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Biomedical subjects

E Rosenthal

Publications and source records attributed to E Rosenthal.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Transfusion-associated TT virus co-infection in patients with hepatitis C virus is associated with type II mixed cryoglobulinemia but not with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of TT virus (TMV) infection in a series of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, with or without benign (mixed cryoglobulinemia) or malignant (B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL)) lymphoproliferative disease. METHODS: Sixty-six HCV patients were studied, including patients with mixed cryoglobulinemia (n=30), B-NHL (n=15), and no mixed cryoglobulinemia or B-NHL (n=21). All HCV patients had increased transaminase levels and were HCV RNA positive. Patients were considered to have mixed cryoglobulinemia if two successive determinations of their serum cryoglobulin level were above 0.05 g/L. Mixed cryoglobulinemia-negative patients never had mixed cryoglobulins in their serum on multiple determinations. Subjects without HCV infection included 79 patients with histologically proven B-NHL, and 50 healthy blood donors. Serum samples were analyzed for TTV DNA by nested polymerase chain reaction, with two couples of primers in different regions of the genome, in two independent laboratories. RESULTS: In the group of HCV-positive patients, TTV DNA was found in one of 15 (6.7%) patients with B-NHL, and in nine of 51 (17.6%, P = 0.43) of those without B-NHL. Among HCV-positive patients without B-NHL, TTV DNA was more frequently found in those with type II mixed cryoglobulinemia vasculitis than in those without it (six of 16 (37.5%) versus two of 21 (9.5%), P = 0.05). In subjects without HCV infection, TTV DNA was present in 10 of 79 (12.7%) patients with B-NHL and in seven of 50 (14.0%, P = 0.82) blood donors. CONCLUSION: In patients chronically infected with HCV, TTV co-infection: (1) is not associated with the presence of B-NHL; and (2) is more frequently found in patients presenting a type II mixed cryoglobulinemia vasculitis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

The efficacy and safety of stent redilatation in congenital heart disease.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the extent of neointimal proliferation and the safety and efficacy of stent redilatation in patients with stents implanted for aortic coarctation or branch pulmonary artery stenosis. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTING: Tertiary referral centre. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Of 60 patients with Palmaz stents, 12 with coarctation and 12 with branch pulmonary artery stenosis (with 21 stented sites) underwent recatheterisation and stent redilatation. RESULTS: Neointimal thickening > 1 mm was detected in six of the 12 coarctation stents and at nine of the 21 stented sites in branch pulmonary arteries (five of which had been overdilated at implantation). Eight of the coarctation stents were electively underdilated at implantation. Coarctation stent redilatation increased median (range) lumen diameter from 9.2 (6.3-11.1) mm to 11.7 (9.8-14.1) mm (p = 0.002), decreased gradient from 10.5 (0-20) mm Hg to 0.5 (0-15) mm Hg (p = 0.008), and increased the ratio of stent diameter to descending aorta diameter from 0.66 (0.38-1.02) to 0.85 (0.52-1.2) (p = 0.008). Pulmonary artery stent redilatation increased lumen diameter from 6.9 (3.8-13.5) mm to 8.8 (4.8-14.1) mm (p < 0.001), decreased gradient from 24 (2-62) mm Hg to 12 (0-29) mm Hg (p < 0.001), and increased the ratio of stent diameter to diameter of distal pulmonary artery from 0.66 (0.44-1.5) to 0.86 (0.48-1.88) (p = 0.001). Dilatation of one peripheral pulmonary artery stent resulted in rupture of the vessel distal to the stent. CONCLUSIONS: Neointimal proliferation is precipitated by overdilating stents at implantation. Redilatation using balloons matched to distal vessel diameter increases stent lumen size, but may not optimise vessel diameter. Redilatation is effective whether the indication for redilatation is a resistant stenosis at implantation, underexpansion at implantation, neointimal proliferation, or relative stenosis caused by growth.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Visceral leishmaniasis in those infected with HIV: clinical aspects and other opportunistic infections.

Cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in HIV-positive individuals have been reported from most areas of the world where the geographical distributions of the two infections overlap. The majority of the co-infected cases that have been recorded, however, live around the Mediterranean basin. In these subjects, the length of the incubation period of VL is presumably very short, particularly in those who have severe immunodepression. At diagnosis, almost all cases of VL/HIV co-infection have been found to have fewer than 200 CD4+ cells/microl blood, and about 50% meet the AIDS-defining criteria during their first episode of VL. The clinical manifestations of VL in HIV-infected individuals may be similar to those seen in HIV-negative cases; fever, pancytopenia and hepato-splenomegaly, for example, are found in 75% of all the HIV-positive cases. Following the dissemination of the parasites, however, the HIV-positive cases may develop unusual, multi-organ pathology. Almost all the cases of co-infection are very prone to VL relapses, even after carefully managed antileishmanial treatment. The opportunistic infections that are often seen in HIV-positives frequently develop during VL episodes, the signs and symptoms of the leishmaniasis then confusingly overlapping with those of the other infections.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed2002

Impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis in a French cohort of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

The incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-Leishmania coinfections in France was estimated on the basis of the French Hospital Database on HIV, and risk factors for the occurrence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) were analyzed by a multivariate Cox model. VL was diagnosed in 165 of 55,626 HIV-infected patients followed since 1992. The incidence of VL decreased from 11.6+/-1.2 per 10,000 persons-years before 1996 to 6.3+/-0.7 per 10,000 persons-years after 1996, the year when highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was initiated in France. The relative hazard (RH) for development of VL was higher in (1) intravenous drug users versus other transmission groups (RH=1.56; 95% CI, 1.13-2.15), (2) patients living in southern France versus those living in northern France (RH=3.36; 95% CI, 2.44-4.61), and (3) patients who had a CD4 cell count of </=50/mm(3) during their follow-up versus those who did not (RH=6.45; 95% CI, 4.27-9.75) but was lower in (4) patients who received antiretroviral therapy including >/=3 drugs versus those who did not (RH=0.41; 95% CI, 0.26-0.65). We found a significant decrease in the incidence of HIV-Leishmania coinfections after 1996, associated with the introduction of HAART in France.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed2001

Hemodynamic response to continuous infusion of dobutamine in Alagille's syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Alagille's syndrome is a rare condition that is characterized by paucity of interlobular bile ducts and peripheral pulmonary artery stenosis. Liver transplantation in the setting of peripheral pulmonary stenosis and right ventricular hypertension seems to be associated with a higher mortality, which raises the concern that these patients are unable to increase their cardiac output in the immediate posttransplantation period to meet the demands of reperfusion and early graft dysfunction and cope with further increases in pulmonary vascular resistance. METHOD: Cardiac catheterization was performed in 15 children with Alagille's syndrome and peripheral pulmonary artery stenosis to measure the cardiac output response to dobutamine infusion. The cardiac output was measured before and during each increment of infusion of dobutamine at 10 microg/kg/min and 20 microg/kg/min by using a thermodilution catheter placed in the pulmonary artery. RESULTS: There was a significant change in the baseline cardiac index (P<0.001) with an infusion of 20 microg/kg/min of dobutamine with an increase from 4.4(1.0) L/min/m2 to 6.4(1.5) L/min/m2. There was, however, a wide variation between individuals in the increase in cardiac index, ranging from 7.3-95%. There was no correlation between the baseline systolic right ventricular/aortic pressure ratios and the increase in cardiac index (r=0.1086). CONCLUSION: The increase in cardiac index, in response to dobutamine in patients with Alagille's syndrome, is independent of the more conventional measurement of the right ventricular pressure. This method of producing a hemodynamic response is closer to the response that results after liver transplantation, and thus, it may be a better way of predicting the outcome of liver transplantation in these patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Mortality among human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma due to hepatitis C virus in French Departments of Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases, in 1995 and 1997.

