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Biomedical subjects

A Quinton

Publications and source records attributed to A Quinton.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Evaluation and results of a clinical teaching method in gynecologic semeiology].

OBJECTIVE: To describe a teaching method for students in gynecological semeiology and evaluate the results. METHODS: Theoretical and practical aspects of the course were designed to meet a set of objectives. Theoretical teaching included one or two objectives per class. Clinical examination was initially taught on an anatomical mannikin, then on a patient under general anesthetic. Students were evaluated after four 3-hour classes by means of multiple choice questions (MCQ) and a clinical case report. The course was evaluated by means of a questionnaire, asking the students for their opinion. RESULTS: Twenty-five students out of 31 were tested in 1995-1996. The MCQ results were good with 84% correct answers (78% for first cycle and 89% for second cycle students). It was not possible to assess the clinical case report. The students appreciated the scientific and educational quality of the course, but felt that the sessions were too short and too infrequent. CONCLUSION: This teaching method for students in gynecological semeiology was successful in its first year of application. This experiment may result in the development of a course combining university teaching and practical work leading to a common theory/practical examination.

Clinical Clerkship

[Hepatox: database on hepatotoxic drugs].

Hepatox is a data base on the hepatotoxic drugs file published every year in Gastroentérologie Clinique et Biologique. The program was developed under Omnis 7 for Apple computers, and under Visual Basic Professional Toolkit and Code Base for IBM PC and compatibles computers. The data base includes forms of 866 drugs identified by their approved name and those of their 1,300 corresponding proprietary names in France; drugs are distributed among 104 pharmacological classes. It is possible to have instantaneously access to the card of a drug identified by its approved name. Acceding to a drug identified by its proprietary name gives a list of the approved name of its components; going from a name of this list to the correspondent card of hepatoxicity is immediate. It is easy to extract lists of drugs responsible of a type of hepatic injury, and a table of types of hepatic injuries induced by the drugs of a pharmacological class.

Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury

Propranolol reduces the rebleeding rate during endoscopic sclerotherapy before variceal obliteration.

In patients treated with sclerotherapy, most rebleeding episodes are observed before variceal obliteration. This prospective randomized study aimed to assess if propranolol together with sclerotherapy could reduce the rebleeding rate before variceal obliteration. Seventy-five patients (59 male, 16 female; mean age, 54 +/- 15 years) with cirrhosis (from alcohol abuse in 91%) admitted with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, which was endoscopically proven to originate from ruptured esophageal varices, were included. After initial control of bleeding, the patients were randomized into the following two groups: group 1 treated with sclerotherapy alone (36 patients) and group 2 treated with sclerotherapy plus propranolol (39 patients). They were followed up to variceal obliteration. In group 2, 7 patients rebled as compared with 14 patients treated with sclerotherapy alone (P less than 0.005). When considering only rebleedings from esophageal varices, 4 patients rebled in group 2 vs. 10 in group 1 (P less than 0.10). The total number of rebleeding episodes was lower in group 2 than in group 1 whether considering all causes (8 vs. 17; P less than 0.07) or variceal rebleedings alone (4 vs. 13; P less than 0.01). Mean total blood requirement per patient was lower in group 2 than in group 1 (1.4 +/- 3.4 vs. 2.79 +/- 6.4 units of blood, respectively; P less than 0.01). Mortality was similar in both groups of patients (14% vs. 13% in groups 1 and 2, respectively, NS). It is concluded that patients treated with sclerotherapy should be given propranolol before variceal obliteration.

Adult

[Hiatal hernia with intrathoracic gastric volvulus as a rare cause of biliary obstruction].

Gastric volvulus can complicate paraesophageal hiatal hernia. Acquired gastric torsion results in acute or chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. Biliary complications are possible but exceptional. A case of asymptomatic diaphragmatic hiatal hernia with intrathoracic gastric volvulus presenting as a cholestatic syndrome secondary to stretching and tension of the common bile duct in the diaphragmatic hiatus is reported. This observation emphasizes the possibility of direct relationship between two otherwise frequent diagnostics: hiatal hernia and biliary obstruction. Only one similar case has been reported to date.

Cholangiography

Fine structure of hepatic sinusoids and sinusoidal cells in disease.

