Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Lombardo.
The authors mention many tests to study sperm function. On their opinion, the best model to evaluate spermo-oocyte interaction is the in vitro fertilization but it cannot be considered a test for ethical and practical problems. To overcome these problems they propose the Salt Stored Zona Assay to evaluate the spermatozoa.
Infertility afflicts 10-15% of the couples and the incidence is progressively increasing. There are many possible causes for infertility, but immunological factors are among the most recently proposed causes. Once have ascertained that couple's infertility problem is due to sperm antibodies, the next obvious step is to attempt some form of therapy. In this paper we review the various classic and up-to-date methods of management of immunologic infertility.
The authors, basing on their own experience and after a wide review of the literature, analyse the incidence and the etiopathogenesis of the relapses after surgical operations for gastro-esophageal reflux. Furthermore they point out the actual trends in diagnosis and medical therapy and the indications for surgical therapy.
Syphilis is still a quite common infection often lacking clinical symptoms and sometimes ignored. Serological tests have peculiar importance in order to settle the diagnosis and therapy. Traditional tests as VDRL and TPHA cannot clearly define the clinical pattern because these tests remain positive for a long period of time. Moreover they can prove the recovery of the patients only if they continue to give low titres. The immunofluorescence test FTA ABS, that raised interest at its outset, has low sensitivity against IgM specific antibodies and defines serological state of patients only in 50% of the cases. The reading of this test remains subjective. The authors intend to verify the importance to detect the IgM specific antibodies to assume medical and legal decisions in unknown subjects, without clinical knowledge. 20,000 sera of normal subjects and of risk group have been assayed. Specific IgM are absent in 60 clinically recovered subjects with VDRL and TPHA still positive, specific IgM are present in 15 cases of Syphilis under treatment and also in 15 subjects with unknown Syphilis. The results show that: 1) IgM specific antibodies for Syphilis are not detectable in patients under a long term antibiotic treatment while the traditional serological tests (VDRL, TPHA) are positive; 2) they are present in patients under treatment with still active infection; 3) they are also present in patients with ignored infection, never treated. In conclusion the Authors consider important to include in the panel of Syphilis testing new assays for the detection of specific IgM antibodies. This is particularly important in subjects under treatment and also in unknown subjects.
Direct tests for antisperm antibody detection are considered one of the first steps in the screening of a suspected male immunological infertility especially when one of the assisted fertilization protocols is being considered. With these techniques we can detect the presence of antisperm antibodies bound to the sperm surface. In this work we report the results of a laboratory correlation study carried out on the three direct techniques: IgG-MAR Test, the IgG-Latex Sperm MAR Test and the IgG-IgA-IgM-Immunobead Test. We analyzed data on 96 subjects, examined in our laboratory for a suspected antisperm antibody pathology. The three techniques were carried out in a blind experimental protocol by different technicians and the main results can be summarized as a strict correlation with regard to percentage and degree of positivity and a poor correlation with regard to the localization of the marker of the immune reaction (red blood cells, latex particles, polyacrylamide spherules).
The authors report trials carried out in the preparation of semen for homologous artificial insemination in subjects with antisperm autoantibodies. The tests have demonstrated that swim-up is not able to select spermatozoa free of antibodies bound to the sperm surface. All the experiments of migration, dilution, antigenic competition and cryoconservation, carried out to evaluate the theoretical possibility of a better recovery of non "immunologically compromised" spermatozoa, have confirmed such negative results both with the Immunobead Test and Cytofluorimetric analysis.
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Registered nurses (RNs) and clinical pharmacists in the Hematology-Oncology Clinic at Walter Reed Army Medical Center conducted a descriptive study to determine the effectiveness and safety of using indwelling peripheral intravenous catheters (pics) for daily administration of various chemotherapeutic agents given intermittently over a 3-5 day period to outpatients. Eighty-nine adult outpatients requiring daily doses of chemotherapy including Fluorouracil (5-FU) (Solopak, Elk Grove Village, IL), Leucovorin (Immunex, Seattle, WA), Cisplatin (CDDP) (Bristol-Meyers, Princeton, NJ), Etoposide (VP-16), (Gensia, Irving, CA), Topotecan (SmithKline Beecham, Philadelphia, PA), or Taxol (Mead Johnson, Princeton, NJ), plus antiemetics were studied. Vialon 20-, 22-, or 24-gauge indwelling PICs (Becton Dickinson, Sandy, UT), were placed. Approximately 80% of patients successfully completed treatment with the original PIC in place. Daily flushing of the PIC with 2 ml [corrected] of Heplock U100 (Elkins-Sinn, Cherry Hill, NJ), maintained Heplock patency.