Search PubMedSearch

Biomedical subjects

E M Sordillo

Publications and source records attributed to E M Sordillo.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Evaluation of infection control measures in preventing the nosocomial transmission of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a New York City hospital.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended infection control measures implemented in response to an outbreak of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort studies of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and healthcare workers. The study period (January 1989 through September 1992) was divided into period I, before changes in infection control; period II, after aggressive use of administrative controls (eg, rapid placement of TB patients or suspected TB patients in single-patient rooms); and period III, while engineering changes were made (eg, improving ventilation in TB isolation rooms). SETTING: A New York City hospital that was the site of one of the first reported outbreaks of MDR-TB among AIDS patients in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: All AIDS patients admitted during periods I and II. Healthcare workers on nine inpatient units with TB patients and six without TB patients. RESULTS: The epidemic (38 patients) waned during period II and only one MDR-TB patient presented during period III. The MDR-TB attack rate among AIDS patients hospitalized on the same ward on the same days as an infectious MDR-TB patient was 8.8% (19 of 216) during period I, decreasing to 2.6% (5 of 193; P = 0.01) during period II. In a small group of healthcare workers with tuberculin skin test data, conversions during periods II through III were higher on wards with than without TB patients (5 of 29 versus 0 of 15; P = 0.15), although the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Transmission of MDR-TB among AIDS patients decreased markedly after enforcement of readily implementable administrative measures, ending the outbreak. However, tuberculin skin-test conversions among healthcare workers may not have been prevented by these measures. CDC guidelines for prevention of nosocomial transmission of TB should be implemented fully at all US hospitals.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections

Chronic bacterial enteropathy in patients with AIDS.

Enteric infection with adherent bacteria has been seen in a person with chronic diarrhea who was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. In this study, adherent bacteria were seen in 17% of all patients with AIDS evaluated during a 1-year period. The infection was centered in the cecum and right colon. Three distinct histopathologic patterns of adherence were observed: attaching and effacing lesions, bacteria intercalated between microvilli, and aggregates of bacteria more loosely attached to the damaged epithelium. The infections were associated with weight loss (P < .005) and peripheral blood CD4+ cell of counts < 100/mm3 (P < .05). Eight of 9 patients treated with antibiotics had symptomatic improvement. Bacterial cultures of rectal biopsies frozen at endoscopy yielded Escherichia coli in 12 of 18 cases; aggregative adherence was seen in 6. Isolates from 2 cases hybridized with a DNA probe encoding aggregative properties. These results suggest that chronic infection with adherent bacteria may produce a syndrome of AIDS-associated diarrhea and wasting.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of Mycobacterium haemophilum, an emerging pathogen in immunocompromised patients.

OBJECTIVE: To describe 13 infections caused by Mycobacterium haemophilum. DESIGN: Identification of patients by microbiologic record review, followed by medical record review and a case-control study. SETTING: Seven metropolitan hospitals in New York. PATIENTS: All patients with M. haemophilum infections diagnosed between January 1989 and September 1991 and followed through September 1992. Surviving patients were enrolled in the case-control study. RESULTS: Infection with M. haemophilum causes disseminated cutaneous lesions, bacteremia, and diseases of the bones, joints, lymphatics, and the lungs. Improper culture techniques may delay laboratory diagnosis, and isolates may be identified incorrectly as other mycobacterial species. Persons with profound deficits in cell-mediated immunity have an increased risk for infection. These include persons with human immunodeficiency virus infection or lymphoma and those receiving medication to treat immunosuppression after organ transplant. Various antimycobacterial regimens have been used with apparent success to treat M. haemophilum infection. However, standards for defining antimicrobial susceptibility to the organism do not exist. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should consider this pathogen when evaluating an immunocompromised patient with cutaneous ulcerating lesions, joint effusions, or osteomyelitis. Microbiologists must be familiar with the fastidious growth requirements of this organism and screen appropriate specimens for mycobacteria using an acid-fast stain. If acid-fast bacilli are seen, M. haemophilum should be considered as the infecting organism as well as other mycobacteria, and appropriate media and incubation conditions should be used.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections

Tuberculosis in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children. A family infection.

