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Biomedical subjects

A Pasternack

Publications and source records attributed to A Pasternack.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

Prevalence and causes of proteinuria in 20-year-old Finnish men.

The prevalence and causes of proteinuria were studied in a cohort of 36147 men aged 20 (born in 1956). Proteinuria was found in 139 men (0.4%) at the initial screening or examination. Further investigations reduced the number of proteinuria cases to 72 (0.2%). Persistent proteinuria was demonstrated in 46 men (0.13% of the series) and orthostatic proteinuria in 26 (0.07%). Urography revealed anomalies in 18 of 104 cases. Elevated blood pressure and reduced glomerular filtration rate were observed in a few men, mainly from the group with persistent proteinuria. Renal biopsy was performed in 61 cases--38 with persistent proteinuria, 12 with orthostatic proteinuria and 11 without proteinuria at the time of examination. Light microscopy gave normal findings or showed only slight mesangial or focal glomerulonephritis in the great majority of cases. Membranous, mesangiocapillary or chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis was present in one-fourth of the men with persistent proteinuria. This was the only group with such lesions.

Adult↗

Availability of cadaver kidneys for transplantation from brain-dead donors.

The number of potential donors of cadaver kidneys in Finland was estimated on the basis of the death certificates in 1975. Only patients who had died via one of the two main causes of brain death--subarachnoid haemorrhage and head injury--were included. Exclusions were made on grounds of age at death, quality of hospital, concomitant disease and survival time in hospital. After these exclusions, 209 patients could be regarded as potential donors of cadaver kidneys, a figure which in relation to the total mean population is 45 million and year. The cadaveric kidney potential, 90 kidneys per million population and year, is considered to be more than twice the demand.

Adolescent↗

The gastric secretion profile of patients with chronic renal failure.

The secretion of gastric juice, HCI, and sialic acid was investigated in 45 patients with chronic renal failure, 13 patients with gastric ulcers, 52 with duodenal ulcers, and 27 control patients during the dose-response pentagastrin test. The renal patients had low gastric juice and HCI secretion both in the basal condition and during pentagastrin stimulation. It was almost of the same magnitude as in patients with gastric ulcers. The basal sialic acid secretion in renal patients did not differ from that of the controls, but in patients with peptic ulcers it was significantly higher. During pentagastrin stimulation the differences decreased. Stimulated maximal HCI output values in relation to sialic acid output were also similar in the gastric ulcer and renal patients. Thus the gastric secretion profiles, excluding the basal sialic acid secretion, were quite alike in patients with chronic renal failure and those with gastric ulcers.

Adult↗

Fixation and embedding variables in the immuno-electron microscopic study of rat Heymann nephritis.

Fixation and embedding variables were compared in immuno-electron microscopic localization of rat IgG in an autologous immune complex-type nephritis. Specimens from kidney cortex were fixed for 3, 6 or 9 h in the following fixatives made in 0.1 M phosphate buffer at pH 7.4: 4% paraformaldehyde, 2.5% glutaraldehyde, periodate- lysine-paraformaldehyde or modified Karnovsky's fixative. Localization of IgG was performed on tissue sections cut with a tissue chopper, cryostat or sliding microtome, using agarose, Ames O.C.T. Compound or polyethylene glycol respectively as cutting matrixes. The sections were incubated in peroxidase-labelled antirat IgG antiserum (diluted 1:20 with phosphate-buffered saline) for 60 h. Peroxidase activity was then revealed and the sections embedded in Epon. Exact localization of IgG throughout the sections and good ultrastructure were achieved when paraformaldehyde and agarose were used. Periodatelysine-paraformaldehyde proved almost as useful as paraformaldehyde in connection with agarose in respect of peroxidase reaction and ultrastructure. Fixatives containing glutaraldehyde gave a mostly weak and unevenly distributed peroxidase reaction product. In the cryostat sections breaking of the tissue structure could not be avoided. When polyethylene glycol was used as cutting matrix no peroxidase reaction was achieved.

