Over the last 4 decades, the rate of discovery of novel antibiotics has decreased drastically, ending the era of fortuitous antibiotic discovery. A better understanding of the biology of bacteriogenic toxins potentially helps to prospect for new antibiotics. To initiate this line of research, we quantified antagonists from two different sites at two different depths of soil and found the relative number of antagonists to correlate with the bacterial load and carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio of the soil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransbronchial needle aspiration has emerged as a key technique for sampling mediastinal adenopathy but variable yields are reported. To determine the number of aspirates needed to optimize yield, we prospectively studied transbronchial needle aspiration and the sequential effect of each successive specimen on diagnostic yield in 79 patients with known or suspected lung carcinoma and mediastinal adenopathy. A total of 451 aspirates were performed in 79 patients (mean, 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF[F18]-2-deoxy-2fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is increasingly used in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer. Despite its positive performance characteristics in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the role of FDG-PET in the staging of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains to be determined. We designed a prospective study to address this question.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objectives: To determine the optimal method of delivering supplemental oxygen during flexible bronchoscopy (FB).
Design: Prospective study.
Setting: University medical center.
Background: Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning is used increasingly to detect and stage lung cancer, but the test performance characteristics and relationship of PET to patient outcomes remain undefined.
Objective: To determine the test performance characteristics and relationship of PET scanning stage to patient outcomes relative to the 1997 International System for the Staging of Lung Cancer.
Design: Survival analysis using pathologic staging as the criterion standard for comparison of survival as predicted by staging by PET and CT.
Study Objective: Positron emission tomography (PET) can contribute to diagnosing and staging lung cancer, but it has not been determined whether this information influences patient care.
Design: We reviewed the effects of thoracic PET scan results during an 11-month period. For each patient, physicians ordering these scans reported how PET specifically altered management, and graded the ease of interpretation and overall usefulness of PET on a 5-point scale.
Objective: To review pathology reports to determine whether a temporal change in diagnostic procedures that included bronchoscopic needle aspiration (BNA) in evaluation of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) had occurred.
Methods: A retrospective review of the computerized pathology database of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center from 1990 to 1998 was performed. All pathology reports of patients newly diagnosed with SCLC were reviewed and abstracted.
Prison inmates were surveyed about their perceptions of the use of videoconferencing in clinical consultations. A 14-item questionnaire was used to assess satisfaction with the patient-physician clinical interaction. Of the 299 inmates surveyed immediately after their teleconsultations, 221 completed questionnaires that were suitable for analysis (74%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A project was established by The Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) to investigate the use of telemedicine in providing health care to Ohio's prison inmates.
Objectives: To determine the effects of telemedicine on continuity of inmate care, the sense of isolation experienced by health care providers at remote institutions, the security risks incurred when transporting inmates to outside facilities, and the overall cost of care. In tracing the initial adoption and implementation of the project, the authors describe health care in Ohio's prisons and the unique nature of providing that care.
Duodenal calcium absorption and a vitamin D-dependent duodenal calcium-binding protein are depressed in rats with alloxan- or streptozotocin-induced diabetes. To test for possible abnormal vitamin D metabolism in diabetes we measured serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in control, streptozotocin diabetic, and insulin-treated diabetic rats. The serum concentration of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D was depressed in untreated diabetic rats to one-eighth of the level in controls and was restored to control levels by insulin treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Endocrinol Metab
April 1977
Recent evidence has linked altered plasma vitamin D metabolite levels to the reported occurrence of hypocalcemia and other metabolic abnormalities in patients receiving anticonvulsant drugs. We have measured plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-(OH)D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH)2D) in institutionalized patients on diphenylhydantoin (Dilantin) and/or phenobarbital therapy. Values were compared with those obtained in institutionalized patients receiving no drugs and with normal ambulatory subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfter glycosidic cleavage of the water-soluble vitamin D-like principle of the calcinogenic plant Solanum malacoxylon, the active lipophilic portion was purified by column chromatography and analyzed by combined gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. It was identified as 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, the active form of vitamin D. Thus this active metabolite of vitamin D exists in the plant world, and its presence probably accounts for pathologic calcification in grazing animals ingesting Solanum malacoxylon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA sensitive radioreceptor assay for 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1alpha,25-(OH)2D3) is utilized to quantitate the circulating concentration of this sterol in experimental animals and humans. When weanling rats are grown for 2 weeks on low calcium or low phosphate diets, limited availability of either ion elicits a five-fold increase in the plasma level of 1alpha,25-(OH)2D3. The enhancement of 1alpha,25-(OH)2D3 in calcium deficiency is dependent upon the presence of the parathyroid and/or thyroid glands, which is consistent with parathyroid hormone (PTH) mediation of this effect.
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