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Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests were developed to detect IgG antibodies to diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis in a healthy New Zealand population. Sera from 551 healthy persons aged 6-65 years from different areas in New Zealand were tested. Immunity to diphtheria decreased steadily from 97.1% in the 6-9 age group to 47.6% in the 60-65 age group. Immunity to tetanus varied from 88.6% in the 6-9 age group to 83.3% in the 20-29 age group, whence the level decreased with age to 57.1% in the 60-65 age group. In the teenage and adult groups more than 87.6% have antibodies to pertussis while in the 60-65 group it was 66.7%. There was great variation in the level of measurable antibody to pertussis in all age groups.

The concept of value placed on health is very important in several different theoretical approaches to the study of health behavior. In practice, however, health value is generally assumed to be universally high rather than being directly measured. If this assumption is incorrect, then theories that include health value have rarely been adequately tested. This paper presents a short 4-item Likert scale designed to measure the value placed on health. Norms from the utilization of this scale in five different samples are presented. Health value is found to increase with age among girls, but the increase apparently stops by late adolescence, before full adult levels of health value are achieved. Middle-aged women place a higher value on health than do middle-aged men, although no comparable sex difference appears in a sample of undergraduates. Consistent with theoretical predictions, both health locus of control beliefs and beliefs in the efficacy of certain preventive health behaviors correlate more highly with the performance of those same behaviors 5 to 9 months later among respondents who place a high value of health relative to those who do not value health so highly. However, this interaction is found only when it can be safely assumed that health is the primary value underlying the behavior. The importance of considering a variety of values in addition to health as possible motivators of preventive health behavior is stressed.

Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) can be complicated by maternal or fetal thrombocytopenia, or both. In order to investigate possible immunologic causes of these thrombocytopenias, platelet-associated IgG (PAIgG) and IgM (PAIgM) were measured in mothers with PIH and in their infants and compared with those from patients with autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura (ATP), a known immunodestructive platelet disorder. Many PIH patients (33.3%) and most ATP patients (68.1%) had elevated levels of maternal PAIgG. In both diseases, the amount of PAIgG was directly proportional with the degree of thrombocytopenia (r = 0.446 in PIH and r = 0.668 for ATP). But in neither disease did the degree of maternal thrombocytopenia correlate with the degree of neonatal thrombocytopenia (r = 0.153 for PIH and r = 0.175 for ATP). Umbilical cord samples from PIH patients contained PAIgG (53.3%) and PAIgM (53.8%), whereas the umbilical cord samples from ATP patients had elevated amounts of PAIgG but not PAIgM. PAIgM in the umbilical cord blood could not be accounted for by IgM rheumatoid factors, IgM-containing immune complexes, or non-specific adsorption because of elevated total IgM levels. The umbilical cord blood PAIgM was probably not of maternal origin because it was observed even when the maternal blood contained no PAIgM and maternal IgM is not normally transported transplacentally. Therefore, the PAIgM appears to be of fetal origin. These results suggest that both maternal and fetal immunologic mechanisms may be involved in PIH-induced thrombocytopenia; if so, this is one of the first reported examples of a possible fetal autoimmune response.

Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests were used to measure IgG antibody levels to Bordetella pertussis whole-cell and to pertussis toxin in a healthy New Zealand population. The percentage of individuals with measurable antibody to B pertussis whole-cell increased from 47.3% in the 5 year olds to 93.0% in the 40-49 age group, from which the percentage with antibody dropped to 88.7% in the 50-65 age group. The percentage of persons with antibody to the toxin increased with age from 17.5% in the 5 year olds to 67.0% in the 40-49 age group, from which the percentage of individuals with antibody dropped to 45.4% in the 50-65 age group. Similarly, the percentage of persons with antibody to both B pertussis whole-cell and pertussis toxin increased with age from 15.5% in the 5 year olds to 63.0% in the 40-49 age group, and then the percentage with antibody to whole-cell and toxin dropped to 45.4% in the 50-65 age group. The percentage of individuals with antibody to pertussis toxin is generally markedly lower than the percentage of persons with antibody to B pertussis whole-cell across the age range. Suggestions are made as to how to improve herd immunity for pertussis.