Animals↗

Increased urinary protein excretion after intravenous injection of furosemide in man.

The furosemide-induced increase in protein excretion, and its relations to 1) the size of protein molecules as reflected by three enzymes, and 2) glomerular filtration rate (GFR), plasma renin activity (PRA) and prostaglandin (PG) E2 and F2 alpha excretions were studied in 14 outpatients with normal renal function and 13 healthy males. Furosemide (120 mg) was given intravenously, and thereafter the protein excretion and the above parameters were monitored for 1--2 hours. In both groups, furosemide caused a transient increase in protein excretion. The excretion of the largest molecule, beta-glucuronidase, rose to 6.3-fold, while those of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and of the smallest molecule, alpha-amylase, increased by 91 and 37%, respectively. GFR increased, too, but markedly less than the protein excretion. PGE2 and PGF2 alpha excretions increased more than GFR and changed simultaneously with the excretion of proteins. Furosemide also caused a marked increase in PRA. This lasted, however, much longer than the rise in PG and protein excretion or GFR. The results suggest that the furosemide-induced increase in protein excretion is 1) related to the molecular size of proteins, 2) partly due to the rise in GFR, 3) simultaneous with the change in PG excretion. Our findings also agree with the view that furosemide causes changes in glomerular permeability.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗

Psychological and social problems encountered in active treatment of chronic uraemia. III. Prediction of the living donor's psychological reaction.

Sixteen kidney donors were interviewed by a psychiatrist and given the Rorschach test before and one year after operation. We used our previous study as a basis in predicting the expectable level of psychic traumatization that the donation process would provoke. In 10 of the donors the prediction proved to be correct. A trend towards a better predictability was observed in cases of successful transplantation. An unsuccessful operation is always followed by psychological complications, reducing the possibilities of an accurate prediction and necessitating psychotherapeutic help. The present procedures are clinically simple and require relatively little time.

Female↗

Survival in idiopathic glomerulonephritis.

Actuarial survival was studied in 285 adult patients with idiopathic glomerulonephritis (GN). Minimum follow-up was 7 years. 105 patients had minimal change GN (MC), 22 membranous GN (MGN), 20 acute GN (AGN), 11 mesangial sclerosis Gn (MSGN), 28 mesangiocapillary GN (MCGN), 8 crescentic GN (RPGN), 27 unclassifiable GN, 61 focal proliferative GN (FGN), and 3 focal segmental glomerular sclerosis and hyalinosis (FSGSH). Ten year survival was best in FGN (91%), and progressively poorer in MC (90%), AGN (85%), MSGN (83%), MGN (82%), MCGN (62%), unclassifiable GN (37%), and RPGN (16%). One of the three patients with FSGSH died during follow-up. At 10 years, survival differed significantly (p less than 0.01) from expected only in MCGN, RPGN and unclassifiable GN. Our results suggest that -- because survival was not significantly different from expected in most types of GN -- the current classification of GN is only a crude guide to prognosis. The nephrotic syndrome was found to worsen prognosis in MGN and MCGN.

Adolescent↗

Glomerular electron-dense deposits and circulating immune complexes in patients with malignant tumours.

39 patients with malignant neoplasms were studied for the presence of paraneoplastic glomerular disease. The nephrotic syndrome was found in none of the patients. From 24 patients an adequate renal biopsy specimen was available for examination by electron microscopy. Glomerular electron-dense deposits were found in the biopsies of 11 patients, and in four of them the deposits were subepithelial. Circulating soluble immune complexes were detected in the sera of 14 patients. Deposits and circulating immune complexes occurred simultaneously with a highly significant correlation. Cell-mediated immunity was studied using skin tests to tuberculin and dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Negative tests were seen mainly in patients with circulating immune complexes and/or glomerular deposits. Median survival time in patients with deposits or circulating complexes tended to be shorter than in those without.

Aged↗

Glomerulonephritis induced by high doses of ovalbumin. Studies by electron microscopy, immunofluorescence and immuno-electron microscopy.

