We have identified and analyzed 41 mutations in p53 in sporadic breast tumors from 136 unselected breast cancer patients and estimate that approximately 40% of such tumors contain p53 mutations. The frequency of G-T transversions and the incidence of guanosine mutations in the nontranscribed strand of the p53 gene were found to be higher than expected, and we suggest, therefore, that exogenous carcinogens have an etiological role in sporadic breast cancers. Mutations were recorded in 44 codons of the p53 gene, with no obvious mutational hot-spots, although mutations at codons 175, 194, 273, and 280 accounted for 25% of the changes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNIDA Res Monogr
August 1992
This has been a brief overview of some of the many ways in which the environment in which prenatal drug research is carried out affects the process of research and its outcome. In many ways, this chapter is a review of factors that many people know about but rarely discuss in public. Most scholarly articles present research in this area as though it is a smooth and orderly process not much troubled by environmental constraints.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurotoxicol Teratol
July 1992
Effects on fetal growth and neonatal behavior of cocaine and alcohol use in pregnancy were investigated in infants born to women in a low-income, predominantly black population. Despite the increased use of cocaine by pregnant women and the accompanying public concern, behavioral studies of exposed neonates are limited in number and scope. In most studies, confounding factors (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Subst Abuse Treat
February 1993
The purpose of this study was to determine whether untreated pregnant and recently post-partum cocaine-abusing women could be differentiated from women who enrolled in drug treatment programs. The experimental sample was selected from women referred to the Georgia Addiction, Pregnancy, and Parenting Project, an intervention program for pregnant and postpartum addicted women, between January 1987 and January 1988 (n = 45). The comparison group was randomly selected from women who were admitted to two (2) day treatment programs during the same time period (n = 50).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCocaine abuse is an increasing problem in the obstetric population. It not only poses a health risk to the pregnant woman, but can precipitate premature labor and abruptio placentae, and has been associated with a number of physical and behavioral problems in the newborn. Evaluation and management of the pregnant cocaine abuser is similar in most respects to that of nonpregnant adults, but diagnosis, psychotherapy, and pharmacotherapy is strongly influenced by the pregnancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurotoxicol Teratol
November 1991
Alcohol, a potent teratogen, has been suggested as an etiologic agent in attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD), which is often diagnosed in children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and in children of alcoholics. We studied attentional and behavioral factors associated with diagnosis of this disorder in children selected from a predominantly low-income, black population who were tested as part of a longitudinal follow-up of children with prenatal alcohol exposure. Sixty-eight children with a mean age of 5 years 10 months, born to three groups of mothers, were assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurotoxicol Teratol
November 1991
Alcohol is a potent teratogen associated with dysmorphology, growth retardation, and neurological damage in children with the full fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS); alcohol is also associated with growth retardation and behavioral alterations in neonates prenatally exposed to various dosages. Questions remain about the long-term consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure. This study reports on the follow-up of a subsample of 68 children, the majority of whom were low income and black (mean age: 5 years, 10 months) who were first evaluated as neonates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Primary Medical Care Group at the University of Southampton contributes to the medical curriculum in the first, third and final years. A visiting lecturer from Sweden took the opportunity to interview a sample of 20 final-year students using a qualitative approach. Questioning centered on the impact of the primary care course both in relationship to medicine as a whole and to general practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent Dev Alcohol
February 1992
The deleterious effects of prenatal alcohol exposure have been the subject of numerous research studies since first recognized in the early 1970s. The results of these studies have indicated that the dose and patterning of maternal alcohol consumption, use of other drugs, as well as other social and environmental factors may mediate developmental outcomes in prenatally alcohol-exposed children. Although there are still many unanswered questions regarding etiology, there is a clearly identified need for effective prevention/intervention programs for alcohol-abusing women of childbearing age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe DNA of paired tumour and blood leucocyte samples from a large series of breast cancer patients was analysed to map regions of loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 17. The high frequency of loss of heterozygosity on 17p was confirmed, and a third of informative tumours had also lost an allele at the long arm locus THH59. On the short arm two distinct regions of loss of heterozygosity were identified, in bands p13-3 and p13-1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn health profession education many more students than is currently acknowledged experience often extreme difficulties with their studying. This booklet is intended to help them. It outlines an approach being adopted in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton by which students are encouraged to reflect on and discuss their approaches to studying, identifying their perception of their task and where necessary changing this.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSouthampton Medical School holds its major examination of basic knowledge after rather than before students enter their first clinical attachments. An interview survey investigated its educational effects, and found that students adopt one of four revision approaches. The most successful, not just in terms of examination grade but more particularly in students' subsequent ability to retrieve and use the knowledge gained, occurred when students related their preclinical revision to their clinical experiences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors compared clinical characteristics of 36 late-onset schizophrenic patients from four centers (hospitals in San Diego, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Montreal). There was a preponderance of the paranoid type with bizarre delusions and auditory hallucinations, chronic course of illness, and response to relatively low doses of neuroleptics. A comparison of late-onset and younger schizophrenic patients revealed both similarities and differences between the two groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis booklet provides a guide to interview surveys in medical and health-care education. The view is taken that interviews are an extension of everyday interpersonal skills, and this notion is applied to situations in which they have proved valuable. The range of attributes and different forms of interview surveys are discussed, practical steps are described and the question of data analysis is addressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo determine whether women who continued to drink during pregnancy could be differentiated from women who discontinued alcohol use during their second trimester of pregnancy based on biological, social and behavioral data collected during a prenatal interview, 267 women receiving prenatal care at Grady Memorial Hospital, a large metropolitan hospital in Atlanta, were interviewed antepartum, assessing current drug and alcohol use as well as other demographic information. Postpartum interviews were conducted during the first 3 days following delivery to determine any changes in drug use or alcohol consumption that occurred after the first interview. Women who continued to drink throughout pregnancy and women who stopped drinking were similar on most demographic variables examined, including age, marital status, ethnic group, income, obstetrical complications risk score, amount of alcohol consumed per week and use of other drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Alcohol Subst Abuse
February 1988
Infants exposed to alcohol prenatally, even when they do not suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), may be at high risk for many of the negative outcomes typically found among children of alcoholics including hyperactivity and other behavioral and learning problems. A series of studies are described designed to investigate the incidence and persistence of central nervous system (CNS) related behavioral alterations in three groups of infants born to low SES black women: (1) those who never drank in pregnancy; (2) those who drank at an average of 12 ounces of absolute alcohol (AA) per week throughout pregnancy; and (3) those who drank an equivalent amount but stopped by the second trimester of pregnancy. Only healthy, full-term infants were examined for the physical dysmorphic features associated with FAS and for behavioral alterations that could be assessed using the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale.
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