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Biomedical subjects

C Richard

Publications and source records attributed to C Richard.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

[Role of the enoximone-dobutamine combination in the treatment of congestive cardiac insufficiency].

Theoretically, there are two reasons for using the association of dobutamine and enoximone in patients with acute cardiac failure; the powerful vasodilator effect of enoximone and the different biochemical actions of the two drugs on the myocardial fibre affecting the production (dobutamine) or the degradation (enoximone) of cyclic AMP. The combined effects of beta adrenergic agonists and phosphodiesterase III inhibitors in vitro and in vivo have been previously reported. An increased contractile response to dobutamine has been demonstrated with enoximone on isolated human ventricle obtained during cardiac transplantation. We confirmed the additive effect of dobutamine (5 to 10 micrograms/kg/min) and enoximone (1 mg/kg/bolus IV) in 8 patients with acute cardiac failure with each molecule used alone. Mild changes in heart rate (+19 bpm) and in systolic blood pressure (-3 mmHg) were observed simultaneously. The absence of an increase in SvO2 compared to the use of each molecule in monotherapy is probably related to a tendency to increase myocardial oxygen consumption which may be potentially deleterious in terms of gas exchange. Having demonstrated the additive effects of the association of dobutamine and enoximone, there is probably a place for this therapeutic association in the management of acute cardiac failure. However, the potential risk of inducing an atrial and/or ventricular tachyarrhythmia and the consequences of lowering ventricular filling pressures and systemic vascular resistances should be born in mind; when using this therapeutic association, the authors suggest starting treatment with low doses of dobutamine (5/kg/min) and enoximone (0.5 - 1 mg/kg) with haemodynamic control and steadily increasing the doses, depending on the results obtained.

Cardiotonic Agents↗

[Antibiotic resistance of strains of Shigella dysenteriae and flexneri isolated in Tananarive and on the east coast of Madagascar].

From November 1988 to March 1989, stools from 804 Malagasy children were examined, thirty-seven strains of Shigella were isolated, from which 5 S. dysenteriae serotype 1 (= Shiga bacillus) strains were found to be resistant to ampicillin, carbenicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, sulphonamide and even to trimethoprim. Resistance to trimethoprim has appeared only recently in Madagascar.

Adolescent↗

[Acute drug poisoning in suicidal elderly patients 70 years' old and over. 92 cases in a medical ICU].

Self-inflicted acute drug overdose in suicidal elderly patients appears to be a growing challenge to public health. To the best of our knowledge, little has been published on this topic. Thus we undertook a retrospective study, from January 1969 to October 1989, in a medical ICU. Ninety-two suicidal, elderly patients (54 women, 38 men) with a mean age of 77 years were included. The mean length of the hospital stay was 7 days (range: 1-45 days). Seventy-six percent of them were intubated and subjected to mechanical ventilation for a mean duration of 3 days. Overdosing on one drug occurred in 46 cases (50%). Toxicological analyses implicated the following medications: benzodiazepines, 50 cases; meprobamate, 26 cases; barbiturates, 24 cases; tricyclic anti-depressants, 17 cases; trichloroethylene, 1 case; insulin, 1 case. Psychiatric history, recorded for 47 patients, revealed previous suicide attempts by 20 of them. Complications were reported in 40 cases (43.5%): respiratory complications, 25 cases; shock, 13 cases; postanoxic coma, 2 cases. The incidence of mortality (13 cases) was 14%. Thirty-three patients were transferred to psychiatric units after release from ICU. During the same period, our ICU admitted 2,762 patients for acute drug poisoning and observed a 1% mortality rate. Thus, morbidity and mortality are higher in the elderly than in younger patients.

Acute Disease↗

[Prevention of acute graft versus host disease using 3 prophylactic schemes].

During 7 years 81 patients received an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) for several diseases. The prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was undertaken with methotrexate (MTX), MTX plus antilymphocytic gammaglobulin plus prednisone (MTX + ALT + P), and elimination of the T-lymphocytes of the donor's bone marrow with the monoclonal antibody CAMPATH-1. The actuarial survival of the patients who did not develop GVHD was significantly better than that of those who developed grade II-IV GVHD: 56% [95% confidence interval (CI) 39-71%] versus 10% (95% CI 3-25%) (p less than 0.0001). However, actuarial survival was similar in each of the three groups: MTX 35%, MTX + ALT + P 38%, and CAMPATH-1 43%. The incidence of GVH disease, when the sex of the donor and the receptor were different, was significantly higher than in cases where the donor and the receptor had the same sex: 45% (95% CI 31-58%) vs 15% (95% CI 8-28%) (p less than 0.005). By contrast, significant differences were not found between the three groups in the incidence of GVHD: MTX 36%, MTX + ALT + P 34%, and CAMPATH-1 20%. In patients with leukemia, a higher number of relapses occurred in the MTX group, because a higher number of patients in second or third complete remission (CR) or with active disease underwent transplantation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acute Disease↗

