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Biomedical subjects

H W Haverkos

Publications and source records attributed to H W Haverkos.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Assessment of therapy for toxoplasma encephalitis. The TE Study Group.

Toxoplasma encephalitis has been reported as a life-threatening opportunistic infection among patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The TE Study Group was established to address clinical questions about Toxoplasma encephalitis by retrospectively reviewing available data. The medical centers selected were those reporting Toxoplasma encephalitis to the Centers for Disease Control or to one of the principal investigators. Sixty-eight histologically confirmed cases of Toxoplasma encephalitis were reported by investigators at 31 medical centers; 61 of the patients received some therapy. Overall prognosis was poor. The median survival following initiation of therapy was four months. Patients described as "alert" at initiation of therapy survived significantly longer than those described as "lethargic" or "stuporous." No beneficial or harmful effects could be attributed to the use of corticosteroids. Toxicity attributed to pyrimethamine and sulfonamide therapy was reported in 60 percent of patients. Leukopenia, rash, and thrombocytopenia were common during therapy. A clinical relapse of Toxoplasma encephalitis was reported in 50 percent of patients discharged from the hospital.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1986

Sex of interviewer, place of interview, and responses of homosexual men to sensitive questions.

Effects of sex of interviewer and place of interview on the responses of 57 AIDS patients and 145 other homosexual men were studied. Data on sensitive topics were collected by five male and three female medical officers at places convenient to respondents. Male physicians recorded fellatio more frequently, but female physicians recorded younger ages of initiating homosexual activities and more frequent use of certain recreational drugs. These differences apparently were due to different patterns of sexual contact and drug use in four cities. Patients with AIDS tended to be interviewed in hospitals and doctors' offices, other men tended to be interviewed in hotel rooms, and patients tended to be different from other men. After adjustments were made for confounding, sex of interviewer and place of interview seemed to have little influence on the answers obtained.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1986

A model-based approach for estimating the mean incubation period of transfusion-associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

The incubation period, representing the interval between the date of exposure and the date of diagnosis, can be firmly ascertained in transfusion-associated cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). However, because the observation period of all transfusion-infected persons may be short compared with the average incubation period for AIDS, many cases with long incubation periods have not yet been diagnosed. Thus, the simple average of 2.6 years tends to underestimate the true mean. To correct for this underestimation bias, we assumed that the underlying distribution of the incubation periods is a member of a broad class of probability densities. Then, by maximum likelihood techniques, the mean incubation period for transfusion-associated AIDS was estimated to be 4.5 years, with the 90% confidence interval ranging from 2.6 to 14.2 years. The long incubation period has important consequences for infected individuals and implications for public health intervention and prevention policy.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1985

Infection with HTLV-III/LAV and transfusion-associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Serologic evidence of an association.

We studied patients with transfusion-associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and their blood donors for serologic evidence of infection with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus with two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and a Western blot assay. All 19 patients with AIDS were seropositive by at least one test. In all 28 donor sets containing "high-risk" donors, at least one donor was seropositive by one or more tests. Of 255 donors not considered high risk, two (0.8%) were seropositive by all three tests. When 30 seropositive high-risk donors were evaluated a median of 29 months after donation, four (13%) had developed AIDS and eight (27%) had lymphadenopathy. Our findings support the hypothesis that human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus causes AIDS and indicate that seropositive high-risk donors may be at relatively high risk for developing AIDS or related conditions themselves.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Lymphadenopathy associated virus infection of a blood donor--recipient pair with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

A retrovirus isolated from three patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the United States was morphologically and antigenically identical to lymphadenopathy associated virus isolated in France. Two of these isolates were from a blood donor-recipient pair, each of whom developed AIDS. Lymphadenopathy associated virus was isolated from the blood donor's lymphocytes 12 months after his onset of AIDS symptoms and from the blood recipient's lymphocytes 1 month after her onset of AIDS symptoms. Two isolates from the blood donor-recipient pair and an isolate from an epidemiologically unrelated homosexual man were examined by competitive radioimmunoassay to determine their antigenic relatedness to each other and to other human retroviruses. The major core proteins (p25) of the isolates were antigenically identical and all three isolates were identical to prototype lymphadenopathy associated virus isolated in France.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Transfusion-associated AIDS: serologic evidence of human T-cell leukemia virus infection of donors.

An assay for antibodies to membrane antigens of cells infected by human T-cell leukemia virus was used to examine serum from persons who donated blood to 12 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) associated with blood transfusions. The occurrence of positive results in the assay was significantly greater among donors to the AIDS patients (9 of 117; 7.7 percent) than among random donors (1 of 298; 0.3 percent). Of 12 sets of donors examined, 9 sets included a donor whose serum gave positive results for the presence of the antibodies. In six of these nine sets, the seropositive donor was an individual who was also identified as a possible source of AIDS transmission when epidemiologic and immunologic criteria were used.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) trends in the United States, 1978-1982.

This report summarizes results of surveillance for the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control through the first quarter of 1983. Surveillance has been predominantly passive, supplemented by active follow-up of requests to the Centers for Disease Control for pentamidine isethionate for treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. The 1,299 reported cases showed trends of increasing incidence among all risk groups: homosexual men (72 percent), intravenous drug abusers (17 percent), persons of Haitian origin (5 percent), persons with hemophilia (1 percent), and others (6 percent). Cases were reported among residents of 35 states and the District of Columbia, with the majority from New York (49 percent) and California (22 percent). Of the 6 percent of patients without well-established risk factors for AIDS, many have suspected risk factors (e.g., blood transfusion or a sexual partner in a high-risk group).

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Assessment of therapy for pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. PCP Therapy Project Group.

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia has been recognized in about 60 percent of patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The Centers for Disease Control, in collaboration with 19 medical centers, retrospectively studied 282 biopsy-confirmed cases of P. carinii pneumonia to determine the efficacy and safety of anti-Pneumocystis therapy. Adult patients with P. carinii pneumonia secondary to AIDS and to other known causes of immune deficiency were enrolled. AIDS patients experienced a longer time from onset to diagnosis. All patients received the standard treatments for their infections. There was no difference in survival rates through 90 days of follow-up between AIDS patients and adults with known causes of immune deficiency. However, AIDS patients required a longer duration of therapy and experienced a higher rate of relapse. Failure of therapy with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole was found to be a poor prognostic sign. After failure of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, measures of patient outcome were similarly affected by adding or substituting pentamidine isethionate.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Evaluation of serologic tests for Pneumocystis carinii antibody and antigenemia in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Sera from 68 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and 135 controls were used to evaluate the indirect immunofluorescence and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for detection of antibodies to Pneumocystis carinii and a counterimmunoelectrophoresis assay for detection of circulating Pneumocystis antigen. None of these assays was helpful in the diagnosis of P. carinii pneumonia. An improved assay for antigenemia is needed to differentiate between clinical and subclinical infection.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Heterosexual and homosexual patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. A comparison of surveillance, interview, and laboratory data.

Homosexual and heterosexual patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome were compared by risk group. Race; diagnoses; history of sexually transmitted diseases, sexual behavior, and drug use; and socioeconomic indicators differed considerably among risk groups, suggesting different risk factors for acquisition of the syndrome. Patients in the homosexual, intravenous drug user, and Haitian risk groups differed in their serologic response to cytomegalovirus and syphilis testing, presumably due to lifestyle-related exposures. Differences in the rate of recovery of cytomegalovirus, serum levels of IgA and IgG, and antibody titers to Epstein-Barr virus were noted among patients with different diagnoses. We conclude that in studies of risk factors for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, patients should be analyzed by risk group and diagnoses.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