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Biomedical subjects

A Scheynius

Publications and source records attributed to A Scheynius.

149 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Methenamine-hippurate and bacteriuria in the geriatric patient with a catheter.

Oral treatment with methenamine-hippurate (MH) in patients with an indwelling catheter has been found to reduce the need of frequent catheter exchange and the number of symptomatic infections. Bacteriuria, however, persists during MH treatment. The hypothesis that the therapeutic effect is due to a reduction in the number of bacteria, or a change in the pattern of strains was tested in a crossover study (2 x 6 weeks). MH treatment, 1 g twice daily, was compared to control periods in 52 patients. The majority of quantitative and qualitative bacterial cultures at 2-week intervals yielded 2--4 strains. Of the bacterial isolates, 50% were found on 4--6 occasions out of 6 possible. MH treatment had no significant influence on the pattern of various strains. A 30% decrease in the mean total bacterial count during MH treatment did not reach statistical significance (p approximately 0.07). It is suggested that prevention of catheter complications during MH treatment may be due to a physiochemical action on salt formation rather than a direct antibacterial effect.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Blood dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) levels in pemphigoid/pemphigus and psoriasis.

Serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) levels and diagnostic autoantibody titers were measured in patients with pemphigoid/pemphigus [n = 46/4; 21 men and 29 women, 42 to 93 years of age (mean 79)]. Twenty-four patients were either on peroral Prednisolone (n = 11), or topical treatment with betamethasone (n = 13), and the other 26 were either receiving non-steroidal drugs or were untreated. Their DHEAS levels were compared to those of 20 patients with psoriasis, and to 23 patients with secondary osteoarthritis (OA). Assessing the patients by group, the mean DHEAS level was markedly lower in the pemphigoid/pemphigus than in the psoriasis and OA patients (geometric mean 600 vs. 2130 and 2100 nmol/l, respectively; p < 0.001). This difference was independent of steroid treatment. No correlation was found between the DHEAS levels and antibody titers. The low levels found in pemphigoid/pemphigus are concordant with those reported for systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica/giant cell arteritis. DHEAS deficiency is a permanent feature in these autoimmune diseases, and may contribute to their etiology and/or pathophysiology.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The prevalence of antinuclear antibodies in healthy young persons and adults, comparing rat liver tissue sections with HEp-2 cells as antigen substrate.

The prevalence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was studied in 290 healthy adults, aged 20-88 years, and in 219 children, aged 1 month to 15 years. Two antigen substrates, rat liver tissue sections and HEp-2 cells, were compared at different serum dilutions. At titre 1/40, the number of positive adult samples was 6.9% with HEp-2 cells and 6.2% with rat liver. Using a lower serum dilution, HEp-2 cells were shown to be significantly more sensitive than rat liver. However, 25% of the positive samples at serum titre > or = 1/40 could only be found on HEp-2 cells, as compared to 17% for rat liver, even after extended investigation. In children, 7.3% of the samples were positive using HEp-2, as compared to 2.3% with rat liver tissue, at titre 1/10. None of the samples were positive for nDNA or other specific antigens as measured by immunodiffusion. One sample had antibodies against core histones and two samples showed antibodies against subcellular antigens by immunoblot. We conclude that the occurrence of ANA in healthy Swedish children and adults is similar to previous studies from other countries. Both rat liver tissue and HEp-2 cells were found to be suitable for screening purposes, if the increased sensitivity of HEp-2 cells is taken into consideration, particularly with regard to children. Furthermore, it may be necessary to use more than one substrate to exclude ANA positivity in clinical practice.

Adolescent↗