tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
Primary care: opportunities and threats Broader teamwork in primary care
Authors: T. Kendrick, S. Hilton
Journal: BMJ (1997)

<h3>Abstract</h3> The new white papers on primary care present opportunities for general practices to extend and develop their services to patients. These could enhance professional roles within practices and lead to new partnerships with secondary care, community health services, and social services. Two examples of new services are outlined: a practice led proposal to develop an integrated service for people with learning disability across a whole district, and a community health trust9s contribution to extended primary care in an inner city area. For patients, the potential advantages of the reforms include more comprehensive and more integrated care in the community. The possible pitfalls of changing contractual arrangements include threats to the gatekeeping function of the referral system and, more fundamentally, to the central role general practice currently has in primary care in the United Kingdom.
Apparent portosystemic encephalopathy in patients with chronic liver disease.
Authors: C C Kibbler, G P Jeffrey, O Epstein, N McIntyre
Journal: BMJ (1985)

A propos de 3 observations. L'accident cerebrovasculaire doit toujours etre envisage chez un malade atteint de cirrhose ou d'autres affections hepatiques presentant differents troubles evoquant l'encephalopathie
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF INCREASED TRICUSPID valve INCOMPETENCE FOLLOWING IMPLANTATION OFVENTRICULAR LEADS
Authors: Giselle Adriana Baquero, Joshua B. Skibba, Pradeep Yadav, Javier E. Banchs, Latoya N. Linton-Frazier, Eugene J. Lengerich, Soraya M. Samii, Erica Penny-Peterson, Deborah L. Wolbrette, Gerald V. Naccarelli, Mario D. Gonzalez
Journal: Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2013)
Antisense-induced Myostatin Exon Skipping Leads to Muscle Hypertrophy in Mice Following Octa guanidine Morpholino Oligomer Treatment
Authors: Jagjeet K Kang, Alberto Malerba, Linda Popplewell, Keith Foster, George Dickson
Journal: Molecular Therapy (2010)

Myostatin is a negative regulator of muscle mass, and several strategies are being developed to knockdown its expression to improve muscle-wasting conditions. Strategies using antimyostatin-blocking antibodies, inhibitory-binding partners, signal transduction blockers, and RNA interference system (RNAi)-based knockdown have yielded promising results and increased muscle mass in experimental animals. These approaches have, however, a number of disadvantages such as transient effects or adverse immune complications. We report here the use of antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) to manipulate myostatin pre-mRNA splicing and knockdown myostatin expression. Both 2'O-methyl phosphorothioate RNA (2'OMePS) and phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMO) led to efficient exon skipping in vitro and in vivo and knockdown of myostatin at the transcript level. The substantial myostatin exon skipping observed after systemic injection of Vivo-PMO into normal mice led to a significant increase in soleus muscle mass as compared to the controls injected with normal saline suggesting that this approach could be feasible to ameliorate muscle-wasting pathologies.
Website of the week: Peer review
Authors: M. Mullner
Journal: BMJ (2002)

In this week's BMJ, Peter Bacchetti complains about another side of peer review: finding errors when they are not there (p 1271). All those involved in peer review certainly know about the shortcomings of the process, but I am not so sure if the majority of readers are so aware of these shortcomings. Often I hear such questions as “hasn't this article gone through peer review?”

A visit to www.ama-assn.org/public/peer/peerhome.htm might serve as an eye opener. The Journal of the American Medical Association and the BMJ Publishing Group organise a conference on peer review every four years—it's a bit like a biomedical publishing version of the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, the conference website is not very entertaining—the pages mainly consist of text as the topic doesn't lend itself to interactivity. You might find, however, interesting information on what it could mean to be a second, third, or last author, or what makes a good referee.

The peer review process appears to be a threatening and rather intangible animal to many journal contributors. Accordingly, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, www.publicationethics.org.uk) states that all scientific journals should be explicit about their peer review process.

Now comes the interactive part: try to find a description of the peer review process of your favourite journals. I am not sure whether this will come as a surprise but if most of the major general and specialist journals mention their peer review process at all, they do so only in vague terms. Those that are explicit about it include The Annals of Internal Medicine (www.annals.org/shared/author_info.html) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (www.cmaj.ca/misc/ifora.shtml#rev), not forgetting the BMJ (bmj.com/advice/30.html). Funding bodies such as the Medical Research Council (www.mrc.ac.uk/index/funding/funding-specific_schemes/funding-assessment_process.htm) and the United States' National Institutes of Health (grants1.nih.gov/grants/peer/peer.htm) provide even more detailed information.

