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Biomedical subjects

B Godeau

Publications and source records attributed to B Godeau.

90 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Outcome of patients with systemic rheumatic disease admitted to medical intensive care units.

The outcome of patients admitted to intensive care units is known to be influenced by such factors as age, previous health status, severity of disease, and diagnosis. To estimate the outcome of such patients with systemic rheumatic diseases and to determine if the severity of these diseases unfavourably influences the prognosis at the time of admission to a medical intensive care unit, the clinical courses of all patients with systemic rheumatic disease admitted to two medical intensive care units between January 1978 and December 1988 were studied retrospectively. Sixty nine patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 16), necrotising vasculitis (n = 19), rheumatoid arthritis (n = 19), and other systemic rheumatic diseases (n = 15) were included. The mean (SD) age on admission into the medical intensive care unit was 53 (17) years and the mean simplified acute physiological score was 12 (5.5). The principal diagnoses on admission were infectious complications (29/69 patients) and acute exacerbation of the systemic rheumatic disease (19/69 patients). The death rate in the medical intensive care unit was 33% (23/69 patients) and was similar to that of a non-selected population with comparable simplified acute physiological score. The death rate in hospital was 42% (29/69 patients). Infection was the main cause of death in the medical intensive care unit (19/23 patients) and the infection was mainly acquired in the unit. Only the simplified acute physiological score on admission was a statistically significant prognostic factor: the simplified acute physiological score in patients who died was 15 (5.2) v 9.9 (4.7) for survivors. Long term outcome analysis showed that 83% (33/40 patients) of patients were still alive after admission to the medical intensive care unit with a follow up time between two months and nine years (mean 38 months). The death rate was relatively high and was mainly due to nosocomial infections. It was not different, however, from that of nonselected patients and the long term prognosis was highly favourable. This shows that the complications are often reversible, particularly infectious applications, and justifies admission to the medical intensive care unit of this group of patients.

Adult↗

Brb, a platelet alloantigen involved in neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia.

Serum from a pregnant woman with the May-Hegglin anomaly contained a platelet-specific antibody. The serum reacted in the platelet indirect immunofluorescence test (PIIFT) with 97.6% of random donor platelets and those of the father but not with the mother's own platelets. This antibody induced a moderate thrombocytopenia in the infant that responded to infusion of intravenous immunoglobulin concentrates. The platelet phenotypes were PLA1+, Baka+, Bra+/Brb- for the mother, PLA1+, Baka+, Bra-/Brb+ for the father, and PLA1+, Bra+/Brb+ for the neonate. Analysis of the maternal serum with an immunoassay based on monoclonal antibody immobilization of platelet antigens (MAIPA) and immunoprecipitation techniques demonstrated the absence of antibodies directed against HLA class I antigens and that the antigen recognized was located on the platelet-GpIa/IIa complex. This antigen was present on 113/115 random donor platelets, in 7 of the 7 unrelated May-Hegglin platelets, and only absent in 3/24 Bra+ individuals, including the mother. No platelet-specific antibody was present in the serum of the 7 unrelated May-Hegglin subjects. The antigen recognized by this platelet-specific antibody thus meets the criteria defining the antithetic allele of Bra, i.e. the Brb alloantigen.

Adult↗

[Post-transfusion purpura. An unknown cause of acute immune thrombocytopenia. 4 new cases].

Post-transfusion purpura is characterized by the occurrence of acute immune thrombocytopenia 5 to 10 days after transfusion of platelet-containing blood products in subjects who had been alloimmunized to specific platelet antigens. Four cases are reported here. Three of these 4 patients, who had a rare PLA1 platelet phenotype, had developed, during a previous sensitization (pregnancy n = 2, transfusion n = 1), an allo antibody directed against PLA1 antigen. The fourth patient presented a specific anti-PLA2 antibody. Thrombocytopenia (platelet count between 4 and 40 x 10(9)/1) appeared 1 to 12 days after the responsible transfusion and showed as haematomas (n = 3) or haemoptysis (n = 1). One patient was asymptomatic and remained untreated. The remaining 3 patients received corticosteroids orally associated, in one case, with infusions of human immunoglobulin concentrates. Thrombocytopenia was corrected within 5 to 13 days. In such cases, whenever another blood transfusion is necessary, a preventive treatment with perfectly platelet-free blood products is mandatory. Platelet depletion by freezing-thawing of red cell concentrates is probably not always sufficient, since recurrence was observed with such a product in one of our patients. The exact cause of immune destruction of autologous platelet remains a mystery.

Adult↗

[Chronic bone infections after surgery. Treatment with the new quinolones].

A prospective open study carried out over 5 years and including 20 patients suffering from chronic bone suppuration following orthopaedic surgery has confirmed the value of the new quinolones (NQ) in these indications. The patients received pefloxacin or ciprofloxacin most often combined with rifampicin or fusidic acid for a mean period of 7 months. Single or multiple organism infections were documented in 14 patients, the majority being Staph. aureus (n = 13) and Pseudomonas (n = 14). Samples were sterile in 6 cases. Fourteen therapeutic successes and 5 failures were observed. In one patient, improvement was noted but the post-treatment follow-up insufficient to pronounce a cure. Success was obtained in 14 out of 16 patients who had sensitive organisms or sterile samples. The mean post-treatment follow-up (16 months) was satisfactory but insufficient to speak of cure. However, in these patients for whom further surgery, however desirable, is often refused, NQ constitute an improvement which raises hopes of cure or allows further surgery.

Adult↗

Left innominate vein stenosis as a late complication of central vein catheterization.

A patient was seen for acute exercise-induced left superior limb swelling. Phlebography disclosed left innominate vein stenosis and the lack of subclavian vein thrombosis. Ten months earlier, the patient underwent repeated and prolonged central vein catheterization procedures. No other cause of central vein stenosis was evidenced. Emphasis is placed on the symptomatic presenting event, the very late discovery, and the site of stenosis.

Brachiocephalic Veins↗

[Persistence of accessory spleen after splenectomy for auto-immune thrombocytopenic purpura: apropos of 2 cases].

Two cases of accessory spleen persisting after splenectomy for autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura are reported. The diagnosis of accessory spleen must be considered whenever post-splenectomy blood smears fail to show pitted erythrocytes or Jolly's bodies in red cells. Isotopic methods, now completed by computerized tomography, will then confirm the persistence of splenic tissue. As illustrated by one of our patients, only large accessory spleens would produce a relapse of autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura. In case of major thrombocytopenia a second splenectomy is worth attempting, although its benefits are inconstant and unpredictable.

Adult↗