Biomedical subjects

I Ng

Publications and source records attributed to I Ng.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed1994

Cytogenetic abnormalities in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

A retrospective study of 50 children newly diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) from December 1988 to November 1993 was carried out, examining the disease conditions and cytogenetic abnormalities. Of the 50 children, 8 had no cytogenetic examination of the marrow at the time of diagnosis and 7 had a poor yield from the marrow. Fifty percent of the remaining children had a normal karyotype. The rest of the children had hyperdiploidy and structural chromosomal abnormalities (mainly translocation and deletions) in equal proportions. Overall mortality of the whole group was about 26% with 2 lost to follow-up. There were 2 patients who relapsed while on treatment of whom 1 died. Cytogenetic abnormalities were correlated with clinical variables known to have prognostic significance. The group with hyperdiploidy had a significantly lower mean total white count at presentation and none of them died. The group with translocation abnormalities had a lower mean platelet count at presentation. Almost all in the group with hyperdiploidy and a great majority of the other 2 groups with normal or structural cytogenetic abnormalities were of B cell lineage. The median survival times for the hyperdiploid, normal karyotype and translocation patients were 1800 days, 1450 days and 700 days respectively.

Burkitt Lymphoma↗

PubMed1989

Effect of sucralfate and cimetidine on duodenal ulcer-associated antral gastritis and Campylobacter pylori.

The course of gastritis and Campylobacter pylori was studied in a single-blind randomized trial comparing cimetidine 200 mg three times a day and 400 mg at night and sucralfate 1 g four times a day orally for four weeks in 140 patients with proved duodenal ulcer. At least two antral biopsies were performed during endoscopy before entry and at the end of four weeks. The activity and the degree of chronic inflammation, as assessed histologically by the degree of infiltration of, respectively, polymorphs and chronic inflammatory cells, were graded blindly by two pathologists as nil, mild, moderate, or severe. The density of C. pylori, as assessed after Warthin-Starry stain, was similarly graded. Ulcer-healing rates were comparable in the cimetidine (73.2 percent) and sucralfate (79.7 percent) groups. Improvement of the activity of gastritis occurred significantly (p less than 0.05) more frequently in the sucralfate (33.3 percent) than in the cimetidine group (18.3 percent), and remained so (p less than 0.05) when only patients with healed ulcer were compared. The density of C. pylori decreased significantly in the sucralfate group after treatment (p less than 0.01) but not in the cimetidine group. The 12-month ulcer relapse rates were significantly (p less than 0.05) lower by life-table analysis in patients healed with sucralfate than in those healed with cimetidine and were unaffected by either the density of Campylobacter in either group or the improvement of the gastritis. It is concluded that sucralfate improves duodenal ulcer-associated antral gastritis and decreases the density of C. pylori, and that factors other than bacterial density and antral gastritis may be responsible for the advantage of sucralfate over cimetidine in ulcer relapse.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Natural history of Campylobacter pylori in duodenal ulceration treated with an H2-antagonist.

Campylobacter pylori has been associated closely with active antral gastritis and duodenal ulcer but its pathogenetic role remains uncertain. The present longitudinal study examined, prospectively, the endoscopic antral biopsies of 45 patients with duodenal ulceration, taken before and after healing of the duodenal ulcer, during remission and at relapse. The biopsies were examined for the activity and degree of chronic inflammation of the gastritis and for the occurrence and density of C. pylori by Warthin-Starry stain. Before treatment the frequency of chronic active antral gastritis was 100% and the occurrence of C. pylori was 97%. Compared with the pre-treatment state, there was no significant change in either the frequency and severity of antral gastritis, or in the occurrence and density of the bacteria in the antral mucosa at the time the duodenal ulcer healed, during remission, or at relapse. The occurrence of the bacteria was significantly more frequent during remission, than at the time when the ulcer had healed initially (P less than 0.05). These results suggest that the bacterium may not play an important pathogenetic role in ulcer healing and relapse, when patients are managed using an H2-blocker.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Use of capillary electrophoresis for thalassaemia screening.

This paper describes the use of high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) for screening of thalassaemias. Preparation of globin was performed by adding 1 mL of haemolysate to 20 volumes of cold acidified acetone. Separation of globins was accomplished in a 25 mM disodium phosphate buffer at pH 11.8 using an uncoated capillary column of 50 cm x 75 microns (i.d.). Distinct peaks of alpha, beta and gamma were resolved within 6 min. The coefficient of variations for within-day and between-day runs were 4.7% and 6.37%, respectively. Using this simple and rapid procedure up to 30 specimens could be analysed in a single day. This method appears to be reliable and can be used for mass screening of various haemoglobinopathies.

Electrophoresis↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Liver transplantation--perspective from Hong Kong.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We report our experience of 27 orthotopic liver transplantations in 26 patients performed at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong during the period of October 1991 to October 1995. PATIENTS AND METHODS: There were 19 adults and 7 pediatric patients with a mean age of 29 years (range 8 months to 62 years). The underlying liver diseases of the 26 patients were biliary atresia (n = 6), Alagille syndrome (n = 1), primary biliary cirrhosis (n = 2) cryptogenic cirrhosis (n = 2), alcoholic cirrhosis (n = 5), Wilson's disease (n = 1), fulminant hepatic failure (n = 3), polycystic liver (n = 2), secondary biliary cirrhosis (n = 1), HBV cirrhosis (n = 2) and autoimmune hepatitis with hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 1). The pathology leading to re-transplantation in a pediatric patient was post-transplant hepatitis of unknown etiology. The liver grafts were obtained from 19 brainstem dead and 8 living donors. The pediatric patient requiring re-transplantation received a left lateral segment graft from her mother. Two adults received left lobe grafts from their family members. RESULTS: The overall graft survival is 88% and patient survival is 92%. There were only 2 deaths: one patient developed primary graft nonfunction and died from intracerebral bleeding 39 days after transplantation and the other died from graft rejection resistant to salvage by steroid pulse and OKT3. The other patients are well with functioning grafts. CONCLUSIONS: We hope that the current success rate can convince people in our locality in cadaveric organ donation so that living donors do not run the risk of dying from the operation, although the risk is estimated to be very small.

Adult↗