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Biomedical subjects

B Ritter

Publications and source records attributed to B Ritter.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Acute cholecystitis and thiazides.

Drugs purchased by a random sample (17 000) of the population of Jämtland county, Sweden, are continuously monitored. Patients who had been admitted to the county's only hospital with acute cholecystitis and who were part of this sample were studied, and controls matched for age and sex were drawn from the sample. The purchase of thiazides and other drugs prescribed to the patients with acute cholecystitis was compared with that of the controls. The estimated relative risk of developing acute cholecystitis in patients who had purchased thiazides in the year before admission to hospital, as compared with those who had not, was 2.1 (95% confidence limit 1.1-3.9). As it has been reliably reported that the use of thiazides is not itself associated with cholelithiasis, the association found between thiazides and cholecystitis suggests that thiazides may increase the risk of acute cholecystitis developing in a patient with gall stones.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1984

HLA as a marker of the hemochromatosis gene in Sweden.

The frequency of HLA-A3 and HLA-B14 antigens was found to be significantly (P = less than 0.0001) higher in a series of 50 unrelated and unselected Swedish patients with idiopathic hemochromatosis (IH) than in controls, being 66% and 32% for A3 and 22% and 2% for B14. The haplotype A3B14 was associated with the highest risk in this material (relative risk 23.4). One family with this haplotype was traced back to the end of the seventeenth century. The pattern of HLA antigens associated with IH in Sweden shows remarkable similarity to those reported from England and Brittany.

Female↗
PubMed1984

Screening for iron overload using transferrin saturation.

People with parenchymal iron overload exhibit an elevated serum iron concentration and a raised transferrin (TIBC) saturation early in the course of the disease. They can therefore be detected by simple laboratory tests before organ damage has occurred. In this study running for 2 months, 10512 samples from approximately 8750 patients and blood donors were examined in a county hospital in Central Sweden. Abnormal TIBC saturation (greater than 70%) was found in 1.7% of the samples. This abnormality was caused by physiological fluctuations in serum iron in 44%, liver disease in 22%, blood disorder in 10%, iron therapy in 10.5% and parenchymal iron overload in 11.5%. The diagnosis of iron overload was confirmed by measuring the serum ferritin concentration and by performing the desferrioxamine test, liver biopsy, quantitative phlebotomy and family studies including HLA typing. We found a prevalence of iron overload of 0.24%. This figure is almost certainly too low because some affected patients were probably lost because of TIBC desaturation induced by inflammatory conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Prevalence of iron overload in central Sweden.

An increase in the iron content of food may be harmful to people with genetic hemochromatosis. We studied the prevalence of this disorder in Sweden, which is the country with the world's highest iron fortification of food. Serum ferritin and transferrin (TIBC) saturation levels were used as initial screening methods. Three (0.5%) of 623 males aged 30-39 years were found to have genetic hemochromatosis. Family studies revealed 10 additional homozygotic family members. A prevalence of 0.5% of homozygotes (q2) implies a gene frequency (q) of 6.9% or a heterozygote frequency (2 x Q) of 13.8%. The high gene frequency may be explained by a possible genetic advantage of heterozygotes in the past. We conclude that idiopathic hemochromatosis is not as rare as previously thought. Affected persons should be detected and treated before irreversible organ damage occurs. This study demonstrates that serum ferritin levels together with TIBC saturation levels are adequate methods for screening populations.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

[Improved flow through aortocoronary venous bypasses after anticoagulant therapy. A prospective randomized study].

To evaluate the effect of oral anticoagulant therapy on graft patency rate during the first 2 months after bypass surgery 174 patients were randomly assigned to treatment with phenprocoumon (89) or to a control group (85) starting on day 7 after bypass surgery. Until day 7 all patients received low dose heparin. There was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to age, sex distribution, number of vessels diseased, left ventricular enddiastolic pressure, preoperative exercise tolerance or number of grafts constructed per patient. All patients underwent angiographic evaluation 8 weeks after bypass surgery. Graft patency rate was 90.4% in the treatment group versus 83.6% in the control group (p less than 0.015). None of the grafts with a flow rate of greater than 90 ml/min was occluded 8 weeks after surgery. Oral anticoagulation improved the patency rate of grafts with a flow of less then 90 ml/min.

4-Hydroxycoumarins↗
PubMed1981

Improved graft patency with anticoagulant therapy after aortocoronary bypass surgery: a prospective, randomized study.

We conducted a prospective, randomized study to evaluate the influence of oral anticoagulation on graft patency early after aortocoronary bypass surgery. Eighty-nine patients who received 251 distal venous anastomoses were treated with phenoprocoumon, a vitamin K antagonist, starting on the seventh postoperative day; 84 patients with 238 distal venous anastomoses received no anticoagulation. Both groups were comparable with respect to age, exercise hemodynamics, extent of coronary disease and left ventricular dysfunction. In each group, 2.8 distal anastomoses were constructed per patient. Graft patency after surgery was 90.4% in the treatment group and 84.6% in the control group (p less than 0.015). All anastomoses were patent in 81% and 67% of patients, respectively (p less than 0.02). Flow measurements in 279 grafts suggest that grafts with a flow of less than 90 ml/min benefit from oral anticoagulation. No graft with a flow of more than 90 ml/min was occluded.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Combined radionuclide circulation and static imaging of the brain. Space-occupying lesions.

Combined static and dynamic imaging of the brain was performed in 398 patients with suspected space occupying lesions. The imaging findings were analyzed from two points of view: Firstly, the radionuclide results were compared with pathological anatomical findings and, secondly, the diagnostic yield in patients with various symptoms was evaluated. Thus we obtained the number of false positive and false negative results. The findings of the combined imaging procedure were correctly negative in 85% of the patients with non-focal symptoms and false positive in only 1%. The circulation study alone gave false positive results in 7% and so did the static study alone. The combined imaging procedure was pathologic in 46 of 83 cases of space-occupying lesions (55%). There were only three patients in whom a pathologic circulation study was the only indication of a space-occupying lesion (4%). The static study alone gave correct positive findings in 23 more cases (28%). We conclude that a pathologic blood flow study alone is of limited interest. In the presence of a pathologic static study the circulation procedure gives additional information, especially in meningioma and subdural hematoma. In patients with symptoms indicative of supratentorial space-occupying lesions of the brain combined imaging is recommended.

Astrocytoma↗
PubMed1978

Effect of chronic restraint on open field activity of aging C57BL/6N mice.

Eight, 20, and 31 month old male C57BL/6N mice were exposed to three 24-hour restraint sessions per week, or to a nontreatment condition. All mice received five 2-minute open field tests after 5 and after 6 weeks of treatment. The activity of restrained mice tended to be greater than that of nonrestrained animals. In general, 8 month old mice were more active than older subjects. Age related activity decrements were prominent in the first series of open field tests, while restraint effects were most pronounced in the second series.

Aging↗
PubMed1977

Macroglobulinemia Waldenström and motor neuron syndrome.

One patient suffering from macroglobulinemia Waldenström developed a neurological disease which may be a previously unrecognized paramalignant phenomenon in this disorder. The clinical symptoms and signs indicate a motor neuron syndrome and autopsy revealed degeneration of ventral and lateral funicles in the spinal cord, loss of ventral motor neurons, degeneration of ventral nerve roots and muscular atrophy. The rather low incidence of macroglobulinemia and motor neuron disease suggest some causal relationship rather than a sporadic occurrence of two disorders in the same patient.

Aged↗