia induction with sevoflurane as well as 60 min ( P < 0.01) after the ending of the gas exposition without any difference in age and gender. The QTc interval in patients anaesthetised with halothane did not show any significant change.  

  Table 1     

960.

Human interleukin 4 regulates the phenotype of lymphocytes generated during mixed lymphocyte culture and inhibits the IL-2-induced development of LAK function in normal and leukaemic cells   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

B Q Jin  A F Lopez  S Gillis  C A Juttner  M A Vadas  G F Burns 《Leukemia research》1989,13(4):297-305

This study examined the immunoregulatory role of recombinant interleukin 4 (IL-4), also known as B-cell stimulating factor 1, on the generation of cytotoxic effector cells from normal and leukaemic human blood mononuclear cells. When tested on cells from normal individuals, the addition of IL-4 to mixed lymphocyte cultures led to a dose-dependent proliferation of T-helper cells (CD3, 4 positive) with a concomitant decrease in phenotypic and functional cytotoxic T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. IL-4 also inhibited the interleukin-2 (IL-2)-induced generation of lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activity when added at the beginning of mixed lymphocyte culture. When tested on mature leukaemic NK cells, IL-4 also inhibited the ability of IL-2 to induce LAK function using a short-term culture system. These results show that IL-4 acts on both normal and leukaemic cells and suggests that it acts at more than one level during the development of LAK function.     

[首页] « 上一页 [91] [92] [93] [94] [95] 96 [97] [98] [99] [100] 下一页 » 末  页»

Human interleukin 4 regulates the phenotype of lymphocytes generated during mixed lymphocyte culture and inhibits the IL-2-induced development of LAK function in normal and leukaemic cells

This study examined the immunoregulatory role of recombinant interleukin 4 (IL-4), also known as B-cell stimulating factor 1, on the generation of cytotoxic effector cells from normal and leukaemic human blood mononuclear cells. When tested on cells from normal individuals, the addition of IL-4 to mixed lymphocyte cultures led to a dose-dependent proliferation of T-helper cells (CD3, 4 positive) with a concomitant decrease in phenotypic and functional cytotoxic T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. IL-4 also inhibited the interleukin-2 (IL-2)-induced generation of lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activity when added at the beginning of mixed lymphocyte culture. When tested on mature leukaemic NK cells, IL-4 also inhibited the ability of IL-2 to induce LAK function using a short-term culture system. These results show that IL-4 acts on both normal and leukaemic cells and suggests that it acts at more than one level during the development of LAK function.