A consultant (from the latin consultus meaning "legal expert") is a professional who provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise such as accountancy, technology, the law, human resources, marketing, medicine, finance, public affairs, communication, or more esoteric areas of knowledge, for example engineering of different kinds, scientific specialties such as materials science, instrumentation, avionics, and stress analysis.

A consultant is also the term used to denote the most senior medical position in the United Kingdom (e.g., a consultant surgeon).

Ways in which consultants work

---

Often a consultant provides expertise to clients who require a particular type of knowledge or service for a specific period of time, thus providing an economy to the client. In other situations, companies implementing a major project may need additional experienced staff to assist with increased work during that period.

More on [ Consultant ]

Human & Experimental Toxicology current issue

CYP2A6 activity in a healthy Spanish population: effect of age, sex, smoking, and oral contraceptives
Sinues, B, Fanlo, A, Mayayo, E, Carcas, C, Vicente, J, Arenaz, I, Cebollada, A Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
This study was performed to assess the influence of age, sex, smoking, and contraceptive use on CYP2A6 activity. In the metabolism of caffeine, the conversion of 1,7 dimethylxanthine (17X) to 1,7 dimethiylurate (17U) is catalyzed primarily by CYP2A6. CYP2A6 phenotype was determined by the urinary ratio 17U:17X in the interval of 4–5 h after caffeine intake in 179 healthy white Spaniards (102 women and 76 men). There were 99 non-smokers and 80 smokers. Among women, 26 were taking oral contraceptives. The age was the most important predictive factor of CYP2A6 activity (P < 0.001) with older subjects having higher activity. The influence of the gender was more modest (P = 0.07) with women exhibiting borderline increased values of the CYP2A6 marker than men. Tobacco smoking did not affect CYP2A6 activity. However, the CYP2A6 marker resulted to be strongly related to the use of oral contraceptives. The women users of oral contraceptives had higher values of CYP2A6 marker than both women not taking oral contraceptives and men (P < 0.001 in both comparisons). The results indicate that age, oral contraceptive use, and possibly gender should be controlled in epidemiological studies dealing with CYP2A6 activity and its relationship with xenobiotics exposure and genetic or pathological factor.
Etiology and outcome of patients presenting for poisoning to the emergency department in Taiwan: a prospective study
Lee, H-L, Lin, H-J, Yeh, S.-Y, Chi, C-H, Guo, H-R Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Poisoning is one of the most common reasons for visiting the emergency department in many countries, and the pattern varies from countries to countries and time to time. To compare the etiology and outcome of poisoning patients in different gender and age groups, we conducted a prospective study at the emergency departments of two medical centers in southern Taiwan between January 2001 and December 2002. All cases of poisoning, excluding patients diagnosed as cases of alcohol or food poisoning, were included, and relevant information was collected. There were 1512 cases of poisoning observed with a male to female ratio of 1:1.2 (684/828). Overall, drugs (49.9%) were the main agents involved, and a suicidal attempt (66.1%) was the predominant etiology. A total of 63 fatalities (4.2%) were observed and pesticides, especially paraquat, resulted in most fatalities. Patients aged 19–30 years constituted the most cases, and significant differences in exposure agents, causes, and fatality rates were found among different age and gender groups. The results are compatible with the trend reported by other Asian countries. This study also shows important differences existing in poisoning patients of different age and gender groups. Therefore, different poisoning-prevention strategies should be applied to different groups.
Analysis of T-cell proliferation and cytokine secretion in the individuals exposed to arsenic
Biswas, R, Ghosh, P, Banerjee, N, Das, J., Sau, T, Banerjee, A, Roy, S, Ganguly, S, Chatterjee, M, Mukherjee, A, Giri, A. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Over six million people in nine districts of West Bengal, India are exposed to very high levels of arsenic primarily through their drinking water. More than 300,000 people showed arsenic-induced skin lesions in these districts. This is regarded as the greatest arsenic calamity in the world. Chronic arsenicosis causes varied dermatological signs ranging from pigmentation changes, hyperkeratosis to non-melanocytic cancer of skin, and also malignancies in different internal organs. Higher incidences of opportunistic infections are found in the arsenic-exposed individuals, indicating that their immune systems may be impaired somehow. We have thus investigated the effect of arsenic on T-cell proliferation and cytokine secretion in 20 individuals with arsenic-induced skin lesions and compared the results with 18 arsenic-unexposed individuals. A marked dose-dependent suppression of Concanavalin A (Con A) induced T-cell proliferation was observed in the arsenic-exposed individuals compared with the unexposed (P < 0.001) individuals. This correlated with a significant decrease in the levels of secreted cytokines by the T cells (TNF-, IFN-, IL2, IL10, IL5, and IL4) in the exposed individuals (P < 0.001). Thus it can be inferred that arsenic exposure can cause immunosuppression in humans.

Subscribe to Toxicology RSS feed