Digital Commons Network^™

Genotypic Confirmation Of Transimmunization-Induced Dendritic Cell Maturation, Kristin Elizabeth Hoffmann

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Transimmunization (TI), a novel modification of the widely used immunotherapy extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP), induces conversion of processed monocytes into cells expressing phenotypic and functional features of dendritic antigen presenting cells (DC). To further characterize TI-induced DC, we analyzed differential gene expression in the monocyte/DC population after TI treatment. Because ECP, the therapy upon which TI is based, has the unique capacity to induce both anti-cancer immune responses in cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) patients and tolerogenic responses in graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), we studied TI-induced gene expression changes in both of these patient populations as well as in healthy normal control …

Clinical And Demographic Predictors Of Short-Term Recovery From Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy, Peter Fabricant

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery are concerned with returning to activities of daily living (recovery) in addition to the long-term result of their surgery (end result). As evidence of predictors of rate of short-term recovery is limited to date, this study seeks to determine which patient clinical and demographic factors can serve as prognostic indicators for rate of short-term recovery from arthroscopic partial meniscectomy in the year following surgery and how they may differ from previously published associations with long-term outcome. Clinical (depth of meniscal excision, involvement of one or both menisci, extent of meniscal tear, extent of osteoarthritis) and demographic …

Physiologic Effect Of Relaxation Therapies On Autonomic Tone Early After Acute Coronary Syndromes, Rachel Summer Claire Friedman

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Post-MI patients are at increased risk of arrhythmic sudden death. Stress and sympathetic activation are known to influence arrhythmogenesis. While relaxation therapies improve psychological well-being in multiple medical illnesses, whether these therapies can positively influence sympathovagal balance in the post-MI population is unknown. We explored the physiologic effects of Reiki, a light-touch relaxation therapy, and music on post-acute coronary syndrome (ACS) inpatients, using heart rate variability (HRV) to assess changes in cardiac autonomic function during treatment. Forty-eight patients with ACS within the last 72 hours were randomized to received a single 20-minute session of either Reiki, classical music, or a …

Eeg During Pedaling: Brain Activity During A Locomotion-Like Task In Humans, Sanket G. Jain

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This study characterized the brain electrical activity during pedaling, a locomotor-like task, in humans. We postulated that phasic brain activity would be associated with active pedaling, consistent with a cortical role in locomotor tasks. 64 channels of electroencephalogram (EEG) and 10 channels of electromyogram (EMG) data were recorded from 10 neurologically-intact volunteers while they performed active and passive (no effort) pedaling on a custom-designed stationary bicycle. Ensemble average waveforms, two dimensional topographic maps and amplitude of the beta (13-35 Hz) frequency band were analyzed and compared between active and passive trials. The absolute amplitude (peak positive-peak negative) of the EEG …

Serum Proteomic Profiles In Inflammatory And Non-Inflammatory Cardiomyopathies: A Novel Approach For Diagnostic Biomarker Discovery, Oyere Onuma

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The aim of this project is to develop a noninvasive serum test that predicts histologic forms of myocarditis (inflammatory) and dilated (non-inflammatory) cardiomyopathy using proteomic techniques to analyze serum proteins. Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and myocarditis (myocardial inflammation) represent a spectrum of heart muscle disease of various etiologies that usually present with progressive heart failure. Together, they constitute the leading cause of heart transplantation in the United States. Currently, the gold standard of diagnosis of myocarditis is by endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) and histopathological classification according to the Dallas Criteria ; however this diagnostic technique is severely limited by its invasiveness, …

Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Enables Direct Derivation Of Oligodendrocyte Progenitors From Cns Stem Cells, Rajesh Rao

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Oligodendrocytes derived in the laboratory from stem cells have been proposed as a treatment for acute and chronic injury to the central nervous system (CNS). Platelet-derived growth factor-receptor alpha (PDGFRα) signaling is known to play an important role for regulation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cell numbers both during development and adulthood. Here, we analyze the effect of PDGFRα signaling on CNS stem cells derived from embryonic day 13.5 murine cortex and cultured in monolayer. Fetal and adult CNS stem cells express PDGFRα, and PDGF-AA treatment increases viability and proliferation of these cells. In the absence of insulin, this effect of PDGF-AA …

Surrogate Markers Of Success In The Bariatric Surgery Population, Alain Ramirez

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between pre-operative weight loss, weight loss programs, and clinic attendance relative to the success of gastric bypass in class II and III obese patients. Background: The increasing number of obese children and adults in the United States poses an extensive social problem in the era of managed care. Notwithstanding the stigmatization associated with obesity, the considerable health implications along with the financial burden it imposes create a formidable adversary. Surgical procedures have proved to be superior to conservative and pharmacotherapeutic interventions in the morbidly obese. Despite the overall success …

The Uses Of Rickets: Race, Technology, And The Politics Of Preventive Medicine In The Early Twentieth Century, M. Allison Arwady

