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Biomedical subjects

G Schiffman

Publications and source records attributed to G Schiffman.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Persistence of pneumococcal antibodies after immunization in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Antibody levels to 12 different pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides as well as the combined mean antibody level were measured in 19 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at 1, 2 and 3 years after immunization with a polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine and compared to 5 normal control subjects immunized at the same time. The mean levels in the 19 SLE patients were lower in all 3 years but the difference reached significance only in Year 1. At 3 years, 8 of the 19 SLE patients had levels below that considered to be protective and one such patient developed a pneumococcal pneumonia.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗
PubMed1984

Effect of TEPC-183 plasmacytoma on resistance of passively or actively immunized BALB/c mice to infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae.

This study focuses on the effect of TEPC-183 (tetramethylpentadecane)-induced plasmacytoma on resistance of mice to infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae type III. Vaccination of normal or of TEPC-183-bearing mice with either a polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine (Pnu-Imune) or purified polysaccharide type III protects both against challenge with live S. pneumoniae. However, a 38-fold increase in susceptibility of the tumor-bearing mice over that of controls was observed. Immunized splenectomized mice were ten times more susceptible to infection than were immunized normal mice. However, this increased susceptibility of splenectomized mice could be overcome by passively administered antibody. In passive protection experiments, antisera obtained from normal and TEPC-183-bearing or from cyclophosphamide-treated mice were almost equally protective. A 6-fold increase of antibody (133 ng of antibody), however, was required to protect TEPC-183-bearing mice against challenge with 500 organisms, as compared with the 22 ng of antibody required to protect normal mice, indicative of defective host defense mechanisms in addition to the lower production of antibody in the TEPC-183-bearing mice. In contrast, mice bearing an equal tumor load of Sarcoma 37 behaved similarly to normal mice, showing that the increased susceptibility to infection was due to TEPC-183, a particularly immunosuppressive tumor.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

The relationship of maternal antibody levels to post-cesarean section endometritis.

One hundred eight pneumococcal polysaccharide antibody levels were determined by radioimmunoassay preoperatively in 18 patients who underwent elective repeat cesarean section. Eight patients developed post-cesarean section endometritis, and 10 did not. The endometritis group did not vary significantly from the noninfected group in preoperative hematocrit, social status, number of previous pregnancies, maternal and newborn weights, length of operation, and Apgar scores. Mean antibody levels in the endometritis group were significantly lower than those in the control group (49 versus 103 ng/ml; p less than 0.05). Mean antibody levels for the six serotypes in the endometritis group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p less than 0.05). This study indicated that a healthy maternal immune system may play an important role in preventing post-cesarean section morbidity. Pneumococcal polysaccharide antibody levels may be used in pregnancy to assess the risk for post-cesarean section infections.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Pneumococcal vaccine in normal children. Primary and secondary vaccination.

A pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine containing 50 micrograms of each of 14 pneumococcal types was administered to 79 children 2 to 5 years of age. In earlier studies, 52 of these children had received pneumococcal vaccine; 27 had received a placebo. Local reactions were significantly greater in the reimmunized group. Antibody response to the vaccine was similar in both groups. Mean fold rises to most vaccine components were at least twofold. The response to specific pneumococcal types was unrelated to the frequency with which each type causes illness. Response to type 6 continued to be poor for children up to age 5 years. A vaccine with improved immunogenicity must be developed before widespread use in normal children is advocated. However, the 14-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine currently available is moderately immunogenic in children by age 2 years and should be given to patients with increased risk of pneumococcal illness at that time.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Antibody response to pneumococcal vaccine in patients with solid tumors and lymphomas.

Ninety patients with solid tumors or lymphomas were immunized with a polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine. Pre- and postimmunization antibody titers were determined by radioimmunoassay. Treated patients with lymphoma had poor antibody response whether on or off chemotherapy. Patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia had the lowest antibody titers of all patients groups. Patients with solid tumors had antibody responses which were similar to those of the control population. Those patients who received sequential chemotherapy and immunization had a tendency for higher postimmunization titers than those patients who received simultaneous chemotherapy and immunization, but the difference was not significant. This study suggests that patients with solid tumors would be expected to benefit from pneumococcal immunization, whereas patients with lymphoma immunized after receiving treatment initially would not be expected to develop protective antibody levels. Recovery of antibody formation in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which may occur in patients with Hodgkin disease, remains to be determined.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗
PubMed1983