Intestinal decontamination for control of nosocomial multiresistant gram-negative bacilli. Study of an outbreak in an intensive care unit.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To study the efficacy of intestinal decontamination by oral nonabsorbable antibiotic agents to control a nosocomial outbreak of intestinal colonization and infection with multiresistant Enterobacteriaceae, and to examine its effects on endemic nosocomial infection rates. DESIGN: A 10-week prospective incidence study (group 1), and then an 8-week randomized, open trial of intestinal decontamination (groups 2 and 3). SETTING: A medical intensive care unit of a tertiary care university hospital. PATIENTS: Consecutive patients with unit stay of over 2 days and a severity score at admission of more than 2; 124 patients were included in group 1, 50 in group 2 (control), and 36 in group 3 (intestinal decontamination). INTERVENTIONS: Neomycin, polymyxin E, and nalidixic acid were given to group 3 patients throughout their stay in the unit. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Intestinal colonization with multiresistant strains occurred in 19.6% of patients in group 1, at a mean of 16 days after admission, and preceded detection in clinical samples by a mean of 11 days. During the decontamination trial, intestinal colonization rates decreased to 10% (group 2), and 3% (group 3) (P = 0.12 and P less than 0.01, compared with group 1, respectively). Corresponding infection rates were 9% (group 1), 3% (group 2), and 0 (group 3). No new cases were detected in the following 4 months. The intestinal colonization rate with gram-positive cocci was higher in group 3 than group 2 (P less than 0.001). The overall rate of nosocomial infections was at 28% (group 1), 33% (group 2), and 32% (group 3). CONCLUSIONS: Intestinal decontamination can help to control an outbreak of intestinal colonization and infection with multiresistant gram-negative bacilli in the intensive care unit, but should not be recommended for routine prevention of endemic nosocomial infections.

Adult↗

Evidence for the overestimation of molecular masses of proteins after chemical modification and chemical crosslinks on sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).

Human trypsin inhibitor (home prepared), lactalbumin, trypsinogen, carbonic anhydrase, and bovine serum albumin were submitted to succinylation and their molecular masses were determined by SDS-PAGE according to the method of Weber and Osborn (1969 J. Biol. Chem. 244, 4406) before and after chemical modification. High estimates of their molecular masses were obtained. The monomer and dimer of arrowhead inhibitor proteinase-B (Chinese vegetable legume) obtained after chemical crosslink(s) were also submitted to SDS-PAGE and their apparent molecular masses were also determined and compared to the native arrowhead inhibitor proteinase-B. Abnormally high estimates of their molecular masses were obtained. Our results agree with those in the literature.

Carbon Radioisotopes↗

Therapy of advanced myelodysplastic syndrome with aggressive chemotherapy.

Nine patients with advanced stages of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) received aggressive chemotherapy with high-dose cytarabine or with a standard acute myeloid leukemic regimen. Six of them were in frank acute myeloid leukemic phase. The mean age was 57 years (range 32-71). Seven patients obtained remission, 6 complete remission (CR) and 1 partial remission. The induction remission rate was 77.7%. There were 2 deaths in the aplasia period because of infectious complications. The mean duration aplasia was 36 days (range 21-69). In spite of this all responders received further consolidation chemotherapy. The mean duration of CR was 10 months. We concluded that patients with MDS with excess of blasts and blastic transformation may be treated with aggressive chemotherapy with low toxicity and high remission rate, similarly to de novo acute myeloid leukemia.

Adult↗

Relationship between mixed venous oxygen saturation and cardiac index in patients with chronic congestive heart failure.

The use of mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) in patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF) has been advocated to analyze the action of therapy on cardiac index (CI). To evaluate the relationship between CI and SvO2, ten CHF patients (mean age 65 years) were studied before and one, two, three, four (T4), six, eight and 24 hours after oral administration of an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor (perindopril, 4 mg). At T4, a 12 percent increase in CI (p less than 0.01) was associated with a 16 percent decrease in arteriovenous oxygen difference (p less than 0.01), a 13 percent increase in mixed venous oxygen pressure (PvO2) (p less than 0.01), and a 9 percent increase in SvO2 (p less than 0.05) with no significant change in arterial oxygen pressure. There was no correlation between CI and SvO2 (r = 0.22) and between CI and PvO2 (r = 0.23). Individual analyses were performed and patients were divided into two groups based on CI versus SvO2 r value; group 1, n = 6, r greater than 0.65 (0.65-0.90), group 2, n = 4, r less than 0.65 (0.14-0.20). The lack of correlation in group 2 was due to a drug-dependent increase in oxygen consumption (VO2) +18 percent vs -3 percent in group 1 (p less than 0.05) associated with a lack of increase in PvO2 +3 percent vs +14 percent in group 1 (p less than 0.05) despite a similar increase in oxygen availability +19 percent versus +16 percent. It was concluded that (1) a correlation between CI and SvO2 is not found in every patient with CHF; (2) the lack of correlation in four out of our ten patients was due to an associated and significant increase in CI and VO2 in group 2; (3) group 2 patients probably had an important oxygen debt before treatment; (4) SvO2 cannot be used instead of CI to determine the hemodynamic consequences of the use of cardiovascular drugs.