Experimental glomerulonephritis was produced in 16 rabbits by intravenous injections of ovalbumin in high doses (0.1 g/day during the first week, 0.2 g x 6/day during the second). The animals were killed on day 14. At that time all animals had 2--4+ proteinuria and a serum C3 level reduced to about 50% of the control level; 11 animals had a significantly raised blood urea level. In all rabbits the antigen had induced severe proliferative glomerulonephritis. Electron microscopy showed that many of the cells accounting for the hypercellularity were monocytes. Surprisingly, electron dense deposits were few and small, mainly on the subendothelial and subepithelial aspects of the glomerular basement membrane. In all the animals ultrastructural immunoperoxidase technique revealed deposits containing ovalbumin, rabbit IgG and C3. With immunofluorescence sparse deposits were occasionally seen. It is concluded that a severe experimental glomerulonephritis can be produced in a state of antigen excess, with the deposition of immune complexes being minimal. Immuno-electron microscopy is essential, however, in detecting even the smallest animals of deposited immune reactants.

Animals↗

Renal transplantation in amyloidosis.

During a three-year period renal transplantation was performed in 12 patients with amyloidosis. This disease was primary (or the cause unknown) in two cases and secondary in ten. In the latter cases the primary disease was rheumatoid arthritis in six, ankylosing spondylitis in one, osteomyelitis in two and tuberculosis in one. Five of the 12 patients were alive one year after transplantation. Two years after transplantation four out of seven were alive. Graft survival was the same. At the end of the three-year period five patients were alive. In two of these cases renal biopsy showed amyloid deposits in the transplant two and three years, respectively, after the transplantation.

Adult↗

Cellular immunity in renal diseases.

Cellular immune reactivity was studied in 78 patients with various forms of renal disease by skin testing with four recall antigens and a lymphocyte transformation test with tuberculin PPD and leucoagglutinin. Patients with S-creatine greater than or equal to 230 micromol/l as well as those with chronic pyelonephritis who had S-creatinine values below 230 micromol/l had significantly lower skin reactions than the controls to streptokinase-streptodornase, parotitis and PPD. Glomerulonephritic patients with S-creatinine values below 230 micromol/l had normal skin reactivity. Lymphocyte transformation tests showed decreased reactivity only in patients with S-creatinine level greater than or equal to 230 micromol/l. The results suggest an association of chronic pyelonephritis with a defective efferent, nonspecific arm of cellular immunity.

Adult↗

Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis in a patient with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

A 26-year-old man developed pneumonia, hepatitis and biopsy-verified acute tubulointerstitial nephritis coinciding with a rise and fall of complement-fixing antibodies to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. M. pneumoniae antigenic material and complement (C3) in the renal interstitium were shown by immunohistochemical techniques. A causal relationship between M. pneumoniae infection and the renal lesion is suggested.

Acute Disease↗

Nonprogressive, histologically mild membranous glomerulonephritis appearing in all evolutionary phases as histologically "early" membranous glomerulonephritis.

Seven adult patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome and with a glomerular histology considered normal but with ultrastructurally provable membranous glomerulonephritis (MNG) were studied. The glomerular lesions were found to represent all ultrastructural evolutionary phases (A,B, and C) of MGN. In patients with serial biopsies, the membranous lesion seemed to have passed through all of its evolutionary phases towards healing (C) without developing spikes or thickening of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), i.e., the traditional light microscopic characteristics of MGN. This evolution was associated with a benign clinical course. The membranous lesions were associated with a vacuolization visible in obliquely or tangentially cut segments of the GBM in silver-stained paraffin sections. This alteration seemed to be created by irregularities of the argyrophilic lamina densa of the GBM and not by subepithelial deposits, as suggested previously. All seven patients had a remission of the nephrotic syndrome which appeared to be spontaneous and not drug-induced. The amount of proteinuria correlated with the ultrastructural phase of MGN and with the intensity of immunofluorescent staining. In one patient, the latter became negative.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