University of Tennessee Health Science Center

About: University of Tennessee Health Science Center is a education organization based out in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 15716 authors who have published 26884 publications receiving 1176697 citations.

Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH): Overview, Site-Specific Outcomes, and Future Directions

Abstract: Established in 1995, Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health (REACH) is a unique, multisite research program sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute on Nursing Research. The primary purpose of REACH is to carry out social and behavioral research on interventions designed to enhance family caregiving for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders. Specifically, REACH has two goals: to test the effectiveness of multiple different interventions and to evaluate the pooled effect of REACH interventions overall. REACH developed from a National Institutes of Health initiative that acknowledged the well-documented burdens associated with family caregiving as well as the existence of promising family caregiver interventions reported in the literature.

Predictors of long-term smoking cessation in head and neck cancer patients.

Abstract: Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for head and neck cancer, and individuals who continue to smoke past diagnosis and treatment are at elevated risk for further disease. In a randomized controlled trial, a state of the art provider-delivered smoking cessation intervention was compared to a usual care advice control condition. The intervention consisted of surgeon- or dentist-delivered advice to stop smoking, a contracted quit date, tailored written materials, and booster advice sessions. Subjects were 186 patients with newly diagnosed first primary squamous cell carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract who had smoked cigarettes within the past year. At randomization, 88.2% of subjects were current smokers. At 12-month follow-up, 70.2% of subjects completing the trial (n = 114) were continuous abstainers; among baseline smokers alone the continuous abstinence (CA) rate was 64.6%. The cotinine validation rate at 12 months was 89.6%. Modeling techniques were utilized in order to derive expected CA rates, which included noncompleter subjects (n = 72). The CA rate expected at 1 year for the entire patient population was 64.2%, and for smokers alone the expected CA rate was 59.4%. Logistic regression analysis carried out on baseline smokers identified predictors of 12-month CA status. These included medical treatment, stage of change, age, nicotine dependence, and race. The intervention effect was not significant, although the sign of the effect was positive. Based on these findings, we recommend systematic brief advice to stop smoking for head and neck cancer patients, with a stepped care approach for patients less able to quit.

Thiopurine methyltransferase activity in American white subjects and black subjects

Abstract: Background Thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) is a cytoplasmic enzyme that preferentially catalyzes the S-methylation of aromatic and heterocyclic sulfhydryl compounds, including 6-mercaptopurine. TPMT exhibits genetic polymorphism in white populations, with 89% of individuals having high TPMT activity, 11% having intermediate activity, and one in 300 having extremely low or absent activity. TPMT activity is inversely correlated with formation of active 6-mercaptopurine metabolites (thioguanine nucleotides), thereby influencing 6-mercaptopurine toxicity and efficacy. Methods To investigate ethnic and gender differences in TPMT, we measured erythrocyte TPMT activity in 209 white healthy subjects and 196 black healthy subjects (202 women and 203 men). Results The black population had lower TPMT activity than the white population (median, 14.4 versus 16.8 units/ml packed erythrocytes; p < 0.001). Maximum likelihood estimation of TPMT activity distribution identified 91.9% and 93.9% with high activity and 7.7% and 6.1% with intermediate activity in the white and black groups, respectively. Conclusions These data indicate that TPMT activity is similarly polymorphic in American black subjects and white subjects, although median TPMT activity is approximately 17% lower in black subjects. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1994) 55, 15–20; doi:10.1038/clpt.1994.4