OBJECTIVE: To study the epidemiologic and clinical features of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children and their families. PATIENTS AND CLINICAL SETTING: Sixty families of children with HIV infection, children of HIV indeterminate status, and seroreverters underwent follow-up in a comprehensive multidisciplinary program for children and families. METHODS: Infection with M tuberculosis was diagnosed based on a positive Mantoux test result or a positive culture. RESULTS: Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection was diagnosed in seven children (three infected with HIV, three seroreverters, and one uninfected sibling of an infected child) from four families (6%). All infections were detected in the period from March 1990 through January 1992. Six of seven children had a history of exposure to M tuberculosis in an HIV-infected adult (parent) who was an intravenous drug user, homeless, and/or noncompliant with the medical regimen. All HIV-infected children and one seroreverter had pulmonary tuberculosis. One child died of complications of tuberculosis and HIV infection. The M tuberculosis isolated from this child was resistant to isoniazid, rifampin, and streptomycin sulfate. CONCLUSIONS: Tuberculosis is a growing problem among inner-city children born to HIV-infected parents. Children infected with HIV in this study had symptomatic and severe disease with tuberculosis, which reflected the drug susceptibility pattern of M tuberculosis seen in our community.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections

An outbreak of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among hospitalized patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Since 1990 several clusters of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis have been identified among hospitalized patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). We investigated one such cluster in a voluntary hospital in New York. METHODS: We compared exposures among 18 patients with AIDS in whom tuberculosis resistant to isoniazid and streptomycin was diagnosed from January 1989 through April 1990 (the case patients) with exposures among 30 control patients who had AIDS and tuberculosis susceptible to isoniazid, streptomycin, or both. We also compared exposures among the 14 case patients hospitalized during the six months before the diagnosis of tuberculosis (the exposure period) with those among 44 control patients with AIDS matched for duration of hospitalization. Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were typed with analysis of restriction-fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP). RESULTS: Case patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis were significantly more likely than controls with drug-susceptible tuberculosis to have been hospitalized during their exposure periods (14 of 18 vs. 10 of 30) (odds ratio, 7.0; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.6 to 36; P = 0.006). Case patients hospitalized during their exposure periods were significantly more likely to have been hospitalized on the same ward as a patient with infectious drug-resistant tuberculosis than were either controls with drug-susceptible tuberculosis hospitalized during their exposure periods or controls matched for duration of hospitalization (13 of 14 vs. 2 of 10 and 23 of 44) (odds ratio, 52; 95 percent confidence interval, 3.1 to 2474; P less than 0.001; and odds ratio, infinity; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.4 to infinity; P = 0.005, respectively). Among those hospitalized on the same ward, the rooms of case patients were closer to that of the nearest patient with infectious tuberculosis than were the rooms of controls matched for duration of hospitalization. M. tuberculosis isolates from 15 of 16 case patients had identical patterns on RFLP analysis. Of 16 patients' rooms tested with air-flow studies, only 1 had the recommended negative-pressure ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is readily transmitted among hospitalized patients with AIDS. Physicians must be alert to this danger and must enforce adherence to the measures recommended to prevent nosocomial transmission of tuberculosis.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Tumor localization of the metabolically trapped radiolabeled substrates 2-deoxy-D-glucose and aminocyclopentanecarboxylic acid in human melanoma heterotransplants.

Analysis of the accumulation of metabolically trapped radiolabeled substrates in normal and malignant tissues may be useful for studying biochemical processes in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET). If labeled with the short-lived, positron-emitting radionuclide carbon-11 (T1/2 = 20.4 min), the glucose analog, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), and the synthetic amino acid, aminocyclopentanecarboxylic acid (ACPC), may be useful for studying glucose utilization and amino acid transport in vivo. This study evaluated the biodistribution of the C-14 labeled analogues of these compounds in nude mice bearing human malignant melanoma heterotransplants. The data suggest that both 2-DG and ACPC accumulate in tumor tissue within 45 min.

