Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B Epstein.
A 42-year-old man presented with acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis. He developed all the major complications of acute pancreatitis including a pancreatic abscess which was shown to progress on serial computed tomography (CT) scans. The diagnostic value of CT in acute pancreatitis is emphasized.
The Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking was designed to address an important clinical and research problem--the objective assessment of thought disorder. The present study assessed this test's convergent and discriminant validity and its diagnostic discriminating power (N = 56). We found that the WIST has limited clinical utility as a specific measure of disordered thought and as a diagnostic tool, but that it might still have certain important research applications.
Evidence suggests that neutrophils are important in host defenses against invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis, although hyphae in these lesions are too large to be phagocytized. Interactions of neutrophils with hyphae of Aspergillus fumigatus and Rhizopus oryzae were studed in vitro. Light and electron microscopic observations indicated that neutrophils attached to and spread over the surfaces of hyphae, even in the absence of serum. This was followed by dramatic morphologic changes which suggested severe damage and probably death of hyphae. An assay of neutrophil-induced reduction of uptake of radioisotopes was used to quantitate damage to the fungi by neutrophils from normal subjects. Damage to hyphae was inhibited by a variety of compounds which are known to affect neutrophil surface functions, motility, and metabolism. Use of inhibitors of oxidative microbicidal mechanisms of neutrophils indicated the central importance of these mechanisms in damage to hyphae. Inhibitors of neutrophil cationic proteins altered damage only to Rhizopus. Damage to hyphae by lysozyme suggested that it may play a secondary role in the neutrophil, primarily against Aspergillus. This new nonphagocytic mechanism may play an important role in host defenses against these and other hyphal forms of fungi.
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Reactivity and immunogenicity of three inactivated, zonally purified, monovalent influenza A/swine virus vaccines were studied in children and adults. Each dose of vaccine contained either 400 chick cell-agglutinating (CCA) units/0.5 ml or 200 CCA units/0.25 ml. The vaccines contained either whole virus or ether-extracted, subunit virus with or without 1.5 mg of A1PO4/0.5 ml. Children younger than 10 years of age received a half dose. Substantial system reactions, including temperature increases of 2.2 F-4.9 F, were observed in all children who received whole-virus vaccines. In contrast, ether-extracted, subunit vaccines (with or without A1PO4) were minimally pyrogenic in 185 subjects. Two doses of subunit vaccine in subjects younger than 25 years of age were immunologically equivalent to a single dose in older subjects. We concluded that two doses of ether-extracted, subunit virus vaccine with Hsw1N1 antigen, administered at least four weeks apart, are serologically effective for immunization of seronegative subjects of any age and that this dosage regimen should be used in young children in whom whole-virus vaccines are unacceptably reactive.
Reactivity and immunogenicity of two inactivated, zonally purified, ether-extracted, influenza A/New Jersey/X-53 subunit virus vaccines were studied in 103 children three to 18 years of age. Children aged nine years of younger received doses of 100 or 200 chick cell-agglutinating (CCA) units, and those older than nine years received doses of 200 or 400 CCA units. Vaccines were given intramuscularly. Two doses were given at intervals of four weeks. The vaccines were minimally pyrogenic, causing only two instances of temperatures of greater than 100.0 F. Other systemic reactions were observed infrequently. Tenderness at the site of injection occurred relatively frequently but was of no medical consequence. The geometric mean titers of homologous antibody, which ranged from 1:52 to 1:75 after administration of two doses, were statistically equivalent in all treatment groups. Titers of antibody of greater than or equal to 1:40 to the influenza A/New Jersey/8/76 virus strain were achieved by 88% of the vaccinees. We concluded that two doses of ether-extracted, subunit influenza A/New Jersey/X-53 virus vaccine were well tolerated and, when given at least four weeks apart, were serologically effective for immunization of children aged three to 18 years.
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During a five-week period, Pseudomonas paucimobilis was isolated from maxillary sinus irrigation washes of four patients who attended an ear, nose and throat clinic. The saline irrigation solution was found to be contaminated with the same organism. Further investigation demonstrated the organism in a majority of hospital sinks surveyed. Although P. paucimobilis was isolated from clinical specimens, the presence of the organism did not appear to have clinical significance.
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A plan for the care of technology-dependent premature and critically ill children during a disaster or other emergency requires more guidance than a generic hospital disaster plan can offer. An intensive care nursery (ICN) devised disaster and emergency preparedness policies and procedures specific to its patient population. Staff responses to events such as loss of power, loss of medical gases, and partial evacuation are described.