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Biomedical subjects

C Martin

Publications and source records attributed to C Martin.

At least 901 records · Page 50Linked to original sources

Farm animal feeders: another group affected by cereal flour asthma.

Asthma induced by cereal flour is a long recognized entity. We present studies of three patients affected by asthma related to exposure to cereal flour contained in animal formula feeds. Skin prick test performed with the formula feed components showed positive reactions to cereal flours (wheat, rye and barley) and negative to the other substances in these formulas. Specific anti-wheat, rye and barley flour IgE antibodies were found by RAST. Bronchial provocation tests (BPT) with wheat flour (patients 1 and 2) and barley flour (patient 3) all showed immediate responses. These findings suggest that our patients' symptoms were caused by an IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to cereal flours from animal formula feeds. We call attention to the importance of cereal flours in animal formula feeds as a cause of occupational asthma in farm and animal feeders.

Adolescent↗

Seasonal variations of serum lipids and apoproteins.

Seasonal variations of blood lipids, which must be considered when performing long-term studies, could be partially due to dietary changes. In the present study, serum lipid parameters were measured each month for 1 year in nuns living in a monastery, whose diet was perfectly regular and controlled. The serum lipid variations observed consisted mainly of an increase in total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins and apolipoprotein B in autumn and spring and an increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in winter, whereas apolipoproteins A-I and A-II showed a marked increase in summer and at the beginning of autumn. These variations were probably induced by factors directly related to seasonal rhythm and not to dietary factors or physical exercise. Lastly, the influence of sex hormones seems to be very minor, as postmenopausal women (one-third of the persons) had an identical variation in their lipid parameters, to that observed in the whole group.

Adult↗

Implants of quail thymic epithelium generate permanent tolerance in embryonically constructed quail/chick chimeras.

In situ implantation of a quail wing bud into a chick embryo at 4 days of incubation (E4) regularly results in the normal development of the implant followed by its acute rejection starting within two weeks post-hatching. If the epithelial thymic rudiments of the quail donor are implanted into the branchial arch area of the chick recipient after partial removal of its own thymic primordia, a chimeric thymus develops in the chick host and this induces tolerance to the quail wing by the chick recipient. The species identity of cells in chimeric thymuses was mapped using Feulgen-Rossenbeck' staining and immunolabelling with monoclonal antibodies directed against quail or chick B-L antigens. Certain lobes contained only chick cells both at the stromal and hemopoietic cell levels. Others had a quail epithelial stroma containing host hemopoietically derived cells. Only chimeras in which at least one third of the thymic lobes were chimeric showed permanent tolerance to the grafted wing. Since the two species exhibit distinct developmental rates, we decided to study the kinetics of thymic involution after birth. Although the changes in thymus weight and histological structure are fundamentally similar in quail and chick, those in the quail start about 7-8 weeks earlier. In the chimeric thymuses, the lobes whose epithelial cells were quail involuted at the rate of control quail showing no influence of the hemopoietic thymic compartment in this process. Tolerance induced by the thymic epithelium during embryogenesis and in early postnatal life was maintained after a profound involution of the quail thymic graft had occurred.

Animals↗

Types of female drinkers: a multivariate study.

Data from a total of 1,055 recent female drinkers were analyzed using factor analysis (as a form of data reduction) and cluster analysis in order to identify groups of different types of drinkers. The data were derived from a survey conducted early in 1982 in six provincial cities in New Zealand. A total sample of 3,600 people was obtained of whom 2,091 were women. Of this female sample, 14% were abstainers, 2% were detected as outliners by the cluster technique and a further 35% were not recent drinkers (i.e., they reported not having consumed alcohol in the 7 days preceding the interview). The variables that were factor analyzed included attitudinal, motivational, situational and consumption items. The resulting factor scores were submitted for clustering and the final cluster solutions were cross-tabulated by alcohol consumption measures and demographic characteristics. A total of seven segments were identified: infrequent light drinkers (43%), liberal light drinkers (35%), casual drinkers (7%), frequent early evening drinkers (6%), nightclubbers (5%), heavy hotel-tavern drinkers (2%) and solitary drinkers (2%).

Adolescent↗

Prophylactic lidocaine: concentrations in plasma and myocardial tissue and antifibrillatoric efficacy during early ischemia in dogs and pigs.

We investigated the antifibrillatoric efficacy of lidocaine and the time courses of lidocaine concentrations in plasma and nonischemic (NIM) and ischemic myocardium (IM) during early myocardial ischemia in anesthetized dogs and pigs. Lidocaine (2 or 3 mg/kg bolus + 50, 100, 150, or 500 micrograms/kg.min) was administered over 30 min to 29 dogs and 15 pigs. The left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) was occluded 2 min after bolus application. Blood and myocardial biopsies were sampled for analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) up to 40 min. In 19 dogs and 6 pigs, we determined the ventricular fibrillation threshold (VFT) with and without lidocaine during acute LAD occlusion for 7-13 min. Dosages leading to therapeutic plasma levels (1.6-4.2 micrograms/ml) resulted in lidocaine concentrations always highest in the IM (IM greater than NIM greater than plasma). Under identical dosages, all lidocaine levels were higher in pigs than in dogs. The IM concentrations decreased less in the pigs. Lidocaine prevented the ischemic drop in VFT and spontaneous fibrillation only at persistent IM concentrations greater than 8 micrograms/g. With therapeutic dosages, this was achieved only in pigs, occluding the LAD as early as 2 or 10 min after bolus application. Lidocaine prophylaxis with clinically recommended dosages in humans will hardly result in myocardial concentrations sufficiently high to be antifibrillatorically effective during early acute ischemia.

