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Biomedical subjects

H C Meissner

Publications and source records attributed to H C Meissner.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

A simultaneous outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus and parainfluenza virus type 3 in a newborn nursery.

Over a 3-week period, 20 of 34 (59%) infants in a newborn nursery developed nosocomial viral respiratory tract disease. Either respiratory syncytial virus (seven infants) or parainfluenza virus type 3 (five) or both (two) were demonstrated in respiratory secretions from 14 of the 20 symptomatic patients. Symptoms in the 20 infants included rhinitis (15 infants), cough (14), apnea (eight), pulmonary infiltrates (seven), and fever (six). There were no differences in symptoms between children infected with respiratory syncytial virus alone, with parainfluenza virus alone, or with both viruses concurrently. Patients were clustered in the nursery by agent: infants with the same virus tended to share contiguous bed spaces, supporting the concept that parainfluenza virus as well as respiratory syncytial virus can be transmitted from patient to patient. In addition to this risk for contiguous bed spaces, the presence of a nasogastric tube was associated with risk of illness (P less than 0.05). In the presence of a nursery outbreak of respiratory tract disease, more than one virus may circulate concurrently, and an individual patient may be infected simultaneously by more than one virus.

Boston↗
PubMed1983

Elevated antibody levels against measles virus P protein in sera of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Immune precipitation followed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and densitometry was used to estimate immunoglobulin G antibody levels against the H, P, and M proteins of measles virus in the sera of 24 patients with multiple sclerosis and 24 serologically matched controls. Of the 24 multiple sclerosis sera, 5 showed a statistically significant increase in antibody titer to the P protein as compared with the control sera. Antibody titers to the H and M proteins in multiple sclerosis and control sera were not significantly different.

Antibodies, Viral↗
PubMed1977

Visualization and mapping of late nuclear adenovirus RNA.

Nuclei of KB cells harvested at late stages of productive infection with adenovirus type 2 (Ad2) harbor RNA molecules which measure up to 13 mum in length, as determined by electron microscopy of denatured RNA. While some of the molecules display features of secondary structure that are characteristic for precursor rRNA, our interest was in those showing almost no intramolecular folding. When hybridized to double stranded viral DNA under conditions which favor RNA:DNA duplex formation, nuclear AD2 RNA displaces the homologous DNA region and generates R loop structures whose size is proportional to the length of the hybridizing RNA. Slowly sedimenting RNA forms small R loops, whereas RNA of high sedimentation velocity generates loops that span a large proportion of the DNA length. Using SV40 sequences within Ad2+ND4 hybrid DNA as a position marker, we oriented many of the R loops on the conventional Ad2 map. Our analysis was restricted to the most abundant sequences of late Ad2 nuclear RNA participating in R loop formation. A small but significant proportion of large RNA generates loops between map positions 0.3 and 0.9. The much more frequent RNA of intermediate size (although larger than mRNA) hybridizes with midpoints near map positions 0.55 and 0.88--that is, near the gene locations for hexon and fiber. Our findings are compatible with the idea that the nuclear RNAs visualized in this study are intermediates in a processing pathway leading to mature forms of late Ad2 mRNA.

Adenoviridae↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Respiratory syncytial virus immunoprophylaxis: impact on epidemiology.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand the spectrum of disease among hospitalised children infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and to assess the potential impact of passive immunoprophylaxis on RSV hospitalisation rates, we analysed all patients infected with RSV who were admitted to a paediatric teaching hospital over a 3-year period. DESIGN: We performed a retrospective chart review of all paediatric patients from whom RSV was isolated between October 1, 1994 and April 30, 1997. RESULTS: A total of 255 children infected with RSV were hospitalised during this 3-year period. 246 (96%) patients had community acquired infections and 9 (4%) had nosocomial infections. Excluding patients with nosocomial infections, the mean length of hospital stay was 4.7 days. 70 (28%) children were admitted to the intensive care unit, 32 (13%) were intubated and there was a total of 4 deaths (1.6%). 48% of hospitalised patients were in 1 of 4 previously recognised high risk groups. Of the 52% of patients not in a defined high risk category, 42% were otherwise healthy infants (>6 weeks of age) and 10% had chronic underlying illnesses generally not associated with an increased risk of severe RSV disease. Patients not in a defined high risk category accounted for 46% of total hospital days. CONCLUSION: In order to reduce overall RSV hospitalisation rates and the economic burden to society, programmes for disease prevention must be directed at healthy infants as well as children in recognised high risk categories. Even if all currently eligible candidates were to have received passive immunoprophylaxis, which yields about a 50% reduction in hospitalisation rates, the number of RSV hospitalisations in our 3-year study would have been reduced by no more than 9%. Without development and widespread use of an effective RSV vaccine, a major impact on RSV-induced hospitalisation is unlikely.

Female↗