Liver sinusoids are special capillaries that are limited by fenestrated endothelial cells, without a genuine basement membrane, surrounded by perisinusoidal cells storing vitamin A, and harbouring Kupffer cells and pit cells, resident macrophages, and large granular lymphocytes, respectively. Each nonparenchymal cell and parenchymal cell of the liver interacts with all others and with the extracellular matrix. Therefore, the functional ability of each cell is constantly being modified by the metabolic activity of the others. Human liver biopsies (132), needle or surgical, perfusion-fixed with glutaraldehyde and processed for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and occasionally for scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were examined. The study included liver diseases (such as alcoholic liver diseases, benign and malignant liver tumors, cholestasis of various origins, fulminant hepatitis, acute rejection after orthotopic liver transplantation, Budd-Chiari syndrome), as well as general or extrahepatic diseases (such as diabetes, hemochromatosis, hypervitaminosis A, various hematological disorders), and normal controls. Ultrastructural abnormalities are described and illustrated under two different headings: 1) elementary lesions of sinusoidal cells (endothelial, Kupffer, perisinusoidal and pit cells), nonsinusoidal cells (in the space of Disse and/or in the lumen), the extracellular matrix; and 2) the major pathological entities including perisinusoidal fibrosis, capillarization of sinusoids, sinusoidal dilatation, and peliosis. In the discussion, an overview of the major abnormalities reported in the literature is presented, and some specific questions regarding 1) perisinusoidal fibrosis in liver with normal histology, 2) the overload of perisinusoidal cells with lipids in non-hypervitaminosis A intoxication and 3) the etiological relationship of sinusoidal dilatation, peliosis, perisinusoidal fibrosis, or sinusoidal tumors with drugs and toxic compounds are discussed. In the event that lesions are not specific to any diagnosis, the knowledge of the ultrastructure of sinusoids is extremely useful from the perspective of the liver as an ecosystem.

Humans

Treatment of benign gastric ulcer: a comparative clinical trial of rioprostil and ranitidine.

This study is a multicentre, double-blind, double-dummy, two-way, parallel group comparison of the efficacy and safety of rioprostil and ranitidine in the treatment of active gastric ulcer. Ninety-one patients with gastric ulcer are randomly allocated to treatment with either rioprostil 300 micrograms b.d., or ranitidine, 150 mg b.d. The duration of treatment is 4 weeks, or 8 weeks for the patients who are improved but not healed at 4 weeks. Clinical, endoscopic and laboratory assessments are made before treatment, and after each treatment period. Therapeutic success is defined as complete endoscopic healing of the ulcer. At the end of the treatment period, either 4 or 8 weeks, healing rates are 69% in the rioprostil group, and 66% in the ranitidine group; this difference is not significant (p = 0.86). After the first 4 weeks of treatment the healing rates are 44% and 55% in the rioprostil and ranitidine groups, respectively. The incidence of adverse effects is 22% in the rioprostil group, and 7% in the ranitidine group (p = 0.036). Diarrhoea is the most common side effect (12%), but is usually intermittent and mild. We conclude that rioprostil, 300 micrograms b.d., for up to 8 weeks is as effective as ranitidine, 150 mg b.d., in the treatment of benign gastric ulcer.

Adult

Chance discovery of hepatic fibrosis in patient with asymptomatic hypervitaminosis A.

A liver biopsy specimen was obtained from a 50-year-old patient whose clinical and functional liver tests showed no abnormalities but who had for some time a high vitamin A intake (109 X 10(6) IU over four years). Liver architecture was normal. Sinusoids were slightly dilated in zone 2. Perisinusoidal cells were numerous and enlarged. On Sirius red staining, there was mild fibrosis of the central veins, portal tracts, and terminal portal venules and perisinusoidal fibrosis in zone 1 of the acinus. Liver vitamin A level was increased. By electron microscopy, perisinusoidal cells filled with numerous lipid droplets had slightly dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum, numerous minute filament condensations below the plasma membrane, and stellate-shaped processes giving them the appearance of fibroblast-myofibroblast-like cells. Numerous collagen bundles, fibrils, amorphous material, and fragments of basement membrane-like material were identified in Disse's space. Immunocytochemistry showed increased amounts of collagen types I, III, IV, laminin, and fibronectin. This observation suggests that vitamin A per se, and not the cellular damage often seen in hypervitaminosis A, is responsible for fibrosis.

Biopsy