After struggling your way through all this information it still might not be terribly clear what will actually happen to your paper. In the case of open peer review, you know at least afterwards what happened to your paper, but there are certainly other good reasons for opening the process (bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7175/4).
Mechanisms of Deficient Cardiac Septation in the Mouse With Trisomy 16
Authors: Sandra Webb, Robert H. Anderson, Wouter H. Lamers, Nigel A. Brown
Journal: Circulation Research (1999)

It used to be thought that the atrioventricular septum was predominantly the product of the atrioventricular endocardial cushions. In a previous study, we have shown that multiple developmental primordia are of importance in its formation. With this in mind, we have evaluated cardiac morphogenesis in the mouse with trisomy 16, an animal model with a high incidence of atrioventricular septal defects. Normal and trisomic fetuses from an Rb(11.16)2H/Rb(16.17)7Bnr x C57BL/6J cross were collected on days 10 to 15 of gestation and examined by scanning electron microscopy and histological serial sectioning. No evidence was found to suggest that atrioventricular septal defect could be explained simply on the basis of "failure of fusion" between the atrioventricular endocardial cushions. Rather, our findings supported two other developmental elements as being important in the genesis of atrioventricular septal defect. The first is an alteration in the configuration of the heart tube, with inadequate remodeling of the inner heart curvature. This resulted in the failure of the atrioventricular junction to expand to the right, with subsequent malalignment of the atrioventricular endocardial cushions with the proximal outflow cushions. The second is a variability in the connection of the primary atrial cardiac segment to the body of the embryo, the so-called dorsal mesocardium, which influences its relationship to the extracardiac mediastinal mesoderm. There appeared little difference in the connection between normal and trisomic embryos at the stage of 20 to 25 somites, but the area subsequently showed marked changes. In most trisomic embryos, the connection with the mediastinal mesoderm of the body was over a larger area than seen in normal embryos. As this area of attachment encloses the pulmonary pit, the entry point of the pulmonary vein, this gives potential for variation in the connection of the pulmonary vein. In addition, in the majority of trisomic embryos, the right pulmonary ridge (the spina vestibuli) did not accumulate extracardiac mesoderm, nor did it undergo the pronounced forward growth seen in normal embryos of equivalent stages. Consequently, the trisomic embryos show incomplete formation of both the atrial and the atrioventricular septal structures.
Lymphocyte and macrophage activation in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in nocturnal asthma.
Authors: Y Oosterhoff, H C Hoogsteden, B Rutgers, H F Kauffman, D S Postma
Journal: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (1995)

Increased nocturnal airway narrowing is thought to occur as a consequence of an intensification of inflammatory processes at night. Lymphocyte and alveolar macrophage (AM) activation are thought to be associated with the clinical expression of asthma, and may be important in the occurrence of nocturnal asthma as well. The expression of CD25 and HLA-DR receptors on lymphocytes from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and peripheral blood (PB) CD4+, as well as of CD14, IgG Fc, and CD11/CD18 leukocyte adhesion receptors on AM in BAL fluid and monocytes in PB, were determined at 16.00 and 04.00 h by flow cytometry. Their relationship with the occurrence of nocturnal asthma was investigated in eight nonatopic controls (Group 1) and 17 atopic asthmatic subjects, prospectively assigned to groups with a mean circadian peak expiratory flow (PEF) variation < 15% (Group 2) and > or = 15% (Group 3). The occurrence of an increased circadian variation in PEF in asthmatic subjects was on the whole not associated with a day-night fluctuation in lymphocyte numbers and subsets in PB or BAL fluid, nor with day-night changes in receptor expression on AM from BAL or monocytes from PB. The only exception was the presence of a greater day-night change in the proportion of HLA-DR-expressing CD4+ lymphocytes in the BAL fluid along with an increasing circadian PEF rhythm in asthmatic subjects (r = 0.68, p = 0.03). A further finding was that a lower number of BAL CD4+ lymphocytes at daytime was significantly related to a higher circadian PEF variation in asthmatic subjects (r = -0.66, p = 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
An Address on the Old Surgery and the New
Authors: W. M. Cormac
Journal: BMJ (1888)

IT will not, I think, be out of place for your President, who is this year a surgical one, to say a few words, however imperfectly, about this great branch of our common profession.I often think we are too apt, in the preoccupation of the present, to forget what a great amount of work was accomplished by our predecessors and how completely, in many instances, they.fashioned the pathway wlhich has led to many of our modern achievements.Only to mention the honoured name of Celsus, we find several of the operations described by him are still performed, and he has recorded his experience, or rather the experiences of
THE PRISON CODE
Authors: PAUL R. MILLER
Journal: American Journal of Psychiatry (1958)

