Prazosin in hypertensive patients with chronic bronchitis and asthma: a brief report.

The effects of prazosin therapy were recently evaluated in ambulatory patients with essential hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Both the ability of prazosin to control high blood pressure and its effects on pulmonary function were observed. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly reduced at the end of the maintenance period.

Age differences in processing expository and narrative text.

A dual-task procedure was used to examine the effects of text genre on prose processing, comprehension, and recall in 20 young (18-33 years) and 20 old (65-80 years) adults. Response latencies on a secondary task provided an index of cognitive capacity used in reading narrative and expository passages. Both groups recalled more of narratives than of expository passages, although old subjects recalled less than young.

Self-help approaches to smoking cessation: a report from the normative aging study.

Self-quitters make up by far the largest proportion of ex-cigarette smokers, yet this population has not been extensively characterized to date. We compared male self-quitters (N = 191) and age-matched recidivists (N = 110) on smoking histories, psychosocial attributes and quitting methods. A number of significant relationships were found, some of which may have clinical implications.

Dental caries. Principal cause of tooth extraction in a sample of US male adults.

Comprehensive oral examinations carried out over a period of about 10 years on participants in the Veterans Administration Dental Longitudinal Study were evaluated to identify teeth extracted during this time and to ascertain the apparent reason for these extractions. The study population included 736 dentulous adult males, 49% of whom experienced 1,142 extractions. Caries was judged to be the primary cause of tooth loss, responsible for 33.

Production of [3H]hexosamine-labeled proteoglycans by cultures of normal and diabetic skin fibroblasts: dilution of exogenous [3H]glucosamine by endogenous hexosamine from glucose and other sources.

Human skin fibroblast monolayer cultures from two normal men, three Type I diabetic men, and one Type I diabetic woman were incubated with [3H]glucosamine and [35S]-sulfate for varying periods of time. Incorporation of 3H into macromolecules appearing in the medium was linear after approximately 45 min, and incorporation of 35S was linear after approximately 30 min. The amounts of 35S-proteoglycan formed by each of the cultures during 5-h incubations were compared and were found to be fairly similar for the six lines, varying from 0.

Undifferentiated F9 embryonal carcinoma cells produce a short-chain collagen molecule.

The undifferentiated F9 embryonal carcinoma cells produce a unique collagen that decreases in amount during retinoic acid-induced differentiation of F9 cells into basement-membrane parietal endoderm. A bacterial-collagenase-sensitive protein of approx. 60,000 Da was resolved on polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis.

Domiciliary metaproterenol nebulization: a bacteriologic survey.

We wanted to determine whether domiciliary jet nebulization (DJN) leads to contamination of the equipment with fungi or aerobic bacteria and, eventually, to respiratory colonization or pneumonia in daily users of the equipment. We surveyed from this standpoint 23 veterans 65 +/- 10.1 years of age, present or former smokers, treated with steroids more than 7 months in the year preceding the survey, and with FEV1/FVC of 42 +/- 11%; they all were daily users of the equipment, diluting the metaproterenol solution with nonbacteriostatic saline dispensed in multiple-dose bottles of 500 to 1000 ml (protocol 1 [P1]).

Chlorate: a reversible inhibitor of proteoglycan sulfation.

Bovine aorta endothelial cells were cultured in medium containing [3H]glucosamine, [35S]sulfate, and various concentrations of chlorate. Cell growth was not affected by 10 mM chlorate, while 30 mM chlorate had a slight inhibitory effect. Chlorate concentrations greater than 10 mM resulted in significant undersulfation of chondroitin.

Methylation of the alpha 2(I) collagen gene in chemically transformed rat liver epithelial cells.

W8 cells, 2-N-(acetoxyacetyl)aminofluorene-transformed rat liver epithelial-like cells, secrete no alpha 2(I) collagen chains. This paper reports the first demonstration of DNA methylation in the promoter-5' region of an alpha 2(I) collagen gene which occurs in W8 cells. Since inhibition of methylation by azacytidine induces transcription of the alpha 2(I) gene, DNA methylation of W8 alpha 2(I) promoter-5' region could contribute to altered collagen production in these cells.

Sulphation by cultured cells. Cysteine, cysteinesulphinic acid and sulphite as sources for proteoglycan sulphate.

Bovine aortic smooth-muscle cells, bovine aortic endothelial cells, and IMR-90 human embryonic lung fibroblasts were tested to determine their ability to use cysteine or cysteine metabolites as a source of sulphate (SO4). Cells were incubated in SO4-depleted medium containing [3H]glucosamine plus 0.2 mM-cystine, 0.

Sulfation of chondroitin. Specificity, degree of sulfation, and detergent effects with 4-sulfating and 6-sulfating microsomal systems.

