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Biomedical subjects

E C Reisinger

Publications and source records attributed to E C Reisinger.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy in patients with cat-scratch disease.

AIM: Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy images various neoplastic, granulomatous, and auto-immune diseases. Cat-scratch disease in an infectious granulomatous disease usually affecting the lymphnodes. It is not known whether cat-scratch disease provides positive somatostatin receptor scintigrams. PATIENTS, METHODS: Twelve patients with lymphadenitis and suspected cat-scratch disease were investigated by immunofluorescence antibody testing and somatostatin receptor scintigraphy. Suppurated lymphnodes were extracted or drained and Bartonella henselae specific PCR was then performed. RESULTS: Eleven of 12 patients showed IgG antibodies against B. henselae. SRS showed positive scintigraphic results in 6 of 11 patients with CSD. B. henselae DNA was detected in tissue of lymphnodes from 4 of 5 patients with lymphnode extraction or lymphnode drainage. SRS demonstrated positive scintigrams in all patients with a positive PCR. In one patient with suspected CSD SRS was negative as well as antibody testing. CONCLUSION: Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy correlated with positive Bartonella henselae specific PCR tests and positive Bartonella henselae specific antibody tests in patients with CSD.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

[A case of autochthonous early summer meningoencephalitis in Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania].

HISTORY: A 61-year-old man was bitten by a tick at Lake Woblitz, near the town of Neustrelitz in former East Germany. Nine days later he saw his general practitioner because of fever and headache. Three weeks after the tick bite he was hospitalized with fever (39.2 degrees C) and mental confusion. Because he had taken a Nile cruise six months earlier, malaria was considered and he was transferred to the department of tropical medicine and infectious diseases of the University of Rostock. INVESTIGATIONS: The patient was somnolent, his speech was slurred, and he had amnesic aphasia, as well as impaired fine motor control, but no meningism, focal signs, pyramidal tract or sensory impairment. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed mild lymphocytosis (9,400 leukocytes per microL; 89% lymphocytes) and elevated protein concentration (1322 mg/L) with blood brain barrier impairment and intrathecal IgM synthesis. Anti-tick-bite encephalitis (TBE) antibodies (ELISA: IgG and IgM) were present in serum and CSF, and serum immunofluorescence showed an eight-fold titer increase within two weeks. These findings confirm the diagnosis of TBE. Other infections (including those with cross-reacting flaviviruses) were excluded by appropriate antibody testing. THERAPY AND CLINICAL COURSE: There is no specific antiviral treatment for TBE, but on symptomatic therapy the patient recovered fully within four weeks. CONCLUSION: The site of the patient's infection is located 10 km to the west of an old TBE focus, but no TBE virus had been detected there after 1975. The case demonstrates that TBE should be included in the differential diagnosis of meningoencephalitis, even if the patient has not been in an acknowledged TBE endemic area.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Candida and antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.

The role of Candida in antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD) has been controversial for many years. Since Candida exists physiologically in the gastrointestinal tract, the presence of small numbers of Candida organisms in stool has therefore been considered normal, and thus non-pathogenic. Increased Candida counts have been linked to the development of diarrhoea in antibiotic-treated patients. However, recent findings have not confirmed this. To date, there is no convincing evidence that Candida may cause AAD in adults.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Detection of catheter-related bloodstream infections by the differential-time-to-positivity method and gram stain-acridine orange leukocyte cytospin test in neutropenic patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

For febrile neutropenic patients who received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the Gram stain-acridine orange leukocyte cytospin (AOLC) test and the differential-time-to-positivity method (DTP) were performed. As a diagnostic tool for catheter-related bloodstream infections in these patients, the Gram stain-AOLC test has a lower sensitivity than does the DTP method but acceptable positive and negative predictive values.

Acridine Orange↗
PubMed2003

Molecular typing of coagulase-negative staphylococcal blood and skin culture isolates to differentiate between bacteremia and contamination.

In order to determine whether a blood culture positive for coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) represents bacteremia or contamination, a prospective study was conducted using molecular typing to analyze CNS blood culture isolates and corresponding CNS skin isolates collected after skin disinfection from 431 subjects. CNS bacteremia was not found in any of the 301 subjects not suspected of having bacteremia. In 130 patients suspected of having bacteremia, the rate of actual CNS bacteremia was 6%. The overall rate of CNS blood culture contamination was 1%. Chart analysis showed good agreement between our microbiological definitions of bacteremia and the clinical definitions previously published. Bacteremia and contamination can be differentiated using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and molecular typing of CNS isolates obtained from cultures of blood and corresponding skin samples.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Monoclonal and biclonal gammopathy in two patients infected with Bartonella henselae.

