tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
Reproductive effects of alternative disinfectants.
Authors: B D Carlton, P Barlett, A Basaran, K Colling, I Osis, M K Smith
Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives (1986)

Organohalides formed through the reaction of chlorine and organic compounds in natural and waste waters pose potential health hazards. For this reason, alternative water disinfectants that do not form organohalides are being investigated with great interest. Limited data are available on the health effects, in particular reproductive toxicity effects, of these compounds. In our laboratory, we have examined the reproductive effects of chloramine and chlorine administered by gavage in Long-Evans rats. Animals were treated for a total of 66 to 76 days. Males were treated for 56 days and females for 14 days prior to breeding and throughout the 10-day breeding period. Females were treated throughout gestation and lactation. Following breeding, the males were necropsied and evaluated for sperm parameters and reproductive tract histopathology. Adult females and some pups were necropsied at weaning on postnatal day 21. Other pups were treated postweaning until 28 or 40 days of age. These pups were evaluated for the day of vaginal patency and thyroid hormone levels. No differences were observed between control rats and those rats exposed to up to 5 mg/kg/day chlorine or 10 mg/kg/day chloramine when fertility, viability, litter size, day of eye opening, or day of vaginal patency were evaluated. No alterations in sperm count, sperm direct progressive movement (micron/sec), percent motility, or sperm morphology were observed among adult male rats. In addition, male and female reproductive organ weights were comparable to their respective control groups, and no significant histopathologic changes were observed among chlorine- or chloramine-treated male and female rats.
The Subjective Brain, Identity, and Neuroethics
Authors: Grant R. Gillett
Journal: The American Journal of Bioethics (2009)

The human brain is subjective and reflects the life of a being-in-the-world-with-others whose identity reflects that complex engaged reality. Human subjectivity is shaped and in-formed (formed by inner processes) that are adapted to the human life-world and embody meaning and the relatedness of a human being. Questions of identity relate to this complex and dynamic reality to reflect the fact that biology, human ecology, culture, and one's historic-political situation are inscribed in one's neural network and have configured its architecture so that it is a unique and irreplaceable phenomenon. So much is a human individual a relational being whose own understanding and ownership of his or her life is both situated and distinctive that neurophilosophical conceptions of identity and human activity that neglect these features of our being are quite inadequate to ground a robust neuroethics.
Clinical aspects of Hodgkin's disease.
Authors: G. M. Mead, J. M. Whitehouse
Journal: BMJ (1988)

Clinical aspects of Hodgkin's disease Most patients are cured: even those with advanced disease Hodgkin's disease is uncommon -1213 cases occurred in England and Wales in 1983, representing 0-7% of malignant tumours (excluding skin cancers).The disease occurs world wide, predominantly in men, and presents most commonly in young adults and in those aged 45-75.12The rarity of Hodgkin's disease and the complexities of its management mean that it is best treated by those with an extensive experience of lymphomas.Comprehensive reviews of the disease are available,'15 but we present here a review for the generalist.
HUGE CYCLOSPORIN OVERDOSE WITH FAVOURABLE OUTCOME
Authors: RobertW. Baumhefner, LawrenceW. Myers, GeorgeW. Ellison, WallaceW. Tourtellote, GeorgeW. Belendiuk, Alan Wilkinson, Bart Levine, GabrielM. Danovitch
Journal: The Lancet (1987)
Left Bundle Branch Block
Authors: JACOB I. HAFT, MICHAEL V. HERMAN, RICHARD GORLIN
Journal: Circulation (1971)

Coronary angiography, cine left ventriculography, and the cardiovascular hemodynamics of 24 patients with left bundle branch block were studied. Seven patients were found to have significant coronary artery disease, always severe. Five had cardiomyopathy and seven had valvular disease. Only those with coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy had abnormal left ventricular contraction patterns. The onset of left ventricular contraction was delayed in the patients with left bundle branch block, but the period of isovolumic contraction was normal in those without severe underlying disease. Left axis deviation in addition to left bundle branch block did not imply more frequent coronary atherosclerosis.
Abnormalities of cardiac conduction in diabetics
Authors: B M Fisher, B. M Frier
Journal: BMJ (1985)

human parvovirus in pregnancy are en- couraging and substantiate previous epidemiological studies that have failed to reveal any evidence of teratogenicity.'Indeed, the severe fetal infections described recently3 4 may well represent rare events.Nevertheless, we agree with Dr Wright and colleagues on the need for serological identification of additional cases if the effects of human parvovirus in pregnancy are to be defined more precisely.Our experi- ence suggests, however, that infection in some adults may be subclinical, as illustrated by our third case.It may be prudent, therefore, to consider human parvovirus serology not only in pregnant women who develop a non-rubella rash but also in those who are close contacts of children with erythema infectiosum.
Postural Rearrangement in IDDM Patients With Peripheral Neuropathy
Authors: Pier Giorgio Giacomini, Ernesto Bruno, Glovanna Monticone, Stefano Di Girolamo, Antonio Magrini, Leoluca Parisi, Guido Menzinger, Luigi Uccioli
Journal: Diabetes Care (1996)