Animals↗

The neurological outcome following surgery for spinal fractures.

Sixty consecutive patients with spinal injuries and encroachment upon the spinal canal of greater than 20% were assessed for neurological outcome. The patients were divided into two groups, those undergoing posterior surgery alone, and those undergoing anterior surgery for formal decompression with or without anterior or posterior instrumentation. In those patients undergoing posterior surgery, an improvement rate in the neurological function of 83% was noted in patients with incomplete lesions, whereas an 88% improvement rate was found in those undergoing the anterior procedure. There was no statistical difference in outcome between these two groups. Positive correlations were found between the level of injury and Frankel grades. The cord lesions tended to demonstrate more severe neurological deficit, whereas the cauda equina lesions were associated with a lesser severity of neurologic deficit. A component of dislocation to the injury also resulted in a more severe neurological deficit. There was no apparent difference between the degree of bony encroachment of the spinal canal and the initial Frankel grade, nor was there a clear difference between those patients undergoing anterior versus posterior surgery.

Adolescent↗

Sexual phenotype of avian chimeric gonads with germinal and stromal cells of opposite genetic sexes.

The respective roles of germinal and stromal cells in determining the sexual phenotype of the gonad were analyzed in chimeric gonads obtained by surgical recombination between young avian blastodiscs in ovo. Equivalent territories were exchanged between two blastodisc, in order that the germinal crescent and the gonad territory had a different origin (fig. 3). Embryos used for these experiments carried a sex linked pigment mutation, that made it possible to diagnose the genetic sexes of germ cells and stroma at the time when the gonad was retrieved for examination. On the basis of species, three types of combination were performed: chick germ cells in chick or quail stroma, quail germ cells in chick stroma. In each chimera, the genetic sexes of the two gonadal cell populations could be identical or opposite. However it appeared that the germ cell population was not always homogeneous. In some grafting schemes, ectopic germ cells, located outside the germinal crescent, contributed to the colonization of the experimental gonad. These germ cells were from the same territory as the stroma element of the gonad, i.e., they were of the same species and the same genetic sex. Whatever the case, in 87 chimeras that were studied, the sex phenotype of the gonads always corresponded to the genetic sex of the stroma. Thus the genetic sex of germ cells has no role in the sexual differentiation of the gonadal rudiments.

Animals↗

Causes of death of patients in an institution for the developmentally disabled.

The causes of death of 53 severely to profoundly developmentally disabled patients who died in an intermediate care facility were reviewed. Respiratory disease, predominantly pneumonia and aspiration, accounted for 72% of deaths. Seven patients died of nonrespiratory causes, and in 8 patients, no cause of death could be determined, even after a complete autopsy or investigation. The median age at death was 20 years. The weights of these patients' organs at autopsy were lower than those for normal individuals of the same age. The lifespan of these severely impaired individuals continues to be significantly shortened, even with improved methods of care.

Adolescent↗

[Intrapetrous cholesteatoma. Apropos of 42 cases].

Cholesteatomas of the temporal bone are lesions which exceed the classical limitations of cholesteatoma middle ear. Certain raise the problem on their acquired or congenital origin. All require delicate but obligatory surgical treatment using various techniques and approach of oto-neurosurgery. Forty-two cases are studied here, bringing together the series from the Grenoble University Hospital.

Adolescent↗

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for human proapolipoprotein A-I using specific antibodies against synthetic peptide.

Apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), the major protein component of human high density lipoprotein, appears intracellularly as an intermediate precursor (proapoA-I) with a hexapeptide extension (Arg-His-Phe-Trp-Gln-Gln) at its amino terminus. To investigate the regulation of processes that regulate plasma apoA-I levels, a sensitive and simple assay for proapoA-I is required. We describe a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantification of proapoA-I using monospecific rabbit antibodies raised against the peptide: Arg-His-Phe-Trp-Gln-Gln-Asp-Glu-Pro. The monospecificity of antibodies to propeptide has been checked and no cross-reaction with mature apoA-I has been found although three first mature apoA-I amino acids (Asp-Glu-Pro) were included in the immunizing peptide. The assay is a non-competitive sandwich ELISA in which polystyrene microtiter plates were used with antibodies to propeptide adsorbed on the wells. After incubation with plasma samples, the bound proapoA-I was revealed by labeled rabbit polyclonal antibodies directed against mature apoA-I. The working range was 10 to 100 ng/ml, recovery of proapoA-I added to plasma was 94.6 to 106.5%, and the intra- and interassay coefficients of variation were 3.8% and 7.9%, respectively. A delipidation step using diisopropylether-n-butanol was necessary to expose antigen sites of proapoA-I in native lipoproteins. Mean level of proapoA-I in normal subjects was 87 +/- 15 micrograms/ml. It represented 7.1% of total apoA-I while in Tangier serum it represented 29%.

Apolipoprotein A-I↗

[Self-poisoning with propafenone. Apropos of a case].

The authors report one case of voluntary intoxication induced with 2,700 mg of propafenone in a 23 y.o. man presenting a right ventricle dysplasia. The intoxication is expressed by a blood pressure drop with convulsions and conduction disorders: 1st degree A-V block and transient right bundle branch block. The serum levels of propafenone, initially at 3,185 ng/ml reach therapeutic levels in 8 hours.

Adult↗