Showing papers by "Northwick Park Hospital published in 1974"
325 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors found that macrocytosis is one of the commonest abnormalities in alcoholics in the U.K., and seems to be due to a direct action of alcohol on the developing erythroblasts.
154 citations
TL;DR: Nitroblue tetrazolium is an interesting compound which is of value in the study of neutrophil physiology and its addition to blood results in the formation of a particulate object of phagocytosis, while at the same time the dye, which is complexed to this precipitate, functions as a visible marker of the completion of this act.
115 citations
95 citations
TL;DR: Factor‐VII levels were measured in members of an industrial population participating in a long‐term prospective study of arterial disease using a modified semi‐automated method with an artificially prepared factor‐VII deficient plasma.
Abstract: Summary.
Factor-VII levels were measured in members of an industrial population participating in a long-term prospective study of arterial disease. A modified semi-automated method with an artificially prepared factor-VII deficient plasma, one batch of freeze-dried thromboplastin and one freeze-dried pooled reference plasma was used throughout. All calculations were carried out on a programmable desk calculator.
Mean factor-VII levels in men and in women never on oral contraceptives were similar (age-adjusted means 95.0% and 92.4% respectively). A very highly significant increase in factor VII was found in women on the low oestrogen contraceptive pill (age-adjusted mean 134.8% compared to 92.4% in women never on oral contraceptives).
There was a highly significant rise in factor-VII activity with age in both men and women. In men, factor VII rose 0.45% per year, whereas in women it increased at the rate of 1.1% per year. The difference in the slopes of these regression lines for men and women was significant. At younger ages, the mean levels for women were lower than for men, while at older ages the reverse was true.
No relationship with ABO blood groups or secretor status were found. Venepunctures noted as difficult appeared to have no effect on factor-VII levels.
92 citations
TL;DR: A child with retarded physical and mental development, recurrent megaloblastic anaemia, methylmalonic aciduria and abnormal homocysteine metabolism resulting from an inborn error in the metabolism of cobalamins died at the age of 7 years.
Abstract: SUMMARY 1. The case is described of a child with retarded physical and mental development, recurrent megaloblastic anaemia, methylmalonic aciduria and abnormal homocysteine metabolism resulting from an inborn error in the metabolism of cobalamins. She died at the age of 7 years. At autopsy there was pulmonary fibrosis and the brain showed lesions typical of those seen in subacute combined degeneration of the cord. 2. A metabolic abnormality was present which resulted in an inability to maintain normal tissue concentrations of the two coenzyme forms of vitamin Biz, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin. Lack of methylcobalamin led to deficient activity of N5-methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase with reduced ability to methylate homocysteine, and lack of adenosylcobalamin to deficient activity of methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, which accounted for the methylmalonic aciduria.
79 citations
TL;DR: The findings indicate that low serum SM activity in liver disease is not related to growth hormone deficiency and suggest that the liver may be an important site for SM synthesis in man.
Abstract: 1. Somatomedin (SM; sulphation factor) activity was estimated by a chick-cartilage assay in fasting sera from twenty-one patients with chronic liver disease. 2. Low SM values were found in nine out of the ten patients with cirrhosis and in two other patients, one with hepatofibrosis and one with hepatoma. 3. In general, the lowest serum SM activities were found in those patients with the most severe disease and significant correlations were found between serum SM and serum albumin, alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin. 4. Growth hormone was also measured in the samples and concentrations above 10 units/ml were found in seven patients, all of whom had reduced serum SM activities. 5. These findings indicate that low serum SM activity in liver disease is not related to growth hormone deficiency and suggest that the liver may be an important site for SM synthesis in man.
75 citations
TL;DR: No strong evidence for individual differences in diurnal change was found in boys aged 12-14 years with the "stretching upward" technique.
Abstract: 1. Measurements of stature and sitting height were made at 0930 and 1400 h on 19 boys aged 12-14 years with the "stretching upward" technique. 11 different boys were similarly measured at 1000 and 1700 h. 2. The average decrease in stature from 0930 to 1400 h was 2.0 mm and from 1000 to 1700 h was 4.6 mm. The corresponding values for sitting height were 2.0 mm and 2.8 mm. 3. No strong evidence for individual differences in diurnal change was found. 4. The standard error of stature measurement, estimated from duplicate measurements taken five minutes apart by the same observer in the afternoon sessions, was +/- 1.8 mm.
73 citations
TL;DR: Dpersal of Staphylococcus aureus into the air is fairly common and is sometimes profuse among men, but is rare and very slight among young women.