Administration, Oral↗

[Tolerance and safety of the use of perindopril].

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) constitute an effective and well tolerated class of drugs for the treatment of arterial hypertension. Yet they have been blamed for the occurrence of side-effects the most frequently reported of which are renal function impairment, hypotension and cough. For this reason, the renal function of hypertensive patients has been evaluated after short - and long - term treatment with perindopril. In patients with normal renal function on short-term treatment (1 and 5 days) perindopril produced an increase of renal plasma flow without change in glomerular filtration. In long-term treatment (up to 18 months), no significant change in plasma creatinine level was observed. In old age hypertensive patients or in patients with chronic renal failure glomerular filtration was also preserved, apart from rare cases of creatinine clearance reduction, notably after addition of hydrochlorothiazide. A very slight and clinically not significant rise of kaliemia was noted when perindopril was used as single-drug treatment. Cases of symptomatic hypotension were rare (0.2 p. 100), even in situations of water and salt depletion. Among the other side-effects of ACEI, cough, which has more recently been described, has carefully been looked for. Its incidence has been determined in a double-blind trial comparing perindopril (1.2 p. 100) with captopril (2.4 p. 100). It has also been evaluated in a long-term study involving 632 hypertensive patients, 391 of whom were treated for 1 year; its incidence then was 2.9 p. 100, and drug withdrawal was required in 8 cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors↗

[Epidemiology of Klebsiella pneumoniae infections in 2 colonies of squirrel monkeys and lemurs].

After a short summary of the occurrence, sources, phenotypic characteristics, epidemiologic markers, virulence factors and pathogenicity of the 7 species of Klebsiella, the author reported (1) an infection due to K. pneumoniae K5 in a breed of squirrel monkey. These animals were suffering from sub-cutaneous abcesses (Pasteur Institute of Cayenne, French Guyana). (2) The second example refers a fatal infection due to K. pneumoniae K2 in a colony of lemurs, at Mulhouse zoological garden (East of France). Both animal colonies were protected against infection by the use of specific anti-K. pneumoniae capsular polysaccharide vaccine.

Animals↗

Tolerance and safety of perindopril.

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) constitute a safe and effective therapeutic class for the treatment of hypertension. However, they have been incriminated in the development of certain adverse effects, the most frequently reported being alteration in renal function, development of hypotension and cough. This justified the evaluation of renal function after short-term and long-term treatment with perindopril in hypertensive subjects. In patients with normal renal function, during short-term treatment (1 and 5 days), perindopril induced an increase in renal plasma flow without any modification of the glomerular filtration rate. During long-term administration (up to 18 months of treatment), no significant variation in plasma creatinine was observed. In elderly hypertensive patients or patients with chronic renal failure, the glomerular filtration rate was also preserved, apart from a few rare cases of decreased creatinine clearance, particularly after the addition of hydrochlorothiazide. A slight increase in plasma potassium, with no clinical significance, was observed when perindopril was used as single-agent therapy. Symptomatic hypotension was rarely reported with perindopril (0.2% of cases), even under conditions of salt and water depletion. Amongst the other adverse effects of ACEIs, cough, more recently identified, was investigated in detail. Its frequency was determined in a double-blind study comparing perindopril (1.2%) and captopril (2.4%). It was also evaluated in a long-term study in 632 hypertensive patients (391 treated for 1 year); its incidence was 2.9% and it was responsible for discontinuation of treatment in 8 cases. In this study, 36 patients stopped treatment prematurely because of an adverse effect (5.7%). No harmful drug interactions were reported. The combination of a thiazide diuretic potentiates the antihypertensive effect of perindopril and is perfectly tolerated. The favorable safety profile of perindopril should be related to the correct determination of effective doses.

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors↗

[Development of antibiotic resistance of type 1 Shigella dysenteriae strains (Shiga bacillus) isolated in Tananarive on the East coast of Madagascar].

From November 1988 to March 1989, 804 Malagasy children stools were studied and 37 Shigella strains isolated. 5 Shigella dysenteriae type 1 from Malagasy East coast (Mananjary), presented a multiply resistance to ampicillin, carbenicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, sulphonamides and trimethoprim. This last resistance has recently appeared in this area.

Adolescent↗