Several studies have suggested that the progression of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is more severe in patients infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Two national retrospective multicenter cohort surveys were performed in France that included 17,487 HIV-infected patients during 1995 and 26,497 during 1997. The following data was evaluated: total number of deaths; number of deaths linked to AIDS, cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); and number of deaths related to other (non-HCV--linked) causes. In 1995, the causes of death were as follows: AIDS, 1307 (7.47%); cirrhosis or HCC, 21 (0.12%); and other (non-HCV--linked) causes, 99 (0.56%). In 1997, the causes of deaths were as follows: AIDS, 459 (1.73%); cirrhosis or HCC 36 (0.13%); and other (non-HCV--linked) causes, 48 (0.18%). Comparative results between the 1995 and 1997 surveys showed a dramatic decrease in AIDS-related mortality rates (7.47% vs. 1.73%; P<.001) but not in HCV-related mortality rates (0.06% vs. 0.07%; P=.79). In France, despite the high prevalence of HCV infection in HIV-positive patients, the mortality rate in 1995 and 1997 caused by HCV-related cirrhosis or HCC was low.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed2001

Influence of HLA-DR phenotype on the risk of hepatitis C virus-associated mixed cryoglobulinemia.

OBJECTIVE: Circumstances predisposing hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients to develop mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC), which may manifest as a small-vessel systemic vasculitis (MC vasculitis), remain unclear. Previous studies have failed to demonstrate a clear role of either viral factors (genotype, viral load) or host factors (lymphocytes or immunoglobulin subsets). This study was undertaken to examine a possible role of HLA class II alleles in HCV-associated MC. METHODS: One hundred fifty-eight HCV-infected patients, of whom 76 had MC (56 with type II MC and 20 with type III MC) and 82 did not have MC, were studied prospectively. MC vasculitis was noted in 35 HCV-infected patients with type II IgMkappa-containing cryoglobulins. HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 polymorphism was analyzed by hybridization using allele-specific oligonucleotides, after gene amplification. The odds ratio (OR) was calculated with Woolf's method. Then, using multivariate analysis, demographic, biologic, immunologic, virologic, and liver histologic factors associated with the presence of MC and MC vasculitis were investigated. RESULTS: HLA-DR11 was significantly more frequent in patients with type II MC than in those without MC (41.1% versus 17.1%; OR 3.4, corrected P [Pcorr] = 0.017), regardless of the presence of vasculitis accompanying the MC (37.1% of those with MC vasculitis, 34.1% of those with MC but no vasculitis). HLA-DR7 was less frequent in HCV-infected patients with MC than in those without MC (13.2% versus 30.5%; OR 0.34, P = 0.012, Pcorr not significant), with a particularly lower frequency in those with type II MC and those with MC vasculitis (12.5% and 8.6%, respectively). There was no significant difference in HLA-DQB1 distribution between the different patient groups. By univariate and multivariate analysis, HLA-DR11 was the only positive predictive factor, besides female sex and advanced age, for the presence of MC and HCV-associated MC vasculitis (OR 2.58). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the presence of the DR11 phenotype is associated with a significantly increased risk for the development of type II MC in patients with chronic HCV infection. In contrast, HLA-DR7 appears to protect against the production of type II MC. These results suggest that the host's immune response genes may play a role in the pathogenesis of HCV-associated MC.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Stent implantation for superior vena cava occlusion after the Mustard operation.

A 25-year-old man who had undergone a Mustard repair for complete transposition of the great arteries 21 years previously developed complete occlusion of the superior vena cava and obstruction of the inferior vena cava. Transcatheter recanalization was performed using needle puncture of the superior obstruction followed by stent implantation into both systemic venous pathways with relief of obstructive symptoms.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Impact of urbanization on hydrochemical evolution of groundwater and on unsaturated-zone gas composition in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel.