72 citations
TL;DR: The data indicate that in vitamin-B 12 deficiency there is a failure of synthesis of folate polyglutamate, the active coenzyme form, which leads to impaired entry of monoglutamate forms of folates into cells and an increase in plasma-folate.
51 citations
TL;DR: An improved manual micromethod is described in which proteins are kept in solution by the use of sodium lauryl sulphate and the phosphate determined by the molybdenum blue reaction.
Abstract: Several current techniques for the determination of serum inorganic phosphate in the presence of proteins are shown to have important disadvantages. An improved manual micromethod is described in which proteins are kept in solution by the use of sodium lauryl sulphate and the phosphate determined by the molybdenum blue reaction. The procedure has been adapted for the Technicon AutoAnalyzer and the Vickers D-300 and M-300, and has been shown to give very good precision in routine use.
TL;DR: The frequency distributions of 19 biochemical variables in blood have been studied on 1000 blood donors, finding that alkaline phosphatase, cholesterol, creatinine, glucose, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, iron, protein-bound iodine, urea and urate could be converted to close agreement with Gaussian distributions by logarithmic transformations, although the glucose distribution remained significantly long-tailed.
TL;DR: An experimental immune synovitis was induced in the knee joints of rabbits by repeated intraarticular injections of autologous and homologous lgG or lGG derivatives only in those animals which demonstrated cellular immunity by skin hypersensitivity and macrophage migration inhibition.
Abstract: An experimental immune synovitis was induced in the knee joints of rabbits by repeated intraarticular injections of autologous and homologous lgG or lgG derivatives. Only in those animals which demonstrated cellular immunity by skin hypersensitivity and macrophage migration inhibition did we produce a significant synovitis. Synovial lysosomal enzyme actvity was significantly elevated in these rabbits. Cyclophosphamide had no effect on inhibiting the synovial response while ALS either markedly reduced or eliminated the synovitis.
TL;DR: The procedure was not free from hazards which outweighed its diagnostic usefulness except in certain clearly defined conditions such as primary amenorrhoea and may have had some therapeutic effect in patients with the polycystic ovary syndrome.
TL;DR: Findings do not prove that modes of spread and routes of infection are identical for the two diseases, but they are consistent with this possibility.
TL;DR: These features of polyclonal responses provide the rationale for the use of such systems both as a model for the study of activation processes in lymphocytes and clinically for the assessment of proliferative potential of blood-borne lymphocytes.
Abstract: LYMPHOCYTES can be activated in vitro by a variety of so-called polyclonal stimulants or mitogens (reviewed in refs 1, 2 and 3) These responses characteristically involve a larger proportion of cells than observed with antigen as the eliciting ligand, and the initiating events are widely believed to be independent of any immunogenicity possessed by the stimulant These features of polyclonal responses provide the rationale for the use of such systems both as a model for the study of activation processes in lymphocytes2 and clinically for the assessment of proliferative potential of blood-borne lymphocytes4
TL;DR: It is concluded that there were autoimmune factors against intrinsic factor in virtually all patients with pernicious anaemia, and that the disease did not develop in the absence of such antibodies.
TL;DR: It is suggested that comparisons of the effects of these two drugs on central dopaminergic mechanisms provide a critical test of the dopamine receptor blockade hypothesis of neuroleptic action, and that the behavioural and biochemical evidence at present available is inconsistent with this hypothesis.
01 May 1974
TL;DR: In this article, two approaches to computer assisted diagnosis using mathematical models based on the concepts of Bayesian probability and maximum likelihood respectively are discussed within the context of liver disease, as are the practical difficulties arising in the implementation of the procedures.
Abstract: This study describes two approaches to computer-assisted diagnosis using mathematical models based on the concepts of Bayesian probability and maximum likelihood respectively. The assumptions underlying the models and the restrictions such assumptions impose on their use are discussed within the context of liver disease, as are the practical difficulties arising in the implementation of the procedures.
From a study of 419 patients, information was obtained for the construction of a probability matrix for 14 diseases of the liver and biliary system. For each disease the matrix contained the incidence figures for 72 clinical details from the history and physical examination and the incidence figures for the results of 25 routine laboratory investigations.