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy on postural strategy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Static posturography and nerve conduction velocity were performed in the following age-matched subjects: 10 IDDM patients with peripheral neuropathy, 23 IDDM patients without peripheral neuropathy, and 21 control subjects. All subjects with signs or symptoms of postural instability were excluded from the study. The following posturographic parameters were drawn: 1) velocity of body sway, expressed as mean velocity and average of the SDs, 2) VFY, the parameter derived from the velocity variance and the anteroposterior mean position of the body (this parameter monitors the postural strategy pursued by the subject), and 3) fast Fourier transformation on the x (FFTX) and y (FFTY) planes, spectral analysis of the frequencies of body oscillation on frontal (x) and anteroposterior (y) planes. RESULTS Mean velocity and its SD were higher in IDDM patients with peripheral neuropathy than in control subjects and IDDM patients without peripheral neuropathy (P &amp;lt; 0.001). VFY was increased in IDDM patients with peripheral neuropathy versus control subjects and IDDM patients without peripheral neuropathy (P &amp;lt; 0.01). A direct relationship was found between parameters of posturography and some parameters of nerve conduction tests. CONCLUSIONS Diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy demonstrate a shift from physiological ankle control to hip postural control as monitored by specific posturography analysis.
Training Health Professionals to Use the Media-Reply
Authors: Kathleen V. Higgins
Journal: JAMA (1994)

In Reply.  —We appreciate Mr Hartman's comments, particularly his experience as a television journalist and his work in a health department that interacts extensively with the media. The points he makes concerning the need for good training on media interactions, understanding the motives of reporters and their bias toward negative news, and the need for advance preparation by public health professionals for media contact are useful and we concur.  It would be unfortunate, however, if individual practitioners or institutions were left to address so important a training need without the benefits of national leadership, broad exchange of information, and coordination. As we noted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has focused on the importance of health communication in prevention activities, and we hope the CDC will offer training opportunities to state and local health officers and others in public health and medicine who are contacted frequently by the
Cine magnetic resonance imaging for evaluation of anatomy and flow relations in infants and children with coarctation of the aorta.
Authors: I A Simpson, K J Chung, R F Glass, D J Sahn, F S Sherman, J Hesselink
Journal: Circulation (1988)

Sixteen cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies were performed in 14 patients aged 1 week to 17 years (mean age, 46 months), who had coarctation of the aorta confirmed at angiography or surgery. Conventional echocardiographic-gated MRI was first performed in axial and rotated sagittal views and was used to identify the slice locations for cine MRI. Cine MRI was performed by gradient-recalled acquisition in steady state with a 30 degree flip angle, 12-msec echo time, 22-msec pulse repetition time, and a 128 x 256 acquisition matrix. Coarctation anatomy was extremely well defined in all but one patient who had vascular clips at the coarctation repair site. The smallest descending aortic flow diameter on cine MRI showed excellent agreement with angiography (r = 0.90). Lucent jets of high-velocity flow through the site of coarctation were imaged in eight patients, and jet length correlated well with the angiographic severity of coarctation (r = -0.81). Two patients were restudied after surgery, and they exhibited excellent repair and normal flow patterns. Cine MRI provides high-resolution imaging of coarctation anatomy with a dynamic spatial and temporal visualization of flow and with excellent detail of vascular anatomy and flow both proximal and distal to the coarctation.
Diet and risk of diverticular disease
Authors: D. J. Humes, J. West
Journal: BMJ (2011)

Vegetarians and people who consume high fibre diets may have a lower risk

Colonic diverticular disease causes a substantial healthcare burden, which is likely to increase as the elderly population grows.1 Little is known about who is affected by the disease, how often it occurs, and what the consequences are for patients. Nevertheless, the causes of diverticulosis, and the role of dietary fibre and a vegetarian diet, have been the focus of some small epidemiological studies.2 For example, in a study of 264 patients from the general population compared with 56 vegetarians, the vegetarians were less likely than the non-vegetarians to have radiologically confirmed diverticulosis (12% v 33%).3

For example, in a cross sectional study of 264 patients with confirmed diverticulosis, those with a vegetarian diet were less likely to have diverticulosis than non-vegetarians (12% v 33%).2 A cohort study of American healthcare professionals found that the insoluble component of fibre was associated with a decreased risk (relative risk 0.63, 95% confidence interval 0.36 to 0.75) of diverticular disease.4

The linked study by Crowe and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.d4131) used data from the Oxford cohort of the …
NHS medical director stopped laparoscopic cholecystectomy at Stafford Hospital after tip off
Authors: C. Dyer
Journal: BMJ (2011)

The medical director of the NHS in England stepped in to stop one type of surgery at Stafford Hospital after getting a “unique” phone call from a senior surgeon brought in to review the hospital’s surgical unit, the public inquiry into failings at North Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has been told.

