Biomedical subjects

D Costa

Publications and source records attributed to D Costa.

111 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Chlorpromazine-induced decrease of red cell aggregability.

Starting from the assumption that binding of chlorpromazine to the erythrocyte membrane might influence th rheology of these cells, the authors studied erythrocyte aggregability and deformability by means of a filtrability test in 42 neurotics and 16 patients with personality disorders, all males, aged 20 to 27 years, clinically healthy from the somatic view point. Determinations were carried out before and 30 min after a single i.m. dose of 1 mg/kg b.w. chlorpromazine (14 patients) and before and after a 5-day oral treatment with 3 mg/day haloperidol (11 patients) or 75 mg/day chlorpromazine (33 patients). Chlorpromazine induced a significant decrease of erythrocyte aggregability after 5 days of oral treatment (p less than 0.02) the effect being more marked in the patients with relatively high initial values (p less than 0.01). The mechanism of this phenomenon and its possible implications of ESR determination and in the therapy of occlusive vascular diseases are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Participation of the sternocleidomastoid muscle on deep inspiration in man. An electromyographic study.

The sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM), which is responsible for the mechanical action in the majority of the head movements, is also considered an accessory muscle for respiration. Its action in the inspiratory movements was studied electromyographically in 30 healthy young adults by considering the types of respiration, the different forms of deep inspiration, the breathing effort and the body position of these subjects. A prominent activity was found in those subjects whose respiration was of the costal type when they breathed rapidly and roughly and during the breathing effort. An outstanding difference of the action potentials of the SCM muscle was not observed during variation of the body positions.

Action Potentials↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Multicenter study of isolated micro-organisms resistant to antimicrobials in 10 Portuguese hospitals in 1994].

In 1994, Microbiology Laboratories of ten Portuguese hospitals analysed isolated microorganisms found in blood and urine samples and studied antimicrobial susceptibilities of the most frequent bacterial pathogens. From 63780 blood samples, the most frequent were Staphylococcus spp. and from 69189 urine samples significant numbers of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida spp. were isolated. Escherichia coli strains (c.7000) revealed a low percentage of resistance to antibiotics with the exceptions of ampicillin (48%) and co-trimoxazol (25%). Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates (c.2000) revealed important resistance to ampicillin (98%), cephalotin (31%), co-trimoxazol (38%) and gentamicin (28%), while values for 3rd generation cephalosporins varied among hospitals, with several strains showing phenotype of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase. A great variation in resistance values of P. aeruginosa (c.4000) was found in relation to the antibiotics as well as to the hospitals. Resistance to methicillin in S. aureus (c.6000) was high, reaching an average of 47%, and it was even higher with S. epidermidis (c.3000) and S. haemolyticus (c.650). Only vancomycin was always active against these strains. In E. faecalis (c.2500) resistance was of 2% to ampicillin, 35% to gentamicin, 45% to streptomycin and 1% to vancomycin. E. faecium isolates (c.300) showed the most worrying results with 70% resistance to ampicillin, 42% to gentamicin, 59% to streptomycin and 9% (30 strains isolated in 5 hospitals) to vancomycin. Vancomycin resistant strains were also resistant to all other antibiotics.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