It is clear that an inmate population which uses the prison code as a part of its social structure is not easily resocialized. To eliminate the code is possible only if the needs which the code satisfies are fulfilled by other means or replaced. All prison personnel should avoid participating in or condoning the prison code. Rather, they should attempt to show the inmate that he can best attain his goals by cooperating with the official program rather than living by the code; this could be initiated in an orientation unit. Each new inmate should be classified by a multidisciplinary team (representing each aspect of the professional and custodial staff) according to his resocialization potential. Our experience has shown the following criteria to be most valuable: age and recidivism (both negative correlations), basic personality pattern (neurotics are most treatable, psychotics and character disorders less so), and the drive toward mental health (using observed behavior rather than the inmate's verbalizations). Those who are "prison-wise" or "institutionalized" should be segregated in their housing and their work. Certain mental hospital practices can be incorporated into the management of prisons: 1. personality change should be directed toward resocialization, not just institutional conformity; 2. freedom of movement and choice should be allowed to the practical limit of custodial security; 3. a job commensurate with his level of ability and aspiration should be available to each inmate; 4. suitable living quarters should be available, using the criteria of age and treatability; 5. interpersonal relations between officials and inmates should be structured to decrease hostility, inspire a sense of personal confidence and mutual trust, and elevate self-esteem; 6. short term satisfactions and long term goals should be allowed and encouraged. To operate such a program it is necessary to enlist the help of all personnel. One group found that their staff "would do a better job in the interests of our new therapeutic approach if they felt a sense of involvement in our goals and if their statuses were not called into question by the reorganization(4). The prison code is the epitome of the destructive anti-rehabilitative elements of most prison societies. The roles of the custodian and the professional worker have been noted. Cooperation between these two groups is essential, because both control and treatment are necessary in the resocialization of inmates. In fact, a well-controlled prison setting may actually provide a milieu for the treatment of some deviant personalities which is potentially more effective than outpatient care or the minimal custody of a mental hospital(5).
Menstrual state and exercise as determinants of spinal trabecular bone density in female athletes.
Authors: R L Wolman, P Clark, E McNally, M Harries, J Reeve
Journal: BMJ (1990)

To study the effects of amenorrhoea and intensive back exercise on the bone mineral density of the lumbar spine in female athletes.Cross sectional study comparing amenorrhoeic with eumenorrhoeic athletes and rowers with non-rowers.The British Olympic Medical Centre, Northwick Park Hospital.46 Elite female athletes comprising 19 rowers, 18 runners, and nine dancers, of whom 25 were amenorrhoeic and 21 eumenorrhoeic.Trabecular bone mineral density of the lumbar spine measured by computed tomography.Mean trabecular bone mineral density was 42 mg/cm3 (95% confidence interval 22 to 62 mg/cm3) lower in the amenorrhoeic than the eumenorrhoeic athletes; this difference was highly significant (p = 0.0002). Mean trabecular bone mineral density was 21 mg/cm3 (1 to 41 mg/cm3) lower in the non-rowers than the rowers; this was also significant (p = 0.05). There was no interaction between these two effects (p = 0.28).The effect of intensive exercise on the lumbar spine partially compensates for the adverse effect of amenorrhoea on spinal trabecular bone density.
Press Ahead or Scale Back? The Reform Effort after the GOP Victory in Massachusetts
Authors: John K. Iglehart
Journal: New England Journal of Medicine (2010)

For almost a century, U.S. presidents have tried and failed to enact comprehensive health care reform featuring expanded coverage.1 In a development never imagined by most Democrats, President Barack Obama's name may be added to this list because his party lost its filibuster-proof 60-vote Senate majority on January 19, thereby imperiling its ambitious reform package. In the wake of Republican Scott Brown's upset victory in the race to fill the seat long held by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), congressional Democratic leaders and the White House are discussing how to proceed on reform, but no early consensus has . . .
Effects of uremic serum on isolated cardiac myocyte calcium cycling and contractile function.
Authors: Sankaridrug M. Periyasamy, Jie Chen, Derek Cooney, Patricia Carter, Eiad Omran, Jiang Tian, Snigdha Priyadarshi, Alexei Bagrov, Olga Fedorova, Deepak Malhotra, Zijian Xie, Joseph I. Shapiro
Journal: Kidney International (2001)
A case of bleeding oesophageal varices
Authors: Ulrich Thalheimer, Andrew K Burroughs
Journal: Gut (2010)

This is an introduction to the Gut tutorial ‘A case of bleeding oesophageal varices’ hosted on BMJ Learning—the best available learning website for medical professionals from the BMJ Group.

