Prolactin Screening in a Cohort of Schizophrenia Patients in Birmingham

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
I. Waheed ◽  
A. Khan

Aim:To establish the numerical prevalence and severity of raised prolactin levels in patients apparently asymptomatic.Method:All outpatients with schizophrenia receiving antipsychotics at Small Heath Health Centre had routine annual prolactin measurements. the sampling was done 0900-1300 either in clinic or at patient's homes. the Upper Limit of Normal (ULN) for prolactin was set by the hospital pathology service at 324 mIU/L (males) and 496 mIU/L (females). Sampling was done 0900-1200 either in clinic or at patient's homes. We recorded the patient's name, age, unit number, ethnicity, details of current medication, recent changes to medication and symptoms of hyperprolactinaemia.Results:Prolactin levels were obtained for 43 patients (M: 24 F:19). All of these patients had no clinical symptomatology that had led to prolactin measurements previously. Abnormal values were found in 47 per cent of females and 58 per cent of males, or 56 per cent (n=24) of the whole cohort. the mean prolactin was 789 mIU/L with a mean of 497 mIU/L in males and 1100 mIU/L in females. All patients on oral risperidone had hyperprolactinaemia.Conclusion:Routine prolactin screening showed abnormal values in 56 per cent of patients and significantly abnormal levels (>1000 mIU/L) that should lead to consideration of drug/dosage alterations in 26% of patients. the prevalence of hyperprolactinaemia in an unselected group of outpatients with schizophrenia suggests that consideration may be given to routine monitoring.

Author(s):  
Orimoloye Segun Michael

The queuing theory is the mathematical approach to the analysis of waiting lines in any setting where arrivals rate of the subject is faster than the system can handle. It is applicable to the health care setting where the systems have excess capacity to accommodate random variation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the waiting, arrival and service times of patients at AAUA Health- setting and to model a suitable queuing system by using simulation technique to validate the model. This study was conducted at AAUA Health- Centre Akungba Akoko. It employed analytical and simulation methods to develop a suitable model. The collection of waiting time for this study was based on the arrival rate and service rate of patients at the Outpatient Centre. The data was calculated and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Based on the analyzed data, the queuing system of the patient current situation was modelled and simulated using the PYTHON software. The result obtained from the simulation model showed that the mean arrival rate of patients on Friday week1 was lesser than the mean service rate of patients (i.e. 5.33> 5.625 (λ > µ). What this means is that the waiting line would be formed which would increase indefinitely; the service facility would always be busy. The analysis of the entire system of the AAUA health centre showed that queue length increases when the system is very busy. This work therefore evaluated and predicted the system performance of AAUA Health-Centre in terms of service delivery and propose solutions on needed resources to improve the quality of service offered to the patients visiting this health centre.


2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Syafruddin Haris ◽  
Sri Sofyani ◽  
Bidasari Lubis ◽  
Munar Lubis ◽  
Syahril Pasaribu ◽  
...  

Background Malaria is still considered to be an important healthproblem in Indonesia. Malaria has been found in islands withdifferent degree of endemicity. Behavior of the community isone of the factors affecting the incidence of malaria in MandailingNatal district.Objective To know the parental knowledge, attitude, and practiceamong parents whose children suffered from malaria or not.Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in six primaryschools and one health centre in October 2004. Subjects wereparents whose children were malaria positive and malaria negativebased on laboratory examination. Sample size was 85 parents foreach group. Selected respondents were interviewed usingstructured questionnaire. Degree of knowledge, attitude, andpractice on malaria were established using scoring system withinthree categories: good, less, and poor. Data were collected andpresented using chi-square and P<0.05 was considered as a levelof significant.Results The mean age of 85 parents whose children were positivemalaria, was 38.47 years (SD 6.67) and the mean age of thosewhose children were negative malaria was 40.41 years (SD 8.05).Parent’s education level was 62.9% primary school and 90% oftheir children were school-aged. There were significant differenceson parental knowledge, attitude and practice in each group(P<0.05). There was also a significant correlation betweenoccupation and knowledge, but not between parental educationlevel and parental age. Parental knowledge and attitude on theincidence of malaria in Mandailing Natal district were good,though their practice were poor.Conclusion There are significant differences on parentalknowledge, attitude and practice, between parents whose childrenwere positive and negative for malaria.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 2155-2162 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Stordal ◽  
G. Myhre ◽  
E. J. G. Stordal ◽  
W. B. Rossow ◽  
D. S. Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract. Trends in cirrus cloud cover have been estimated based on 16 years of data from ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project). The results have been spatially correlated with aircraft density data to determine the changes in cirrus cloud cover due to aircraft traffic. The correlations are only moderate, as many other factors have also contributed to changes in cirrus. Still we regard the results to be indicative of an impact of aircraft on cirrus amount. The main emphasis of our study is on the area covered by the METEOSAT satellite to avoid trends in the ISCCP data resulting from changing satellite viewing geometry. In Europe, which is within the METEOSAT region, we find indications of a trend of about 1-2% cloud cover per decade due to aircraft, in reasonable agreement with previous studies. The positive trend in cirrus in areas of high aircraft traffic contrasts with a general negative trend in cirrus. Extrapolation in time to cover the entire period of aircraft operations and in space to cover the global scale yields a mean estimate of 0.03 Wm-2 (lower limit 0.01, upper limit 0.08 Wm-2) for the radiative forcing due to aircraft induced cirrus. The mean is close to the value given by IPCC (1999) as an upper limit.


