Formolised yolk sac antigen in early diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Dournon.
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Asiatic dengue was detected in nine tourists. In eight patients it was of the classical benign type, the ninth case being associated with severe thrombopenia (4 000/mm3), but without signs of shock. A brief summary is given of the physiopathology of the hemorrhagic forms of the disease: acquired sensitivity from a primary attack and reinfection with a heterologous virus; selection of virulent strains by an atypical vector; genetic recombination producing a strongly pathogenic virus.
During the summer of 1980, 3 sporadic cases of Legionnaires disease (ML) were recognized in the northern suburbs of Paris. The clinical picture was characterized by an extensive pneumonia, high fever with repeated rigors (3 cases), a confusional state (2 cases), and transitory watery diarrhea (3 cases). Blood cultures, evidence of bacterial antigens in blood or urine, and serology notably for chlamydia and mycoplasma pneumoniae were all negative. The diagnosis of ML (serotype I) was confirmed by serology using indirect immunofluorescence against Legionella pneumophila (LP) with an antigen prepared by Taylor. In one patient treated early with erythromycin (4 g/day), there was a quick and favorable response. Two other patients died, and in their case erythromycin therapy was started late. At necropsy, the lesions were solely thoracic, and were characterized by an alveolitis with many macrophages, and intense leukocytosis, and rich in fibrin; in one case, extensive fibrosis was noted; in the other, LP was diagnosed by direct and indirect immunofluorescence on a lung specimen. In the pneumology department of Hôpital Avicenne, two other patients with acute pneumonias and similar clinical and radiological pictures had elevated titres to LP (1/64), but they did not rise or fall. The diagnosis of ML is probably nevertheless, particularly as the serology was negative for both Mycoplasma pneumoniae and the Chlamydias. Two of the three cases presented were among seventeen acute febrile pneumonias admitted to the pneumology department of Hôpital Avicenne between the 1st of July and the 1st of October 1980, showing the relative frequency of this infection.
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The first case of legionnaires' disease indigenous to France is reported. Since rapid bacteriological and/or serological diagnostic procedures are lacking, the disease should be suspected clinically in patients presenting with febrile pneumonia typically associated with neurological, digestive and renal disorders. Antibiotic treatment with erythromycin should be initiated as early as possible.
Peripheral neuropathies were the presenting feature of an IgA lambda myeloma in a 61-year-old man and a mixed cryoglobulinaemia in a 46-year-old woman. A spectacular improvement in these symptoms followed treatment including large volume plasma exchanges with appropriate chemotherapy. This efficacy of repeated plasmapheresis leads to a discussion of the possible mechanisms of these neuropathies.
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A double paraneoplasic syndrome with hypersecretion of ADH and ACTH revealed the presence of a small cell bronchial cancer in a man aged 62 years. Water and electrolyte anomalies due to the hypersecretions were of such a degree that an occlusive syndrome occurred. Very high levels of ADH and ACTH were found in the tumoral tissue. The measurement of these levels is rarely conducted at the present time but was able to define the mechanism of abnormal secretion of these two hormones in this case.
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Monoclonal antibody II-6-18 recognizes a serogroup-1-specific Legionella pneumophila antigenic determinant which has been shown to be virulence-associated. We previously reported the physicochemical characterization by means of a quantitative fluorometric assay of monoclonal antibody II-6-18 binding to L. pneumophila, and its implications concerning the nature of the antigen. We describe here the isolation and the purification of the antigen by chemical and immunological methods, followed by its partial chemical analysis. The results demonstrate that the epitope--an immunodominant carbohydrate which includes a fucosamine-like residue--is part of the cell wall lipopolysaccharide (LPS). It is localized in the polysaccharide moiety of the LPS which contains KDO, rhamnose, mannose, glucosamine and an unidentified aminodideoxyhexose X1, but no heptose. The aminodideoxyhexose X1 could be fucosamine and is probably the immunodominant residue in the epitope, localized, at least partially, at the end of the polysaccharide chain.
In the majority of cases, meningoradiculitis consecutive to tick bite most probably belongs to Lyme disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease may be limited to the primary, though inconstant, stage of cutaneous migratory erythema, or it may develop into cardiac and, mostly, neurological disorders. The nervous system involvement, which we observed in 7 patients, mainly consists of peripheral motor neuropathy of moderate severity and sometimes limited to the cranial nerves, associated with very severe radicular pain regularly heralding radicular deficit. Lyme disease predominates in a rural environment, and most patients live near wooded areas where ticks parasitize numerous mammals. The diagnosis, suggested by the socio-environmental context, the clinical features and the results of CSF examination, is confirmed by serology at a 1/256 dilution. Tetracyclines are effective in the initial stage, but intravenous penicillin is necessary in the secondary stage and to reduce the risk of arthritis and also perhaps neuropsychiatric disorders at a late stage.
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