Bruce Keogh said that Robert Greatorex, who led the review of the surgical unit at the trust’s request in 2009, was so concerned by the findings that he broke confidentiality—something that was “entirely consistent with good medical practice and professionalism”—to alert Professor Keogh.

“He said in all his time of doing these reviews he had never …
Impact of molecular mutations on treatment response to DNMT inhibitors in myelodysplasia and related neoplasms
Authors: F Traina, V Visconte, P Elson, A Tabarroki, A M Jankowska, E Hasrouni, Y Sugimoto, H Szpurka, H Makishima, C L O'Keefe, M A Sekeres, A S Advani, M Kalaycio, E A Copelan, Y Saunthararajah, S T Olalla Saad, J P Maciejewski, R V Tiu
Journal: Leukemia (2013)
The hematopoietic stem cell in chronic phase CML is characterized by a transcriptional profile resembling normal myeloid progenitor cells and reflecting loss of quiescence
Authors: I Bruns, A Czibere, J C Fischer, F Roels, R-P Cadeddu, S Buest, D Bruennert, A N Huenerlituerkoglu, N H Stoecklein, R Singh, L F Zerbini, M Jäger, G Kobbe, N Gattermann, R Kronenwett, B Brors, R Haas
Journal: Leukemia (2009)
Probiotics and prebiotics: can regulating the activities of intestinal bacteria benefit health?
Authors: G. T Macfarlane, J. H Cummings
Journal: BMJ (1999)

The colonic microflora is important to health. The growth and metabolism of the many individual bacterial species inhabiting the large bowel depend primarily on the substrates available to them, most of which come from the diet. 1 2 This has led to attempts to modify the structure and metabolic activities of the community through diet—using probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics are live microbial food supplements. The best known are the lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria, which are widely used in yoghurts and other dairy products (fig 1). These organisms are non-pathogenic and non-toxigenic,retain viability during storage, and survive passage through the stomach and small bowel. Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients which selectively stimulate the growth or activities, or both, of lactobacilli or bifidobacteria in the colon, thereby improving health.

#### Summary points



Fig 1 
A selection of “bio” yoghurts available in supermarkets



Since probiotics do not permanently colonise the host, they need to be ingested regularly for any health promoting properties to persist. Most studies on probiosis have been observational rather than mechanistic, and thus the processes responsible for many probiotic phenomena are seldom explained. Some probiotics are members of the normal colonic microflora and are not …
Prediabetes in obese youth: a syndrome of impaired glucose tolerance, severe insulin resistance, and altered myocellular and abdominal fat partitioning
Authors: Ram Weiss, Sylvie Dufour, Sara E Taksali, William V Tamborlane, Kitt F Petersen, Riccardo C Bonadonna, Linda Boselli, Gina Barbetta, Karin Allen, Francis Rife, Mary Savoye, James Dziura, Robert Sherwin, Gerald I Shulman, Sonia Caprio
Journal: The Lancet (2003)
Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine
Authors: D B Double
Journal: BMJ (2005)

Surgery may not be the most obvious treatment for mental illness. Surgeons are people who find it extremely rewarding to act and see the impact of their actions on their patients. However, operating on the body may not have very specific effects on a disordered mind. This fact has not hindered enthusiasts intervening surgically believing their outcomes to be positive. Such excesses have been tragic, as is well known in the history of lobotomy (see review of The Lobotomist in this week's BMJ ).

Less well known is the phase …
Association of Oral Glucocorticoid Use With an Increased Risk of Acute Pancreatitis
Authors: Omid Sadr-Azodi, Fredrik Mattsson, Tomas Sjöberg Bexlius, Mats Lindblad, Jesper Lagergren, Rickard Ljung
Journal: JAMA Internal Medicine (2013)