This study concerns the psychosocial aspects of treatment for chronically ill children. The English-speaking parents of 44 children 5-13 years of age being seen at five specialty clinics at a large county hospital in Los Angeles, and their attending physicians, were the subjects in this study. The parents were interviewed concerning their expectations for the current visit, and the doctor-patient interaction was tape-recorded. Identical categories of information were abstracted from the tape recording and from a chart review of the patients' medical records. Although parents expected 76% of the psychosocial aspects of care to be covered by the doctor, only one fourth were actually discussed in the visit. These unfulfilled expectations were associated with lower satisfaction with medical care received (r = .47, p less than 0.01). Finally, while doctors recorded about 80% of discussions of symptoms and physical examinations in the patient's medical record, they recorded only 25% of discussion of psychosocial problems.

Eight otherwise healthy male chronic marijuana smokers were hospitalized for a period of 30 days. Initially they received placebo, then a sustained dose of 210 milligrams of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta9-THC) per day for 18 days, followed by placebo. Lymphocyte responses to phytohemagglutinin were examined during each of these periods. Neither the daily ingestion of marijuana extract containing 210 milligrams of delta9-THC for 18 days nor the history of chronic marijuana smoking had a depressive effect on the lymphocyte responses of these subjects to phytohemagglutinin.

Thyroidectomized rats were used to study the effects of a single injection of T3 on pituitary mRNA synthesis and hormone secretion. T3 was injected ip at doses of 0, 0.2, 1, or 5 micrograms/100 g body weight, and and animals were killed 24 h later. T3 caused a significant decrease in serum TSH, but caused no significant change in either serum GH or PRL. Pituitary mRNA was quantified by slot blot hybridization with cDNA probes specific for alpha-TSH, beta-TSH, PRL, and GH. We found that both the alpha and beta mRNA subunits decreased, that PRL mRNA remained relatively unchanged, and that GH mRNA increased with increasing T3 dose. The data show that a single dose of T3 can profoundly influence mRNA levels in the anterior pituitary; the lowest dose of T3 caused maximum inhibition of alpha-TSH mRNA while beta-TSH mRNA declined further in a dose-dependent manner.

Although acyclovir is prescribed to women of reproductive age, no information currently exists regarding the advisability of its use in lactating women. This report documents the first known case of acyclovir transfer to an infant through breast milk. Maternal plasma, milk, and infant urine were collected following a 200-mg oral dose of acyclovir. The drug concentration in breast milk exceeded the corresponding plasma concentration except at the time of peak plasma concentration. This would not be expected on the basis of simple diffusion, and might be caused by a facilitated or active transport mechanism. Such a mechanism has not been described for any drug in human breast milk. Subtherapeutic amounts of acyclovir were documented in the infant, and we discuss the potential effects on neonatal immune function. The use of acyclovir in lactating women remains controversial until further study can clarify pertinent questions.

A simple method is presented for measuring people's illness cognitions--their common-sense representations of common illnesses. Data were collected from 1,628 different respondents who described a recent illness form 1 to 3 separate times over a 17-month period. A free-clustering task performed by a set of naive participants confirmed that these cognitions fall into the five components that have been previously noted: identity, time line, consequences, cause, and cure. These five components are found to be reasonably stable over time and across different illness episodes. Several consequences of these illness cognitions, in terms of changes in health-locus-of-control beliefs and different propensities to visit a doctor, are also noted. Specifically, controllable attributions for getting sick and personal responsibility attributions for getting better are associated with increased beliefs in Self-Control Over Health and decreased beliefs in Chance Health Outcomes; people with strong Identity and Cure components in their common-sense representations of common illnesses have a greater propensity to visit a doctor when feeling ill.

This article reviews efforts to assess the effectiveness of television programs on changing health behaviors. The relatively limited literature to date has featured primarily correlational studies which permitted no causal conclusions. The few experimental studies available present a mixed picture. Numerous methodologic problems beset any effort at assessment of effectiveness. Perhaps the greatest difficulty is operationalizing a design that permits true experimental manipulation on a relevant sample without contamination. The several methodologic problems and some potential means of surmounting them are discussed.