The coastal city of Tel Aviv was founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The number of its inhabitants and its water consumption increased rapidly. This study analyses a 15-year record (1934-1948) of pre-industrial development of groundwater chemistry in the urban area. Archive data on concentrations of major ions, dissolved gases (CO2 and O2), organic matter, and pH were available for each half-year during the period of 1934-1948. The major factors causing changes in the chemistry of groundwater flowing in three sandy sub-aquifers have been seawater encroachment due to overpumping, and infiltration of effluents from pit-latrine collectors. Influence of these factors decreases with depth. Landward-penetrating seawater passed through clayey coastal sediments, interbedded among sands and calcareous sandstones, and spread into the Kurkar Group aquifer. This has led to exchange of sodium (dominant in seawater) with calcium adsorbed on clay particles, enriching groundwater with calcium. Intensity of cation exchange decreases inland and with depth. Infiltration of pit-latrine effluents has introduced large amounts of ammonium into the unsaturated zone. Its rapid oxidation in unsaturated sediments has caused massive nitrate production, accompanied by pore-water acidification. This process induces dissolution of vadose carbonate, resulting in enrichment of groundwater recharge in calcium. Anthropogenically induced dissolution of calcite in the unsaturated zone has been the major factor for the increase of Ca2+ concentration in groundwater, accounting for about 80% of this increase. In the interface zone, an additional 20% of calcium has been supplied by cation exchange. Owing to pH increase caused by denitrification in the aquifer, Ca(2+)-rich waters supersaturated with calcite could be formed, especially in the capillary fringe of the uppermost sub-aquifer, which could induce calcite precipitation and ultimately lead to the cementation of sandy aquifers. Urban development has caused drastic changes in the gas content in the unsaturated zone and in groundwater. Carbon dioxide was intensively generated by nitrification-denitrification processes, by hydration of urea, to a lesser degree by oxidation of organic matter, and probably by anoxic biodegradation of organics. Between 1934 and 1948, concentrations of CO2 in unsaturated sediment air rose from 3.2% to 7.6%. In the unsaturated zone, oxygen consumption for oxidation of ammonium and organic matter lowered O2 concentrations in sediment air to unusually low values of 3.9-12.9%. Nitrification in the urban unsaturated zone could thus serve as a pump, sucking in atmospheric oxygen at a rate of about 0.3-0.5 g m-2 day-1. The extreme concentrations of CO2 and O2 in unsaturated sediments have been preserved due to production and consumption of gas under conditions of diminishing areas open to the atmosphere, uncovered by buildings and by roads.

Calcium↗
PubMed2001

Atrial flutter ablation: efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a single decapolar electrode to demonstrate bidirectional isthmus block.

AIMS: To evaluate whether a single decapolar electrode is a reliable and cost-effective substitute for the 'Halo' catheter to map the circuit and detect bidirectional isthmus block during atrial flutter (AFL) ablation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-four patients underwent AFL ablation by using the decapolar electrode in the infero-lateral wall of right atrium (group A) while a 'Halo' catheter was used in 11 patients (group B). Both groups had similar clinical characteristics. Anti-clockwise rotation (20 patients), clockwise (3 patients) or both forms of AFL (1 patient) were detected in group A. All patients in group B had anti-clockwise AFL. Bidirectional isthmus block was completed in 22 patients of group A and in 9 of group B (P=NS) while incomplete isthmus block was detected in 2 patients in each group (P=NS). Mean fluoroscopy and procedure time was 27 +/- 47 min, 107 +/- 36 min in group A and 14 +/- 19 min, 114 +/- 65 min in group B (P=NS). AFL relapsed in 3 patients of group A (follow-up 7 +/- 4 months) and in 2 of group B (4 +/- 2 months). CONCLUSION: A single decapolar electrode is a reliable method to map the circuit and demonstrate bidirectional isthmus block during AFL ablation. The cost of the decapolar electrode is a quarter of that of the 'Halo' catheter. This represents a significant saving particularly for centres with a substantial number of AFL ablations.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Emerging perceptions of facial plastic surgery among medical students.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of medical students regarding facial aesthetic surgery and those specialists most likely to perform aesthetic or reconstructive facial surgery. METHODS: A survey was designed based on a review of the literature to assess the desirable characteristics and the perceived role of the facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon (FPRS). The surveys were distributed to 2 populations: medical students from 4 medical schools and members of the general public. RESULTS: A total of 339 surveys were collected, 217 from medical students and 122 from the general public. Medical students and the public had similar responses. The results demonstrated that respondents preferred a male plastic surgeon from the ages of 41 to 50 years old and would look to their family doctor for a recommendation. Facial aesthetic and reconstructive surgery was considered the domain of maxillofacial and general plastic surgeons, not the FPRS. CONCLUSION: Integration of the FPRS into the medical school curriculum may help to improve the perceived role of the specialty within the medical community. It is important for the specialty to communicate to aspiring physicians the dedicated training of an otolaryngologist specializing in FPRS.

Adult↗