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Biomedical subjects

A Ortiz

Publications and source records attributed to A Ortiz.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Ineffective oesophageal motility does not affect the clinical outcome of open Nissen fundoplication.

BACKGROUND: Nissen fundoplication is considered the 'gold standard' in antireflux surgery but some surgeons employ a different surgical strategy when gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is associated with motor disorders of the oesophageal body. METHODS: Ninety-three patients undergoing surgery for GORD were divided into two groups: 52 patients (group 1) had normal oesophageal body motility and 41 (group 2) had ineffective oesophageal motility (IOM). All patients had a short Nissen fundoplication via a laparotomy. The median follow-up was 5 years in group 1 and 6.5 years in group 2. RESULTS: The clinical outcome was satisfactory in more than 90 per cent of the patients in both groups. Only one of ten patients with IOM and dysphagia before operation still had dysphagia after surgery. One patient in each group developed postoperative dysphagia. Six of 52 patients with normal motility and eight of 41 with IOM had persistent pathological acid reflux after surgery. Significant increases in contractile wave pressure and a decrease in the percentage of non-propagated waves were found in group 2 after fundoplication. CONCLUSION: Patients with IOM did not have an increased rate of dysphagia after total fundoplication compared with those with normal motility, but they did have a higher rate of recurrence of endoscopic and pH-proven reflux.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Modulation of survival in osteoblasts from postmenopausal women.

Osteoblast survival is one of the determinants of postmenopausal osteoporosis development. Recent data from animal experiments suggest that cytokines, in particular Fas ligand (FasL), contribute to postmenopausal osteoporosis. We now address the effect of Fas activation in postmenopausal osteoblast survival and the potential modulatory effect of estrogen and raloxifene analog (LY117018). The expression of Fas mRNA, Fas protein, and the sensitivity to Fas-induced apoptosis were studied in primary cultures of human osteoblasts from postmenopausal women and in osteoblastic MG-63 cells. Human postmenopausal osteoblasts constitutively expressed Fas receptors in the cell surface. TNFalpha increased the expression of Fas mRNA and cell surface Fas expression. Neither estradiol nor raloxifene analog prevented this increase in Fas expression. In addition, activation of Fas receptor resulted in apoptosis of postmenopausal osteoblasts. While TNFalpha did not induce human osteoblast apoptosis, it did increase the lethal effect of Fas activation. Therapeutic concentrations of estradiol or raloxifene analog did not modulate lethal cytokine-induced apoptosis. Both postmenopausal osteoblasts and MG-63 cells express FasL. FasL expression was not modulated by TNFalpha. In conclusion, estrogen and raloxifene analog do not appear to affect the sensitivity of postmenopausal osteoblasts to Fas-mediated apoptosis.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Value of helical computed tomography in the management of upper esophageal foreign bodies.

PURPOSE: To analyze the utility of helical computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis of suspected upper esophageal foreign bodies. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective study was performed on 36 patients (26 F, 10 M, mean age 70 years) with a history of foreign body impaction. All had negative findings at indirect laryngoscopy. Radiologic assessment included unenhanced helical CT and a barium contrast study. Patients with positive findings were taken to esophagoscopy. All patients had a posterior clinical surveillance. RESULTS: Twenty patients had both normal CT and barium study and satisfactory clinical outcome. In 12 patients a foreign body was noted in the cervical esophagus by CT, barium study, and endoscopy. In one patient a fish bone was detected by CT (and not by barium) confirmed with esophagoscopy. Another patient had a fish bone esophageal perforation which was observed only by CT and confirmed at surgery. Two patients with normal barium and endoscopy presented a false-positive CT result. CONCLUSION: Barium swallow is currently the first radiologic study, but may involve a risk of aspiration and can impede a subsequent esophagoscopy. Esophagoscopy is an invasive technique with a certain risk of serious complications that can be avoided with a satisfactory radiologic assessment. CT is easy, fast, has 100% sensitivity and is therefore the first choice technique for diagnosing suspected upper esophageal foreign bodies not expected to be visible on plain radiographs.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Diagnosis and treatment of oculopharyngeal dystrophy: a report of three cases from the same family.