1989 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 492-493
Author(s):  
G. De Zotti ◽  
M. Persic ◽  
A. Franceschini ◽  
L. Danese ◽  
G.G.C. Palumbo ◽  
...  

Studies of the HEAO–1 A2 all–sky survey data have established that the level of anisotropy of the extragalactic X–ray background (XRB) is relatively low: –The cell–to–cell XRB intensity variations can be entirely accounted for by Poisson fluctuations in the space distribution of known classes of sources; the 90% confidence upper limit to any additional contribution on a scale of 26 square degrees is 2.3% (Shafer and Fabian 1983).–No significant correlations of XRB intensity fluctuations appear to be present; the formal 90% confidence upper limit on the amplitude of autocorrelations, relative to the mean background intensity, for an angular scale of 3° is Γ(3°) ≤ 1.9 × 10−2 (Persic et al. 1988).


2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 358-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Maddaford ◽  
Christopher K Fairley ◽  
Sabrina Trumpour ◽  
Mark Chung ◽  
Eric P F Chow

ObjectivesOropharyngeal gonorrhoea is increasing among men who have sex with men and is commonly found in the tonsils and at the posterior pharyngeal wall. To address this rise, investigators are currently trialling mouthwash to prevent oropharyngeal gonorrhoea. We aimed to determine which parts of the oropharynx were reached by different methods of mouthwash use (oral rinse, oral gargle and oral spray).MethodsTwenty staff at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre participated in the study from March to May 2018. Participants were asked to use mouthwash mixed with food dye, by three application methods on three separate days: oral rinse (15 s and 60 s), oral gargle (15 s and 60 s) and oral spray (10 and 20 times). Photographs were taken after using each method. Three authors assessed the photographs of seven anatomical areas (tongue base, soft palate, uvula, anterior tonsillar pillar, posterior tonsillar pillar, tonsil, posterior pharyngeal wall) independently and scored the dye coverage from 0% to 100%. Scores were then averaged.ResultsThe mean coverage at the sites ranged from 2 to 100. At the posterior pharyngeal wall, spraying 10 times had the highest mean coverage (29%) and was higher than a 15 s rinse (2%, p=0.001) or a 15 s gargle (8%, p=0.016). At the tonsils, there was no difference in mean coverage between spray and gargle at any dosage, but spraying 20 times had a higher mean coverage than a 15 s rinse (42% vs 12%, p=0.012).ConclusionOverall, spray is more effective at reaching the tonsils and posterior pharyngeal wall compared with rinse and gargle. If mouthwash is effective in preventing oropharyngeal gonorrhoea, application methods that have greater coverage may be more efficacious.