Immunologic responses of children to serious infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Antibody responses (as measured by radioimmunoassay), alterations in serum levels of complement, and the presence of circulating immune complexes (as measured by the fluid-phase C1Q-binding assay, the fluid-phase conglutinin assay, and the activation of C1 were evaluated in 15 children after meningitis and/or bacteremia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The ages of the children ranged from two months to 16 years; the duration of follow-up ranged from 18 to 189 days (mean, 78 days). Increases in levels of homotypic antibody were found in only three (25%) of the 12 children in whom this response could be assessed, and all of these responses were transient. Eight (53%) of the 15 children had evidence of a heterotypic antibody response to S pneumoniae serotypes other than those causing their infections. The activation of C1 and C1q-binding activity were detected at the early stage of disease and were generally transient. The result of the fluid-phase conglutinin assay was positive for 14 (93%) of the 15 children later in the course of disease; this result was consistently positive throughout the follow-up period in the majority of children. Depressed concentrations of C4 were noted in nine children, depressed levels of C3 in four, and depressed levels of factor B in two.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Response of traumatized splenectomized patients to immediate vaccination with polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine.

In recent years the syndrome of overwhelming post-splenectomy sepsis has been increasingly reported in adults. Since more than 50% of these infections are caused by pneumococcus these post-splenectomy patients are considered a suitable group to receive the pneumococcal vaccine. Previous studies of the response obtained in post-splenectomy patients have been conflicting and we found no study that looked at the response to immediate vaccination in this group of patients. Sixteen consecutive multitraumatized patients received polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine 0.5 ml IM within 72 hours of splenectomy and 10 normal controls were given 0.5 cc polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine. Patients received an average of 19.2 units of blood and blood products; seven were on steroids for concomitant head injury. Antibody was measured by the radioimmune assay. Most of the subjects of both groups responded to at least seven of the 12 measured antigens and no patient in the control group and only one in the splenectomized group responded to all 12 antigens. When rate of response to individual serotypes was compared no difference was found between the two groups. Comparison of geometric mean fold rise and fold rise between the two groups for each of the 12 serotypes revealed essentially no difference. We conclude the response to polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine among polytrauma splenectomized patients is similar to that of normal controls, and that the vaccine can be administered immediately post-splenectomy.

Abdominal Injuries↗
PubMed1983

Humoral immune response in chinchillas to the capsular polysaccharides of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Vaccines made from the capsular polysaccharides of Streptococcus pneumoniae have been shown to reduce the incidence of pneumococcal disease in certain populations and have recently been evaluated for their ability to elicit protection against experimental pneumococcal otitis media in a chinchilla model. In this study, chinchillas were vaccinated with a dodecavalent preparation of pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides (PCP) to obtain more information on the immunogenicity of these polysaccharide antigens. All 12 PCP types elicited an antibody response, but the optimum PCP dose and the kinetics of the antibody response varied among types. Immunological paralysis was demonstrated with an immunogenic dose of PCP after primary immunization with a large PCP dose (25 micrograms or more). Pertussis vaccine acted as neither an immunoadjuvant nor an immunosuppressant in the serum antibody response to type 7F PCP in chinchillas.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Pneumococcal vaccine in elderly patients with COPD.

Antibody levels to 12 serotypes of the 14 valent pneumococcal vaccine were measured in 12 patients (mean age of 70) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), approximately one year postvaccination and in 17 additional patients with COPD (mean age 70) who were not vaccinated. In the vaccinated group, the geometric mean antibody concentration (GMAC) 13 months postvaccination was above the presumed postvaccination minimally protective level (250 to 300 ng of antibody nitrogen per milliliter) for all serotypes except 6A and 19F. Antibody levels exceeded 700 ng for nine of 12 types. The GMAC for all 12 types was 927. In the nonvaccinated group, GMAC were slightly higher than seen with healthy younger persons (395 vs 217). It is concluded that elderly persons with COPD have adequate antibody titers for at least one year after vaccination.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Long-term persistence of antibody following immunization with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.