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy is a hereditary pathology transmitted in an autosomal dominant manner. The clinical symptoms are palpebral ptosis, oropharyngeal dysphagia and proximal limb weakness. Upper gastro-esophageal endoscopy is recommended to study the dysphagia, a video-radiology study with barium and an esophageal manometry to study the pharyngeo-esophageal motor disorder. Muscle biopsy reveals the presence of atrophic fibers substituted by an increase in fat and connective tissue. In 1998 Brais described the genetic alteration responsible for this pathology, a limited expansion of the triplet of GCG nucleotides in PABP2 gene on chromosome 14q11. Normal individuals have the homozygotic form (GCG)6 of this triplet, whereas patients with the described syndrome have the heterozygotic form (GCG)6-(GCG)9 or (GCG)6-(GCG)10. We present three siblings from the same family with diagnoses and genetic confirmations of oculopharyngeal dystrophy. Two of the patients underwent cricopharyngeal myotomy to relieve the dysphagia.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Primary eosinophilic esophagitis.

Eosinophilic esophagitis is an uncommon pathology that generally affects children with a history of allergies and intrinsic asthma. We present a clinical case of eosinophilic esophagitis in a 16-year-old boy with upper dysphagia for solids since childhood. The analytical study showed only a repeat serum eosinophilia. Barium transit disclosed a reduction in caliber of the whole esophagus. Functional esophageal tests with pH monitoring and manometry were normal. Endoscopy showed a small-diameter esophagus and fibrosis with a very friable mucosa. The histological study of the esophageal biopsies revealed a full thickness major eosinophil infiltration of the esophagus. These findings suggest a differential diagnosis with a great variety of pathologies that can cause similar lesions in the esophagus, especially between primary eosinophilic esophagitis and eosinophilic esophagitis secondary to gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). We implemented medical treatment with oral corticoids and total suppression of allergens from the diet, and the patient was asymptomatic.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

[Motor rehabilitation].

The child's rehabilitation objectives are the same of the early intervention. The early intervention include motor approaches to facilitate the unique way of the newborn's expression: the movement and with it his holistic development. The motor approach is a classic aspect of early intervention but it is not itself early intervention. When the treatment objective is a term or preterm newborn or neonate the motor approach may be the principal method to facilitate perceptions experiences and basic habits. This intervention is not made with a specific physiotherapeutic technique. It is a sequential stimulation or development, without forget that the child must be taken as a whole. This point of view has special importance the first days of life and must be included in perinatal approach routines. In this paper we expose the work method of a Child Rehabilitation Team liked to a Newborn Unit.

Early Intervention, Educational↗
PubMed2002

Apoptotic cell death in renal injury: the rationale for intervention.

Cell number abnormalities are frequent in renal diseases, and range from the hypercellularity of postinfectious glomerulonephritis to the cell depletion of chronic renal atrophy. Recent research has shown that apoptosis and its regulatory mechanisms contribute to cell number regulation in the kidney. The potential role of apoptosis ranges from induction and progression to repair of renal injury. Death ligands and receptors, such as tumor necrosis factor and Fas ligand, proapoptotic and antiapoptotic Bcl2 family members and caspases have all been shown to participate in apoptosis regulation in the course of renal cell injury. However, the precise role of these proteins is unclear, and the participation of most known apoptosis regulatory proteins has not been studied. We now review the role of apoptosis in renal injury, the potential molecular targets of therapeutic intervention, the therapeutic weapons to modulate the activity of these targets and the few examples of therapeutic intervention on apoptosis, with emphasis on the acute tubular necrosis.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Toluidine blue-O staining of prion protein deposits.

Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases caused by an abnormal form of prion protein (PrP(sc)). In this study, we developed a sensitive histochemical detection of PrP(sc) deposits in a Gertsmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS) patient using toluidine blue-O staining, a specific reagent to stain mucins and mucopolysaccharides. Detection of prion deposits correlated with immunohistochemistry using anti-prion antibodies. Control assays were performed using amyloid-beta (Abeta) plaques from Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains. Our results demonstrated that toluidine blue-O staining allowed to recognize 69.1+/-2.6% of the total plaques recognized by the anti-prion antibody. Furthermore, in the 15 studied brain regions from the GSS patient, toluidine blue-O revealed the same recognition pattern as anti-prion labeling. Toluidine blue-O stained specifically the prion deposits but not the Abeta plaques in AD brains. The specificity of the technique was confirmed in a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease brain. This method opens several possibilities for postmortem diagnoses. Our results also suggest the relevance of specific post-translational modifications of PrP(sc), identified by toluidine blue-O, that might participate in the transformation of PrP(c) to PrP(sc).

Aged↗
PubMed2001

A preliminary study of forensic entomology in Medellín, Colombia.

This is the first report of an ongoing study of insect succession on carrion carried out in Medellín, Colombia, using pigs (Sus scrofa) as a model to determine the insect sequence over 207 days. During this period, 2314 insects belonging to the following orders and families were collected: Diptera: Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Piophilidae, Sarcophagidae, Syrphidae, Otitidae; Hymenoptera: Apidae, Formicidae, Halictidae, Mutilidae, Vespidae; Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Histeridae, Carabidae, Scarabaeidae, Silphidae, Dermestidae, Cleridae, Nitidulidae; Dermaptera: Forficulidae; Hemyptera: Gelastocoridae, Coreidae; Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae. Five decomposition stages were observed (fresh, bloated, active decay, advanced decay, and dry remains) and four insect ecological categories (necrophagous, predators, omnivorous, and incidental). During the fresh stage, the first insects that appeared were flies of the families Sarcophagidae and Muscidae and specimens of Formicidae (Hymenoptera). During the bloated period, species of Calliphoridae (Diptera) were predominant and the first to oviposit. During the third and fourth stages (active decay and advanced decay), the most abundant families were Calliphoridae and Muscidae, although Staphilinidae (Coleoptera) also stood out. During the last stage (dry remains), the dominant family was Formicidae (Hymenoptera) followed by Dermestidae (Coleoptera) with a large number of immature insects.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Organotin compounds alter the physical organization of phosphatidylcholine membranes.

Organotin compounds have a broad range of biological activities and are ubiquitous contaminants in the environment. Their toxicity mainly lies in their action on the membrane. In this contribution we study the interaction of tributyltin and triphenyltin with model membranes composed of phosphatidylcholines of different acyl chain lengths using differential scanning calorimetry, (31)P-nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. Organotin compounds broaden the main gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition, shift the transition temperature to lower values and induce the appearance of a new peak below the main transition peak. These effects are more pronounced in the case of tributyltin and are quantitatively larger as the phosphatidylcholine acyl chain length decreases. Both tributyltin and triphenyltin increase the enthalpy change of the transition in all the phosphatidylcholine systems studied except in dilauroylphosphatidylcholine. Organotin compounds do not affect the macroscopic bilayer organization of the phospholipid but do affect the degree of hydration of its carbonyl moiety. The above evidence supports the idea that organotin compounds are located in the upper part of the phospholipid palisade near the lipid/water interface.

1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine↗
PubMed2001

Optimization of the technique to isolate fetal hepatocytes, and assessment of their functionality by transplantation.

In contrast to adult hepatocytes, fetal hepatocytes (FH) are thought to be highly proliferative less immunogenic and more resistant to both cryopreservation and ischemic injury. In the present study, we describe the method for isolation of FH and the relationship between the transplantability of FH into the spleen of analbuminemic rats and expression of albumin mRNA. Rat FH were obtained using the nonperfusion collagenase/DNase digestion method. Nagase analbuminemic rats (NAR), a strain which bears a mutation that determines the impossibility of the normal splicing of the albumin mRNA were used as recipients. The transplanted FH immediately migrated to the liver via portal vein, and anchored there. To assess the functional state of the transplanted cells, one month after transplantation, the expression of the albumin gene was studied in the liver of the recipients.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