Amino Acids

Tumor localization of alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) in human melanoma heterotransplants.

The nude mouse bearing a human tumor heterotransplant is a useful model for studying the tumor localization of radiolabeled compounds. The biological tissue distribution of carbon 14-labeled alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB), a synthetic, nonmetabolized amino acid, was determined in nude mice bearing human malignant melanoma heterotransplants in order to investigate the feasibility of using carbon 11 (t 1/2, 20.4 min)-labeled AIB for the visualization of human melanoma in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET). Our laboratory has previously demonstrated the use of 11C-labeled AIB as a tumor-imaging agent in a number of animal tumor models. The mean relative concentration of 14C-labeled AIB in tumor tissue at 45 min was 1.95 in this melanoma model. Tumor/blood and tumor/muscle ratios at 45 min postinjection were 5.42 and 12.2, respectively. These values suggest that 11C-labeled AIB may be useful for the in vivo study of malignant melanoma in humans. Alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB), a synthetic, nonmetabolized amino acid, is thought to be actively accumulated into viable cells primarily by the A-type, or "alanine-prefering", amino acid transport system. AIB has been labeled with the short-lived, positron-emitting radionuclide, carbon 11 (t 1/2, 20.4 min), using a modified Bucherer-Strecker synthesis for amino acids. 11C-labeled AIB has been used to visualize tumors in dogs bearing spontaneous cancers, such as adenocarcinoma, lymphosarcoma, and osteogenic sarcoma, by utilizing positron-emission tomography (PET) and high-energy gamma (HEG) scintigraphy at the Sloan-Kettering Institute.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aminoisobutyric Acids

Primary hemangiosarcoma of the spleen: report of four cases.

Four cases of primary splenic hemangiosarcoma are described. The most common presenting symptoms were recurrent, fever, malaise, and abdominal pain. Three patients also had complaints referable to the urinary tract. Severe hemolytic anemia with bizarre or fragmented red blood cells on peripheral smear was noted in three patients, in two cases, for more than 1 year before diagnosis. Two patients had been treated for mammary carcinoma with ionizing radiation 10 years before developing hemangiosarcoma of the spleen. One patient had multiple congenital hemangiomas present from birth, and is thought to have developed hemangiosarcoma in a previously existing benign hemangioma. None of our patients survived more than 7 months after the diagnosis of hemangiosarcoma. The importance of early detection and treatment of this tumor is discussed.

Aged

Lymphangiosarcoma after filarial infection.

A case of lymphangiosarcoma of a lower extremity is described in a patient with chronic lymphedema of that leg from a filarial infection in childhood. Histologically, the neoplasm resembled lymphangiosarcomas that arise in arms that become lymphedematous after mastectomies, but was different in that it also contained areas of calcification consistent with prior filarial infection. Calcifications were also present in muscle uninvolved by the lymphangiosarcoma of this case. The prolonged survival of this patient is unlike that of most patients with lymphangiosarcoma, which is generally shorter. Although lymphedema after filariasis is common, this is the first case of a lymphangiosarcoma arising in chronic lymphedema of filarial origin.

Filariasis

Chlorozotocin (DCNU)--induced pulmonary toxicity.

A case of pulmonary toxicity after chlorozotocin (DCNU) is described. This patient developed shortness of breath, nonproductive cough, and interstitial infiltrates after his third dose of DCNU. This was documented on pulmonary function tests which showed a reduction in vital capacity and pulmonary diffusion capacity. Similar findings have been reported in restrictive pulmonary disease associated with other nitrosoureas. This is the first case reported of pulmonary toxicity induced by DCNU.

Fibrosarcoma