Acute variceal bleeding is a medical emergency and one of the main causes of mortality in patients with cirrhosis. Mortality …
Comorbid Depression is Associated With Increased Health Care Use and Expenditures in Individuals With Diabetes
Authors: Leonard E. Egede, Deyi Zheng, Kit Simpson
Journal: Diabetes Care (2002)

This study ascertained the odds of diagnosed depression in individuals with diabetes and the relation between depression and health care use and expenditures.First, we compared data from 825 adults with diabetes with that from 20,688 adults without diabetes using the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Second, in patients with diabetes, we compared depressed and nondepressed individuals to identify differences in health care use and expenditures. Third, we adjusted use and expenditure estimates for differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and comorbidity with analysis of covariance. Finally, we used the Consumer Price Index to adjust expenditures for inflation and used SAS and SUDAAN software for statistical analyses.Individuals with diabetes were twice as likely as a comparable sample from the general U.S. population to have diagnosed depression (odds ratio 1.9, 95% CI 1.5-2.5). Younger adults (<65 years), women, and unmarried individuals with diabetes were more likely to have depression. Patients with diabetes and depression had higher ambulatory care use (12 vs. 7, P < 0.0001) and filled more prescriptions (43 vs. 21, P < 0.0001) than their counterparts without depression. Finally, among individuals with diabetes, total health care expenditures for individuals with depression was 4.5 times higher than that for individuals without depression ($247,000,000 vs. $55,000,000, P < 0.0001).The odds of depression are higher in individuals with diabetes than in those without diabetes. Depression in individuals with diabetes is associated with increased health care use and expenditures, even after adjusting for differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and comorbidity.
Cadmium and zinc relationships.
Authors: C G Elinder, M Piscator
Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives (1978)

Cadmium and zinc concentrations in kidney and liver have been measured under different exposure situations in different species including man. The results show that zinc increases almost equimolarly with cadmium in kidney after long-term low-level exposure to cadmium, e.g., in man, horse, pig, and lamb. In contrast, the increase of zinc follows that of cadmium to only a limited extent, e.g., in guinea pig, rabbit, rat, mouse, and chicks. In liver, the cadmium--zinc relationship seems to be reversed in such a way that zinc increases with cadmium more markedly in laboratory animals than in higher mammals. These differences between cadmium and zinc relationships in humans and large farm animals and those in commonly used laboratory animals must be considered carefully before experimental data on cadmium and zinc relationships in laboratory animals can be extrapolated to humans.
The Kidney: Diagnosis and Management
Authors: William A. Briggs
Journal: JAMA (1985)

The editors generated this text of nephrology for the practicing physician. It consists of carefully edited chapters, each representing an extension of clinical lectures from a postgraduate course. Thus, the text has a preponderantly clinical orientation, supplemented with limited but appropriate physiological and pathophysiological background information. The chapters are grouped into nine parts, covering the major areas of clinical nephrology (eg, disorders of body fluids and electrolytes, acute renal failure, and chronic renal failure), with a part devoted to clinical evaluation of renal function. For the most part, the chapters are well written and well illustrated with figures and tables. Unfortunately, the chapter on the urine sediment contains no illustrations. The limited number of questions, case summaries, and references at the end of each chapter enhances the value of the text for busy practitioners. This text would be an excellent addition to any hospital library, and it would be a
Immune complexes and the pathogenesis of neutropenia in Felty's syndrome.
Authors: F.C Breedveld, G.J Lafeber, E de Vries, J.H van Krieken, A Cats
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (1986)

The effect of the injection of serum from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Felty's syndrome (FS) into mice on the number of circulating polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) was studied. The number of circulating PMN dropped to 61% (range 34-98%) of the initial counts after the injection of FS serum. This phenomenon was observed less frequently after injection of RA serum. In contrast, injection of serum from healthy controls always resulted in an immediate increase in the number of circulating PMN. No decrease in PMN counts was found after injection of FS sera pretreated with polyethylene glycol to precipitate immune complexes (IC). Gel filtration of FS sera on Sepharose 4B showed that the effect on the PMN counts in mice did not coincide with the 7S peak but occurred only in fractions containing larger material. Serum fractions from FS patients that contained IC were more active in producing neutropenia than the corresponding fractions from patients with RA. Microscopic and immunohistochemical examination of the organs from mice injected with FS serum showed sequestration of PMN and deposition of human IgG, IgA, and IgM in the vascular bed of the lungs. These results indicate that the interaction between PMN and IC of patients with FS leads to sequestration of PMN in mice and suggests that this interaction in humans may have a role in the pathogenesis of FS.
Bryan Ogle Scott
Authors: J. Simpson
Journal: BMJ (2013)

Bryan Ogle Scott’s medical career in rehabilitation medicine was highlighted for all who knew him by his intuitive insight into the nub of the problems facing those who were under his care. Throughout his long life he had the knack of melding the care of his patients with personal touches that often showed remarkable ability to provide the “extra mile” that patients who were in pain or whose troubles had hitherto merely had a textbook diagnosis came to regard as their salvation.

His early schooling and medical training were dogged by monetary and family complications through Nottingham, Manchester, and London Universities. He …