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Rickets, the bone disease classically caused by Vitamin D deficiency, was one of the most common diseases of children 100 years ago. It has been recognized as a disease of urban living and linked to issues of race and culture for generations. This paper uses unpublished patient records from 1904 to 1909 and archival and published materials from multiple community-based trials, including the New Haven Rickets Study (1923-1926), to explore how the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of rickets shifted in the first decades of the twentieth century in the United States. Before 1910, as evidenced by patient records, neither the …

Community Based Epidemiological Study Of Chagas Disease In Rural Peru, Paul Walker

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the epidemiology of Trypanosoma cruzi infection, to valuate the TESA blot, and to characterize cardiac findings of patients with Chagas disease in a rural setting near Arequipa, Peru. The study site was the town of Quequeña, Peru with a population of 774 with 236 inhabitants under the age of 18 according to the 2005 census conducted by Peru. A fumigation/insect collection campaign was done in December of 2006 to quantify household infestation levels, document housing characteristics, and GPS household locations. Of the 602 people surveyed to be living in Quequeña, blood samples …

The Effect Of Teleradiology On Interpretation Times For Ct Pulmonary Angiography Studies, Scott Thomas Olcott Kennedy

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a teleradiology service on the timely interpretation of computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography studies. A survey of clinical and imaging physicians was performed to develop achievable goals for interpretation of CT pulmonary angiography studies. Percentages of studies given preliminary written reports within these thresholds were compared for 1,102 pulmonary angiography CT studies from three months before teleradiology was implemented to three months after. Identical control data were matched over the same periods for 1,638 CT brain studies. Data are reported as averages and percentages. Statistical significance was evaluated with …

Effect Of Non-Metabolized Sweeteners On Health Parameters In Humans, Matthew Alan Leonhardt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The demand for functional foods is on the rise. These are food products that, besides providing energy and nutrients for life, provide additional health benefits. Xylitol, a five-carbon sugar alcohol, is a possible functional food, as well as a sugar replacement. The cost of xylitol has led manufacturers to add inulin, a nondigestible oligosaccharide, as an extender. Both xylitol and inulin have been suggested to provide added health benefits beyond being a reduced calorie replacement for sugar. We tested their impact on several human health parameters (fecal weight, fecal pH, fecal % moisture, blood lipids, blood glucose, and fecal micro …

Melioration And The Behavioral Addiction Process: An Experimental Analysis, Jared Micah Dinehart

Theses and Dissertations

Melioration can be a factor contributing to behavioral addiction. In this study, 76 university undergraduates operated a "money machine" by selecting between choices that corresponded to maximization and melioration. Participants initially made choices consistent with a strategy of melioration and demonstrated significantly greater variability in choice behavior when visual cues were presented aimed at exposing the internality (or consequence) of the choice situation. Removal of the visual cues resulted in a return to lower responding. Visual cues may aid in interrupting the behavioral addiction pattern by limiting exclusive use of a melioration choice strategy. Methods of restructuring and experimentation with …

An Experimental Analysis Of Higher-Order Stimulus Control In Humans, Michael B. Gatch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation explored sane effects of context on the development of stimulus classes and the transfer of stimulus functions to novel stimuli. The research was also intended to demonstrate the utility of current behavioral theories for prediction and control of contextual effects on class formation. In Experiment lA, contextual control of stimulus classes was established successfully in all six college-student subjects. Matching-to-sample training successfully transferred the function of the contextual stimuli to four novel stimuli, whim resulted in the formation of two three-member classes of contextual stimuli. The first portion of Experiment 1B replicated Experiment 1A with three additional subjects. …

Effects Of Methylene Chloride On Immune Function In Mice And The In Vitro Effect Of Methylene Chloride In Immunologic Assays, Man-Ping Wang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A number of toxicities associated with methylene chloride have been found in both human subjects and mice. However, relatively few studies have probed immunotoxicities of methylene chloride. In order to examine possible immunotoxicities or immunomodulating effects of methylene chloride, several tests of cellular immune function were performed using both human in in vitro studies and a mouse model.

Body weights and specific organ weights of thymus, spleen, liver, and kidney were normal in CD-1 mice given various concentrations of methylenechloride. However, a significantly reduced mitogenic response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA} and reduced interleukin-2 (IL-2} production was found in these methylene-chloride-treated mice. …

Hyaline Membrane Disease, Wayne R. Markus

MD Theses

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Changes Of Some Enzyme Activities In Rats And Humans To Dietary Protein, Jung Ja Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A study of the adaptive changes of some enzyme activities to the dietary protein intake was made in the liver, kidney, and pancreas of rats and serum of humans.

The rats fed the 40 per cent casein diet had a higher rate of weight gain and the weights of the liver and kidney were higher than in the rats fed the 10 per cent casein diet.

Three enzymes involved in the elimination of excess nitrogen from the body were found to show a similar response to increased dietary protein intake. These enzymes were: D-amino acid oxidase in the kidneys, arginase …