Two immunocompetent patients with cat-scratch disease due to infection with Bartonella henselae developed monoclonal and biclonal gammopathy. Neither patient had evidence of any other known cause of plasma cell dyscrasia, and antibiotic eradication of Bartonella henselae infection resulted in the prompt disappearance of the gammopathy. Hence, cat-scratch disease should be added to the list of possible underlying disorders in individuals presenting with monoclonal and biclonal gammopathy.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

[Tick-borne encephalitis (FSME)--how great is the danger really?].

Tick-borne encephalitis is a neurotropic viral disease transmitted by ticks, and occasionally by the drinking of milk. Its incidence in Central and Eastern Europe has increased sharply, supposedly due--among other things--to climate warming and changes in leisure activities. The probability of contracting the disease following viral infection is about 30%. Some 70% of victims manifest a biphasic course with two fever peaks. Some 10% will have lasting, sometimes severe, neurological deficits, and 1 to 2% will die. The diagnosis is based on confirmed exposure to ticks in a high-risk area, a tick bite within the previous three weeks, clinical symptomatology, infected CSF, and FSME-specific IgM and IgG antibodies in the serum. Causal treatment is not possible, but the disease can be effectively avoided by prophylactic (anti-exposure) measures and vaccination. The vaccines currently available in Germany are highly effective and well tolerated, and a vaccine for children became available in 2002. Medical counselling of travellers should give consideration to vaccination against the condition--in particular for destinations in the south east or east of Europe.

Child↗
PubMed2002

[Histoplasmosis group disease in bat researchers returning from Cuba].

CASE HISTORY: Four males (age 25 to 40 years) and one female (age 25) were admitted to our hospital almost simultaneously with symptoms of fever up to 38 degrees C, dry cough, thoracodynia, dyspnoea, myalgia and arthralgia. All patients belonged to a team of eight German bat researchers who had returned from Cuba 10 days before, where they had investigated bats in caves. Another member of the team had only mild histoplasmosis and was followed in our outpatient clinic. Two scientists who wore their breathing masks continuously during their work in the caves did not fall ill. EXAMINATIONS: Chest X-rays of all in-patients showed pulmonary infiltrates correlating with the severity of their illness. In all patients specific IgG antibodies against Histoplasma capsulatum-antigen were found in the Western Blot assay, confirming the diagnosis of histoplasmosis. TREATMENT: Treatment with oral itraconazole 200 mg b.d was given to four inpatients for 6 weeks, in the fifth patient itraconazole was discontinued because of an increase of liver transaminases. CONCLUSION: Antimycotic treatment of advancing histoplasmosis seems appropriate also in immunocompetent patients. The high number of patients within this group suggests high numbers of Histoplasma capsulatum in the caves. Wearing breathing masks throughout the work in the caves may prevent histoplasmosis even in case of high infectious doses. Pre-travel recommendations for cave researchers have to emphasize the continuous use of breathing masks and vaccination against tetanus and rabies.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Role of Candida in antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

To quantitatively assess the role of Candida species in antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD), stool samples from a total of 395 patients and control subjects were cultured in differential isolation medium: 98 patients had AAD, 93 patients were taking antibiotics but did not have diarrhea (A(+)D(-)), 97 patients were not taking antibiotics but had diarrhea (A(-)D(+)), and 107 patients were control subjects (A(-)D(-)). In addition, secreted aspartyl proteinase (Sap) production was tested. In AAD patients, Candida positivity (77/98) and Candida overgrowth (62/98) were not different from that among A(+)D(-) patients (75/93 [P= .860] and 52/93 [P= .375], respectively). Candida overgrowth among A(-)D(+) patients (40/97, P= .003) was less frequent than among AAD patients, but Candida positivity was not different (80/97, P= .612). In control subjects, Candida positivity and overgrowth were less common than in all other groups. Production of Sap did not differ between patients with AAD and control subjects (P= .568 and P= .590, respectively). Data indicate that elevated Candida counts are a result of antibiotic treatment or diarrhea rather than a cause of AAD.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed2001

[Anisakiasis of the stomach--a case report from Germany].

Anisakiasis or "herring worm disease" is one of the most important parasitic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in Japan. In 1988 Lorenz and Warzok published 8 cases of intestinal anisakiasis in Eastern Germany. In 1988 Spehn et al. reported a case of gastric anisakiasis in an AIDS patient. Here, we describe a case of gastric anisakiasis in Germany with an impressive serious clinical course. The symptoms--acute abdominal cramps, severe chest pain, diarrhoea, sub-febrile temperatures and leucocytosis--followed 4 h after consumption of raw herring, which was homemade pickled in vinegar. The conventional and the endoscopic ultrasonography showed a thickened gastric wall made of mainly thickened submucosa. The larvae of Anisakis in the gastric mucosa were found and extracted endoscopically. Acute and severe abdominal pain after eating raw fish is an indication for early gastroscopy. The endoscopical extraction of possible larvae is the only effective therapy, as anthelmintics against nematodes (mebendazole, albendazole, thiabendazole) are ineffective.

Animals↗