1986 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1020-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
J A Viedma ◽  
A de la Iglesia ◽  
M Parera ◽  
M T López

Abstract This rapid, sensitive equilibrium turbidimetric immunoassay for quantification of alpha 1-antitrypsin involves a monospecific antibody, polyethylene glycol 6000 to accelerate and enhance the immunoprecipitation reaction, and Tween 20 surfactant to decrease and stabilize the sample-blank values. Turbidity at 334 nm is measured by an automated discrete analyzer. Grossly lipemic, icteric, or hemolyzed samples can be assayed. Correlation with results by radial immunodiffusion (RID) was excellent (r = 0.97, n = 84). Analytical recovery averaged 97.7 (SD 2.9)%. Within-run CVs ranged from 1.6 to 1.9%, between-day CVs from 2.0 to 3.5%. Reference values for healthy adults (n = 147) were determined by parametric estimation (for an assumed normal distribution of untransformed data). The lower limit (g/L) with its 0.90 confidence interval is 1.23 (range 1.18-1.28), the upper limit is 2.15 (2.10-2.20), and the mean is 1.69 g/L.


1974 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 87-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Lyne

The recent high-sensitivity pulsar survey at Jodrell Bank has allowed a statistical study of more distant objects. The longitude distribution suggests that many of the pulsars observed have distances greater than 5 kpc, leading to an upper limit of about 0.03 cm-3 for the mean electron density. The electron density averaged over distances of a few hundred parsecs seems to be very constant. The width of the electron distribution in the z-direction appears to be greater than about 600 pc.


2016 ◽  
Vol 01 (04) ◽  
pp. 021-024
Author(s):  
K. Sateesh ◽  
Stitha Pragna ◽  
Y Raju

AbstractBackground: Type 2 myocardial infarction (MI) is defined as MI secondary to ischemia due to either increased oxygen demand or decreased supply. It is seen in conditions other than coronary artery disease (CAD) contributes to an imbalance between myocardial oxygen supply and/or demand. Little is known about patient characteristics and clinical outcomes.Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed in patients who were admitted in acute medical care with symptoms suggestive of myocardial ischemia and enzymatic elevation from January 2015 to December 2015. Patients with slight elevation (above the upper limit of normal) of CK-MB were included in the study and compared the clinical and laboratory profile between men and women.Results: This survey includes a total of 54 patients, Out of which complete details were available in 41 patients (M:23; F:18). The mean age was 42.61. The common causes of type-II MI were Infectious (M:9 (39.1%), F:10 (55.6%) followed by haematological disorders (M:3 (13%), F:5 (27.7%). The mean CK-MB was 28.00. The mean CPK was 122.5. There was no hypotension, renal failure at the time of admission. One patient had in-hospital mortality out of all patients, whose primary diagnosis was septicaemia with shock who had normal CPK, elevated CK-MB and elevated NT pro BNP levels. Patients with type-II MI were not referred for coronary interventions and managed conservatively.Conclusions: There is no significant difference in the risk for type 2 MI between men and women. Clinical suspicion and diagnosis of type 2 MI is crucial in acute medical care setting, as the mortality can be reduced with adequate management of underlying condition. The threshold of biomarker levels should be low (above the upper limit of normal in symptomatic ischemia) to label type 2 MI contrary to the third universal definition of MI.


2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 640-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina V. Lima ◽  
Jaime A. Cury ◽  
Glauber C. Vale ◽  
Marina D.M. Lima ◽  
Lúcia de Fátima A.D. Moura ◽  
...  

The main sources of fluoride intake by children are fluoridated water and toothpaste. Little has been studied regarding fluoride intake from these sources in regions with tropical climates and high temperatures throughout the year. This study aimed to determine the amount of fluoride ingested from diet and tooth brushing by children who live in a city with a tropical climate. Sixty-seven children from Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, took part in this study. The city's water supply was optimally fluoridated. The duplicate-diet method was used to determine the fluoride intake from diet. The intake of fluoride from dentifrice was determined by subtracting the amount of fluoride placed on the toothbrush and that recovered after brushing. The concentration of fluoride was measured using an ion-specific electrode and is expressed as milligrams/kilogram of body weight/day. The mean (±SD) total amount was 0.071 ± 0.036 mg F/kg body weight/day, and the relative contributions of diet and toothpaste were 0.025 ± 0.010 and 0.046 ± 0.035, respectively. The factors associated with fluoride intake from toothpaste were: use of children's toothpaste (p = 0.003), use of large amounts of toothpaste (p < 0.001), and a high frequency of tooth brushing (p = 0.003). Sixty-four percent of children had an intake of less than 0.07 mg F/kg body weight/day, which is considered the upper limit for an aesthetically tolerable fluorosis risk. The results suggest that the amount of fluoride ingested by most children who live in a Brazilian city with a tropical climate is considered safe in terms of the risk of dental fluorosis.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document