Microsomal preparations from chondroitin 6-sulfate-producing chick embryo epiphyseal cartilage, and from chondroitin 4-sulfate-producing mouse mastocytoma cells, were incubated with UDP-[14C]glucuronic acid and UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine to form non-sulfated proteo[14C]chondroitin. Aliquots of the incubations were then incubated with 3'-phosphoadenylylphosphosulfate (PAPS) in the presence or absence of various detergents. In the absence of detergents, there was good sulfation of this endogenous proteo[14C]chondroitin by the original microsomes from both sources.

Forced vital capacity and the risk of hypertension. The Normative Aging Study.

This report describes the development of hypertension among 1,270 males (aged 23-80 years at the time of entry into the study) observed prospectively for 10 years who had a baseline blood pressure of less than 140/90 mmHg and who underwent baseline spirometry. Subjects were participants in the Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study on aging initiated in 1961 at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts. Blood pressures were taken at five- and 10-year follow-up examinations.

Alcohol consumption, type A behavior, and demographic variables. Results from the Normative Aging Study.

This study describes the relations of patterns of alcohol consumption with Type A behavior, age, retirement, marital status, and socioeconomic status among male participants in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study. In April 1984, 1,663 men completed form N of the Jenkins Activity Survey; in September 1982, 1,556 of these men had responded to a mailed survey of drinking behaviors. When age, marital status, socioeconomic status, and retirement status were controlled for, Type A score was virtually unrelated to the probability of being a nondrinker, having three or more drinks per day, problems with drinking, and periodic heavier drinking.

Comparative trials of doxycycline versus amoxicillin, cephalexin and enoxacin in bacterial infections in chronic bronchitis and asthma.

The comparative efficacy of doxycycline versus amoxicillin, cephalexin, cefaclor and enoxacin was examined in four separate cross-over and blinded studies of acute bacterial bronchitis in chronic bronchitis and asthma. The efficacy of doxycycline over the eleven-year period (1975-1986) covered by these studies also was examined. Patients with acute bacterial exacerbations, defined by increased chest symptoms, increased bacteria and sputum neutrophilia, were randomly entered.

Cultural differences in the predictors of depression.

This study examined a number of psychosocial factors thought likely to contribute to depression among ethnic Korean and Caucasian students. As hypothesized, Koreans (n = 61) were more depressed than Caucasians (n = 69). Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed different models for predicting depression in the two groups.

Old is old is old?

We examined potential differences between two matched subgroups of elderly men: young-old (65-74 years of age; n = 53) and old-old (75 years of age and older; n = 56). Subjects were fairly healthy men from community agencies, who were interviewed and tested on a number of characteristics involving personality, mood, attitudes, and behaviors. Although t tests and correlations indicated some differences between the groups, the overall findings underlined their similarity on the vast majority of variables scrutinized.

Mental health differences among retirees and workers: findings from the Normative Aging Study.

Researchers during the past decade have found little effect of retirement on physical health. However, retirement entails a number of losses, and its effect on mental health, as measured by the prevalence of psychological symptoms, is unclear. We examined psychological symptoms in a sample of 1,513 older men, participants in the Normative Aging Study, using the SCL-90-R (Derogatis, 1983).

Captopril-related (and -induced?) asthma.

A 51-yr-old nonsmoking male patient without any history of previous allergies, asthma, hay fever, or urticaria developed attacks of asthma when captopril was added to the nadolol and dyazide treatment for his high blood pressure. A double-blind challenge with nadolol and captopril decreased FEV1 by 3 and 12%, respectively. This confirmed the history of captopril-related asthma.

Naming errors in healthy aging and dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Naming errors were analyzed for healthy younger and older adults and patients with a diagnosis of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT). Three types of errors were identified, varying in relatedness to the target word: near synonyms; semantically related naming errors; and unrelated naming errors. Older adults made relatively more related errors than did younger adults.

Radial localization in the aged.

Elderly subjects were 41% less accurate than young subjects in localizing a point in the frontal plane. The decline could be ascribed neither to an age difference in image formation or skill acquisition nor to a difference in motivational level or trace retention. Evidently the "ambient" or "transient" visual system is compromised at an elementary level.

Development and validation of an adjective check list to assess the Millon personality types in a normal population.

A 405-item experimental Personality Adjective Check List (PACL) was refined into a 153-item form to assess the personality types outlined by Millon (1969, 1981) in a normal population. Scale construction and validation followed a method outlined by Loevinger (1957, 1972). Nine scales were developed based on the responses of 459 men and women, one for each of Millon's eight basic personalities plus an Experimental scale measuring aspects of his three more severe types.