Sera from 622 patients received in a 20-month period were examined for coxsackie B neutralising antibody to serotypes 1--6. Two hundred and thirty-four of the total 622 were patients with a cardiac symptomatology, and 388 formed a comparable group of non-cardiac cases. There were 141 (60 percent) seropositive patients in the cardiac group, 34 percent and 29 percent of which respectively had antibody to B4 and B2. The clinical data provided on these 141 patients indicated that 33 (23 percent) had acute myocarditis, and 59 (42 percent) had acute pericarditis; 41 (29 percent) were recorded as having acute pleurodynia or Bronholm disease while eight (6 percent) had other indications of cardiac disease. Amongst the cardiac patients the highest prevalence of seropositivity was found in the 20--39 age group and 67 percent of these were males.

Resection and end-to-end anastomosis of the trachea is a practical procedure for the correction of various forms of tracheal stenosis. Preplacing retention sutures facilitates manipulation of the trachea and rapid apposition of the tracheal ends. These same sutures then relieve tension on the primary suture line, assuring early epithelialization. Two dogs with tracheal stenosis were treated by use of this technique. Slight narrowing of the trachea was evident postoperatively in both dogs, but neither dyspnea nor coughing occurred during the follow-up period.

The purpose of this experiment is to extend these experiments by using varying neonatal hormonal differentiation processes and to examine the effects of these different methods of neonatal feminization on changes in spatial and activity skills. The experiment involved three neonatally feminized groups of male rats: 'castration alone', 'estrogen alone', and 'estrogen injected castrates' together with one female sample, 'testosterone injected castrates', while treated and untreated male and female controls were also used. The data provide partial support for the major hypotheses that neonatal gonadectomy and opposite sex hormones administered to male and female castrated rats (together and independently for males) would reverse the normal sex-associated abilities of the white rate (higher male spatial learning and higher female activity). However, the feminization effect for the male 'estrogen alone' and 'castration alone' experimental groups was much greater than for the male estrogen injected castrates. The masculinized females, testosterone injected castrates, also had higher spatial learning and lower activity levels, while the feminized male's spatial and activity skills were also reversed. This confirmed in part the extent to which neonatal gonadal sex hormones are effective at critical periods of development in programming the brain in terms of sex-associated spatial and activity skills. Adult hormonal replacement therapy was also administered at 12 months and supported the hypothesis that sex hormones in adults would be mainly activational and have less marked effects than the significant directional changes obtained by these neonatal sex hormones and castration techniques.

Two phycocyanin (PC) operons, each containing alpha- and beta-subunit genes, have been isolated from the unicellular cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans R2. Using oligodeoxyribonucleotide probes for the PC-coding regions, three PstI fragments were obtained and shown to contain the two operons, which are 2.7 kb apart, with a proposed gene order of 5'-(beta I-alpha I)-(beta II-alpha II)-3'. The nucleotide sequences of both alpha-subunit genes are identical, as are the beta-sequences and the 51-bp intergenic regions. However, significant nucleotide sequence differences are found in both the 5' and 3' untranslated regions of the two operons. Two mRNA species of 1.65 and 1.5 kb were detected in A. nidulans R2 RNA when probed with either the alpha-specific or the beta-specific probe. The results demonstrate the existence of two PC operons which are both transcriptionally active.

A burgeoning literature is discovering the links between locus of control beliefs and a variety of different health beliefs, health behaviors, and health itself. If locus of control beliefs are important to health, it is crucial to understand where those beliefs come from. This study explored the origins of health locus of control (HLC) beliefs, using the Lau-Ware multidimensional HLC battery. A structural equations analysis showed that beliefs in Self-Control Over Health were positively related to early health habits involving self-care and medical professionals and negatively related to prior family experiences with sickness. Beliefs in Provider Control Over Health were positively related to early health habits involving medical professionals and negatively related to prior sickness experiences in one's family. Beliefs in Chance Health Outcomes were positively related to prior sickness experiences, however, supporting a view of HLC beliefs as fairly stable individual-difference measures developed relatively early in life.