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Biomedical subjects

H Taelman

Publications and source records attributed to H Taelman.

88 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Heterogeneity of human eosinophils. II. Variability of respiratory burst activity related to cell density.

Recent work has suggested that there may be heterogeneity amongst human eosinophils. In order to study this further, blood and tissue eosinophils were separated by density gradient centrifugation in discontinuous gradients of metrizamide. Blood eosinophils were obtained from 16 patients with blood eosinophil counts above 1 X 10(9)/l. Resident eosinophils were isolated from alveolar fluid in three of these patients and from pleural effusion in two others. A large proportion of the eosinophils in these patients were of light buoyant density (hypodense) and a high percentage of these showed morphological evidence of hypogranulation. Hypodense eosinophils had a reduced capacity to reduce nitroblue tetrazolium or develop chemiluminescence after stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate. It was concluded that there is structural and metabolic heterogeneity amongst blood and tissue eosinophils in patients with a variety of eosinophilic disorders.

Centrifugation, Density Gradient↗
PubMed1983

Usefulness of apheresis to extract microfilarias in management of loiasis.

Two patients with loiasis in whom treatment with diethylcarbamazine had to be interrupted because of serious side effects underwent apheresis to extract microfilarias from the blood. After three apheresis sessions the number of microfilarias in the blood had dropped from 8980 to 3412/ml in one patient and from 2950 to 1840/ml in the other. Between 40 and 45 X 10(6) microfilarias were removed from each of the patients. After reduction of the parasitaemia the two patients were given diethylcarbamazine; no appreciable side effects occurred, and the patients were cured.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Platelets mediate the action of diethylcarbamazine on microfilariae.

More than 400 million people in the world are infected by filarial parasites leading to a wide range of pathologies. Although introduced in 1947, the mainstay of the therapy and control of the filariases is diethylcarbamazine (N,N-diethyl-4-methyl-1-piperazine carboxamide; DEC), the mode of action of which still remains unknown despite widespread use and intensive laboratory investigations. The marked contrast between an extremely rapid action in vivo and the absence of any significant activity on microfilariae in vitro is unique among chemotherapeutic agents. DEC has been thought to modify the surface layer of the microfilariae and expose them to immunological cell-mediated lysis. This report provides the first evidence that the effect of DEC is mediated by blood platelets with the additional triggering of a filarial excretory antigen (FEA). The killing mechanism is antibody-independent and involves the participation of free radicals.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Arthritis in HIV infection. A prospective study of 76 cases in Rwanda].

A 16-month prospective study of adult patients who had been suffering from arthritis for less than one year was conducted in the Internal Medicine department of the hospital of Kigali, Rwanda. Seventy-six patients were included in the study. Out of 72 patients whose sera were tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), 52 were positive, this being 72.2 percent compared with the 20.7 percent figure observed in the urban population of adults in Rwanda. Two main groups arthropathies were individualized: septic arthritis (24 patients including 19 seropositive subjects) and inflammatory rheumatism with criteria of spondyloarthropathies in some of them (34 patients, 32 tested, 28 serum positive). Thus, the finding of acute arthritis in a region with high HIV infection prevalence should suggest a possible HIV infection, especially when the arthritis itself is suggestive of this diagnosis.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Primary chemoprevention of tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients in non-industrialized countries].

In randomized placebo-controlled trials in Haïti, Zambia and Uganda, prophylactic use of isoniazid (INH) for 6 to 12 months reduced the annual incidence of tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients by more than 50 per cent. For several years, WHO, IUTATLD and CDC have recommended that HIV-positive patients testing positive in a PPD test should be treated with INH as a form of anti-tuberculosis chemoprophylaxis (ATC). Whilst these recommendations are easy to follow in industrialized countries, widespread use of ATC in developing countries remains problematic because: (i) It is unknown what proportion of patients are likely to be re-infected at the end of ATC in countries where TB is endemic; (ii) It is possible that resistant bacilli may be selected due to the incomplete exclusion from the ATC program of patients with active TB at enrollment; (iii) It is difficult to identify asymptomatic carriers of M. tuberculosis at enrollment; (iv) It is doubtful that all patients will comply with a treatment regime which lasts several months; (v) The cost of a widespread ATC program, whose full benefit remains to be evaluated, may be difficult to justify. This paper attempts to review these issues and demonstrates the need for more population-based clinical trials in the field.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