Oral glucocorticoid use has been suggested to cause acute pancreatitis in several case reports. However, no epidemiological study has investigated this association.To conduct a nationwide population-based case-control study to investigate the potential association between oral glucocorticoid use and acute pancreatitis.In this population-based case-control study, all individuals aged 40 to 84 years who developed a first episode of acute pancreatitis between 2006 and 2008 in Sweden were identified.Population-based, nationwide, register-based study.A total of 6161 cases with a first episode of acute pancreatitis and 61,637 controls were included in the final analyses. Cases were all patients diagnosed as having a first episode of acute pancreatitis during the study period, defined by the diagnosis code K85 in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10). Controls were randomly selected from the source population at risk of developing acute pancreatitis. For each case, 10 controls, matched for age, sex, and calendar period, were randomly selected from the general population. Oral glucocorticoid use was assessed from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. Current, recent, and former users were defined as patients who collected their glucocorticoid prescription within 30, 31 to 180, and after 180 days before the index date, respectively.Unconditional logistic regression was performed to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals for the association between oral glucocorticoid use and acute pancreatitis. Multivariable adjustment was made for potential confounders including, among others, alcohol abuse, diabetes, and concomitant drug use.The study included 6161 cases of acute pancreatitis and 61,637 controls. The risk of acute pancreatitis was increased among current users of oral glucocorticoids compared with nonusers (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.27-1.84). This risk was highest 4 to 14 days after drug dispensation (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.31-2.28) and attenuated thereafter. There was no association between oral glucocorticoid use and acute pancreatitis immediately after drug dispensation. There was no increased risk of acute pancreatitis among recent or former users of glucocorticoids compared with nonusers.Current oral glucocorticoid use is associated with an increased risk of acute pancreatitis.
Epidermal barrier formation and recovery in skin disorders
Authors: J. A. Segre
Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation (2006)

Skin is at the interface between the complex physiology of the body and the external, often hostile, environment, and the semipermeable epidermal barrier prevents both the escape of moisture and the entry of infectious or toxic substances. Newborns with rare congenital barrier defects underscore the skin’s essential role in a terrestrial environment and demonstrate the compensatory responses evoked ex utero to reestablish a barrier. Common inflammatory skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis exhibit decreased barrier function, and recent studies suggest that the complex response of epidermal cells to barrier disruption may aggravate, maintain, or even initiate such conditions. Either aiding barrier reestablishment or dampening the epidermal stress response may improve the treatment of these disorders. This Review discusses the molecular regulation of the epidermal barrier as well as causes and potential treatments for defects of barrier formation and proposes that medical management of barrier disruption may positively affect the course of common skin disorders.
Relation of the hepatitis B virus carrier state to hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Hans Popper, David A. Shafritz, Jay H. Hoofnagle
Journal: Hepatology (1987)

The attempt to divide the large group of chronic HBsAg carriers into "healthy" vs. those with chronic hepatitis of various intensities is sometimes difficult. The major problems are overlap in clinical manifestations, hepatic test results and histologic as well as virologic features. Nevertheless, this separation is not only conceptually important, but may also be useful in patient management, particularly because of the risk of transition to cirrhosis and HCC. Although at least 75% of patients with HCC associated with HBV have cirrhosis, the time point at which the cirrhosis developed is not established, particularly since the vast majority of chronic HBsAg carriers fall into the "healthy" category. Important unanswered questions are, therefore: how often do "healthy" carriers develop cirrhosis and/or HCC, including the time relations between the two? Does the transformation to HCC result from one or several identifiable acute events in the "healthy" carrier (or in mild CPH) or is it a gradual process of progressing chronic hepatitis B in which intercurrent exacerbations may still play a role? Do the quantitative observations as to the relation between persistent HBV infections and HCC in the East apply to Western countries? Our hypothesis concerning pathogenesis is based on pathologic, molecular, clinical and epidemiologic observations and concepts, and is supported by studies of hepadna virus-infected animals. This thesis proposes that integration of HBV DNA into host chromosomes in acute or chronic hepatitis or during the "healthy" carrier state corresponds to an initiation event similar to that described in chemical carcinogenesis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Why is there more heat than light concerning the polypill?
Authors: A. Rodgers, A. Patel
Journal: BMJ (2008)

<b>Objective.</b> To examine the relationship between class attendance by Doctor of Pharmacy students and their performance on pharmacotherapy examinations within an active-learning classroom model. <b>Methods.</b> Second-year pharmacy students enrolled in a pharmacotherapy course series were included in the study (N=160). Class attendance was taken manually by members of the study team over a one-year study period (fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters). Course attendance was not required and had no direct impact on student grades. Scores from the six competency-based examinations and overall course grades for each semester course, respectively, were then linked to class attendance records. Two additional examination attempts (retake and extended learning experience) were administered to students who did not receive a score of at least 80% on the initial exam or retake exam, respectively. <b>Results.</b> Class attendance was documented during 48 class sessions. Of the six examinations given each semester, students required an average of 1 retake of the examination during the fall semester and 1.5 retakes in the spring semester. A significant negative correlation was found in both courses between students missing more classes and receiving a lower final course grade. For each missed class session, there was a reduction in overall course grade of 0.18% and 0.14% in the fall and spring courses, respectively. <b>Conclusion.</b> Regular class attendance by pharmacy students enrolled in an active-learning pharmacotherapy curriculum was associated with higher scores on examinations. The results of this study illustrate the importance of attending active-learning sessions to attain higher examination scores. Further research is needed to determine whether class attendance is associated with students’ improved ability to apply pharmacotherapy concepts.