ORCID Profile
0000-0003-4931-752X
Current Organisation
University of California, San Diego
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2001
DOI: 10.1016/S0899-3289(01)00060-8
Abstract: We examined the population demographics and club drugs used in gay circuit parties and estimated the reported unsafe sexual behavior associated with each drug, the reasons for attending circuit parties, and the unsafe sex associated with different reasons. A brief questionnaire was provided to a nonrandom s le of party attendees covering demographics, drugs used, sexual activity, and reasons for attending gay circuit parties at three major North American parties in 1998-1999. A total of 1169 usable questionnaires were obtained. Odds ratios for unsafe sex for the drugs surveyed [alcohol, marijuana, methylenedioxymeth hetamine (Ecstasy), ketamine (Special K), crystal meth hetamine (crystal meth), cocaine, volatile nitrites (poppers), and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)] were calculated, as was significance of unsafe sex for the 10 major reasons for attending parties. 12-month party drug use was high: > 50% reported using alcohol, Ecstasy, and Special K. Frequent (rather than occasional) use of Ecstasy, Special K, and poppers had an association with unsafe sex at parties. Poppers also showed a statistically significant association with unsafe sex in 12 months (not necessarily at parties) while crystal meth and GHB showed a trend. Attending circuit parties "to look and feel good," "to have sex," and "to be uninhibited and wild" were associated with higher levels of unsafe sex in 12 months. In this s le, circuit party attendees are well educated and financially secure. Party drug use is high. It appears that use of poppers, Ecstasy, Special K, crystal meth, and GHB are associated with various measures of unsafe sex. More comprehensive research on club drug use in gay men is required.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-04-2011
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1080/13550280601089175
Abstract: Research findings have suggested a need for modifications to the original nomenclature for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurocognitive disorders issued in 1991 by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). The HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) proposed a diagnostic scheme that departs from the AAN 1991 criteria primarily in the inclusion of an asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment (ANI) category that relies on cognitive disturbances as a necessary criterion for diagnosis, without requiring declines in daily functioning, motor, or other behavioral abnormalities. In order to test the predictive validity of these two nomenclatures, the authors compared the correspondence between antemortem neurocognitive diagnoses resulting from AAN and HNRC criteria to a neuropathological diagnosis of HIV encephalitis (HIVE) made at autopsy. Agreement between the two sets of definitional criteria was 79% regarding the classification of cases as either neurocognitively normal or impaired, and 54% with regard to specific neurocognitive diagnoses. When pathological evidence of HIVE was considered as the external indicator of HIV-related brain involvement, 64% of cases were correctly classified by AAN criteria, compared to 72% by HNRC criteria. HNRC criteria had better positive predictive power (95% versus 88%), sensitivity (67% versus 56%), and specificity (92% versus 83%). Three cases with HIVE and were correctly identified by HNRC criteria for ANI but called normal by AAN criteria, supporting inclusion of an asymptomatic neurocognitive condition. The modifications to the AAN 1991 criteria proposed by the HNRC and others in the field have served as a point of departure for a recently revised consensus nomenclature.
Publisher: American Medical Association (AMA)
Date: 02-1998
DOI: 10.1001/ARCHNEUR.55.2.161
Abstract: To compare rates and anatomical patterns of brain atrophy during 3 stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Comparisons of multiple serial brain magnetic resonance images in men without HIV infection and HIV-infected men in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, Ga) stages A, B, and C. Longitudinal cohort study of the San Diego HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center, San Diego, Calif. Eighty-six HIV-1-positive (HIV-positive) and 23 HIV-negative men who were similar in age and risk group. The number of HIV-positive men in each CDC stage was as follows: A, 33 B, 19 C, 34. All HIV-positive men were free of clinically detectable opportunistic neurologic illness. Regional volumes of serial magnetic resonance images converted to standardized slope estimates of change in regional volumes of interest. Medically asymptomatic men (CDC stage A) and medically symptomatic men (CDC stage C) had more rapid loss of cortical tissues than did HIV-negative men as manifested by higher slopes (Tukey honestly significant difference test, P=.02 and P=.001, respectively) for cortical fluid volume. Accelerated ventricular volume enlargement occurred only in men with CDC stage C disease. Reduction in the volume of white matter was accelerated in participants with CDC stage C disease compared with participants with CDC stage A disease. Of the gray matter regions, only the caudate nucleus sustained accelerated volume loss during CDC stage C disease. Participants whose systemic disease progressed to a higher CDC stage had significantly accelerated ventricular volume increases and caudate atrophy. Rates of cortical and subcortical fluid volume increases and reductions in the volumes of white matter and the caudate nucleus were significantly related to the rate of decline in the CD4+ lymphocyte count. In the absence of cerebral opportunistic disease, HIV infection causes progressive atrophy within the gray and white matter in the brain. These changes were most severe in the most advanced stage of disease but were evident even in medically asymptomatic HIV-positive persons. Within the gray matter, the caudate nucleus exhibited progressive volume loss linked to disease stage and the rate of decline of the CD4+ cell count. Structural brain changes can begin in the early stages of HIV infection and accelerate during advanced illness.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-12-2007
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-1998
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-03-2011
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 27-05-2009
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2011
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-07-2010
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Ronald Ellis.