Thirty-seven healthy volunteers who received a pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine were tested 4, 5, or 6 years after immunization for circulating type-specific pneumococcal antibody by radioimmunoassay of their sera. Each volunteer was immunized with one of four different pneumococcal vaccines containing 50 micrograms of each of 6, 8, 9, or 13 capsular polysaccharides; a few volunteers received octavalent or tridecavalent pneumococcal vaccines combined with bivalent influenza virus vaccine in a single syringe. Four years after immunization, the mean antibody level was 90% of the level achieved 4 weeks after vaccination. Among volunteers tested 5 years after immunization (including three 6 years after vaccination), the mean antibody level was 76% of that 4 weeks after inoculation. These findings confirm the long-term persistence of vaccine-induced type-specific pneumococcal antibodies and suggest that the interval between repeated doses of pneumococcal vaccine should be at least 5 years.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Antibody responses after immunization with polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine containing 10, 25, or 50 micrograms of 14 polysaccharide types per dose.

Immune responses were determined to three different doses of a pneumococcal vaccine which contained 10, 25, or 50 micrograms of 14 polysaccharide types (1, 3, 4, 6A, 6B, 7F, 8, 9N, 12F, 14, 18C, 19F, 20, and 23F) per dose. Pre- and 4-weeks postvaccination sera were examined by radioimmunoassay. Ratios of geometric mean titers (GMT) showed a greater than threefold increase of antibodies to each type of polysaccharide regardless of the dose of antigen. The post-GMT was highest to 12 of 14 types in recipients of the 25-micrograms vaccine. Subjects in the group receiving a 25-micrograms dose of each antigen showed more two- and fourfold titer increases than did subjects in the group receiving 10- and 50-micrograms doses, but, in general, seroconversion rates were similar in all the groups. All GMT values in the 25-micrograms vaccine group were well above what is currently considered to be the protective level of antibody. Local reactions, overall, were low in all groups. Pain, induration, and tenderness at the site of injection, which were greatest in recipients of the 50-micrograms dose/antigen, were progressively lower with the 25- and 10-micrograms dose/antigen.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Pneumococcal vaccination of recipients of bone marrow transplants.

A 14-valent pneumococcal vaccine was administered to 39 recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplants, and their type-specific antibody responses were compared with normal control subjects. Preimmunization antibody levels in patients were twofold to 12-fold lower than those levels in control subjects for all serotypes. Mean postimmunization antibody levels for each serotype were also considerably lower in patients (range, 56 to 859 ng of antibody nitrogen per milliliter) than in control subjects (range, 727 to 5,626 ng/mL). Poor antibody responses were primarily associated with early vaccination after transplantation, corticosteroid therapy for graft-v-host disease and other illnesses, and the male sex. Antibody responses of patients not given corticosteroids and vaccinated more than seven months after transplantation improved with time after transplantation. Postvaccination infection occurred in five patients who were vaccinated early after transplantation. Pneumococcal vaccination has limited potential for providing protection in marrow transplant recipients except in the cases of those patients who are not receiving corticosteroids and are vaccinated more than seven months after transplantation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and radioimmunoassay for determination of anti-pneumococcal polysaccharide antibodies.

Antibodies against pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide types 1, 3, 6A, 7F, 8 and 9N were determined before and 4 weeks after pneumococcal vaccination by both enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and radioimmunoassay (RIA) in 49 children, 42 of whom had been splenectomized. Using linear regression analysis a significant correlation between total antibody concentrations determined by ELISA and RIA was found for all 6 antigens (p less than 0.001 for each). The degree of correlation varied between types, antibodies against type 3 showing the best concordance, those against type 6A the poorest. In 84% of the samples assayed both the RIA and the ELISA determined antibody concentrations were either above (55%) or below (29%) the hypothetical protective antibody concentration.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Posttraumatic splenic replantation in children.

Previous work in our laboratories showed that canine omental replantation of splenic wafers leads to reproducible viability, restoration of filtrative function, bacterial clearance, and normal antibody formation. An identical technique has been employed in children whose spleen could not be repaired since 1979. During a 3-yr follow-up viability of the replanted segments was documented with return of filtrative function, normal immunoglobulin, and antibody response. Splenic preservation through operative repair or selective nonoperative observation should remain the primary goal after splenic trauma. If this is not possible, splenic replantation represents an alternative approach in the treatment of splenic trauma.

Adolescent↗