The computed diagnoses using the models were compared with the hospital diagnosis confirmed by a liver biopsy, autopsy, or operative findings. Seventy-five per cent and 78 per cent of cases contributing to the matrix were reidentified correctly using respectively the likelihood and Bayesian methods of analysis. On the evidence within the matrix, 67 per cent of new cases on whom assessment was possible were diagnosed correctly and unequivocally, using a simple threshold test to distinguish equivocal cases. Additional information from more specific tests held in a subsidiary matrix increased the diagnostic accuracy of new cases to 73 per cent.
Some additional criteria are considered which might be used to identify new cases with diseases not represented in the probability matrix.
TL;DR: The data suggest considerable circulation of folate between CSF and other body compartments, and 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate appeared in the CSF when given intravenously to man.
Abstract: 1. 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate appeared in the CSF when given intravenously to man. 2. The data suggest considerable circulation of folate between CSF and other body compartments.
TL;DR: Two women were found during routine tissue-antibody screening to have circulating antibodies to the loop of Henle and one had pernicious anaemia, renal tubular acidosis, and probable primary biliary cirrhosis, but normal renal function.
TL;DR: An automated continuous-flow method is described for estimating total hydroxyproline in urine, which is sensitive and specific, and requires 50 min per analysis.
Abstract: An automated continuous-flow method is described for estimating total hydroxyproline in urine. The method utilizes column chromatography on sulfonated polystyrene resin, the eluate being reacted with chloramine-T and p -dimethylaminobenzaldehyde to produce a colored complex that is measured at 560 nm. The method is sensitive and specific, and requires 50 min per analysis.
TL;DR: It is suggested that for the performance of the 125I-fibrinogen test potassium iodide need not be given to the elderly and should be given in a dose of 30 mg daily for two weeks to younger patients.
Abstract: Hyperthyroidism developed in three patients during the administration of potassium iodide given for the purpose of blocking the thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine liberated in the course of the 125I-fibrinogen test. In a consecutive series of 31 geriatric patients, who received potassium iodide for the same reason, biochemical hyperthyroidism developed in three instances and significant depression of thyroid function was observed in 10. The performance and the interpretation of the 125I-fibrinogen test are unaffected if iodide is not administered to the patient. The possible hazards to some patients of either induced hyperthyroidism or faulty assessment of thyroid function may be greater than the risk of thyroid irradiation. It is suggested that for the performance of the 125I-fibrinogen test potassium iodide need not be given to the elderly and should be given in a dose of 30 mg daily for two weeks to younger patients. Under certain circumstances potassium perchlorate may be a preferable drug for preventing the accumulation of radioactive iodine by the thyroid.
TL;DR: The use of Nitroblue tetrazolium as a prestain for the separation of serum lipoproteins by polyacrylamide disc electrophoresis is described and lipoprotein patterns in the sera of 50 normal and 9 hyperlipoproteinaemic subjects were studied.
TL;DR: This modification rendered the kinetic tech nique robust, and suitable for the analysis of specimens irrespective of the levels of ammonia and of 5′-nucleotidase activity, and less satisfactory when high concentrations of endogenous ammonia were present.
TL;DR: The injection of contrast material and the subsequent visualisation of the arterial pattern on a radiograph is an effective method of demonstrating these lesions and the intrasplenic aneurysms will be completely missed unless an injection technique is used.
Abstract: 275 spleens were examined by an initial plain film and then after injections of a slightly diluted water-barium suspension. Of these specimens, 250 were normal size spleens and 25 enlarged. Splenic artery aneurysms were common and the vast majority had been asymptomatic. They commonly occurred at bifurcations and were commonly calcified. They were well embedded in the peri-pancreatic or splenic hilar tissue and were not visible unless very large or the artery was dissected free from this surrounding tissue.
The small splenic artery aneurysms are particularly common in elderly females and associated with arterial disease in the other branches of the splenic artery. In normal sized spleens intrasplenic aneurysms were not found, whereas intrasplenic aneurysms are common in enlarged spleens, particularly in markedly enlarged spleens associated with liver cirrhosis. Splenic artery aneurysms of the extrasplenic arteries are also commonly found to be associated with markedly enlarged spleens. The sex and age incidence of splenic artery aneurysms in the presence of splenic enlargement and/or liver cirrhosis differs markedly from that in the cases with normal sized spleens. In this group the sex incidence is about equal, and aneurysms occur most frequently in the under 50 year old group, whereas in the routine post-mortem normal sized spleens, aneurysms occur in those over 50 years old and predominantly females.
The injection of contrast material and the subsequent visualisation of the arterial pattern on a radiograph is an effective method of demonstrating these lesions. Moreover, the intrasplenic aneurysms will be completely missed unless an injection technique is used.