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J Quintana

Publications and source records attributed to J Quintana.

81 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

[The use of lamotrigine in the psychosocial readaptation of patients with epilepsy].

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Epilepsy is a chronic illness which causes psychosocial problems in the patients affected. These disorders may be investigated by using the Washington Psychosocial Inventory (WPSI). We wish to show the variables which affect the WPSI most and also the changes seen in the results of this test and the control of seizures after treatment with lamotrigine for a year. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Using the WPSI, we studied 70 patients in the epilepsy outpatient clinic of the Psychiatric Hospital in La Habana during the period February-March 1998. The results of the WPSI were analysed according to the following variables: cerebral lesion, age of onset of epilepsy, frequency of seizures, more than one seizure per patient, and the antiepileptic drug used. The patients were followed-up during one year of treatment with lamotrigine, and the WPSI was repeated after one year (in March 1999). The following statistical tests were used to find the level of significance: variance analysis, standard deviation, chi deviation and difference between means. RESULTS: The WPSI showed initially, at almost all levels, poor scoring; 48.86% had generally poor psychosocial function (FPG). Only the greater frequency of seizures significantly altered the WPSI. After treatment with lamotrigine for one year there was better seizure control, a better WPSI result and only 11.43% had poor FPG. CONCLUSIONS: We consider that the high frequency of seizures is the variable which most affects the WPSI and that lamotrigine is useful both for control of epileptic seizures and to obtain psychosocial rehabilitation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Second cancer in pediatric patients].

Studies were made on the appearance of second malignant tumors (SMT) in children followed in a pediatric hospital at metropolitan Santiago, Chile, between years 1968 and 1987. A retrospective analysis identified SMT in 7 of 430 patients who survived a childhood cancer (incidence 1.62%). An 8th patient was added, whose first neoplasm was treated in another hospital. The initial diagnosis in the affected children were medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, Wilm's tumor retinoblastoma, Ewing's sarcoma, Hodgkin's disease and, in two cases, acute lymphocytic leukemias. The age range was 6 months to 11 years. Treatment was done by surgery in 5/8, chemotherapy in 7/8 and radiotherapy in all patients. The latent period between the diagnosis of the first cancer and the diagnosis of the SMT was 3.5 to 12 years (median 8.5 years). Osteosarcomas were the most frequent SMT (5/8). The other SMT were a rhabdomyosarcoma, a non Hodgkin lymphoma and an astrocytoma. The majority of SMT were located in the area of prior radiotherapy (6/8). In the other two cases, one had an osteosarcoma, after a bilateral retinoblastoma, which grew outside the previously treated area, and the last one consisted of a lymphoma which was identified 9 years after an acute lymphocytic leukemia. Only 3/8 SMT patients are alive after 14.21 and 34 months follow up. The other children died between 11 and 20 months after diagnosis of SMT. Notwithstanding these kinds of outcome, benefits of therapy for patients with primary tumors greatly outweight the later risk of cancer induction in a small proportion of them.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Long term effects of the treatment of the Graves' disease by 4 different therapeutics (author's transl)].

166 patients suffering of Graves' disease have been treated between 1967 and 1971 with 4 different methods (Carbimazole alone, Carbimazole + Surgery, 131 I, 131 I + Carbimazole between 10th and 50th days). The choice was conducted by the volume of the gland and the age of the patient. Isotope was calculated to deliver 7 000 rads in 76 cases and 10 000 rads in 17 more severe cases (cardiothyreosis). 129 patients were submitted to a long term follow up. Medical treatment gave euthyroidism in 34/47 after a mean duration of 8 months. 1/3 to 1/2 of the patients relapsed between 1 to 9 years. Surgical treatment was successful in 25/26 after a total period of 5,5 months. 8 relapsed and 3 became hypothyroid. Relapses were more frequent after bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy than after total lobectomy + subtotal contralateral lobectomy. Isotope gave a complete cure in 14 patients (delay 4,1 months) and in 34, a complementary treatment was necessary (delay 13,5 months). Relapses (12/94) were detected in general after 2 years. The results were the same after 7 000 ans 10 000 rads doses and in the patient receiving, or not, systematically carbimazole. The treatment of Graves' disease is long and difficult. An excellent result is obtained only in half of the cases. 1/3 of these good results needs less than 6 months and 2/3 12 months. A thyroid of less than 40 g include after surgical treatment or after isotopic irradiation an increasing risk of hypothyroidism.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Inhibition of steroidogenesis in neonatal Leydig cells by unknown factor(s) present in spent media of androgen-treated cultured testicular cells from adult rats.

Treatment of cultured testicular cells from adult rats with 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT; 10(-6) M) or the synthetic androgen methyltrienolone (R1881; 10(-6) M) inhibited Leydig cell 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/delta 5-4 isomerase (3 beta-HSD) enzyme activity, whereas no effect of both androgens on cultured cells derived from neonatal animals could be observed. The inhibitory effect of DHT or R1881 on Leydig cell 3 beta-HSD enzyme activity, however, was abolished when adult cells were cultured in the presence of the anti-androgen cyproterone acetate (CPA; 10(-6) M) or the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CX; 1 microgram/ml). Testicular cells from adult animals were also cultured in the presence of the different treatments described above, and the spent media was collected and thereafter used as conditioned culture medium (CCM) in subsequent experiments performed with neonatal cells. Dispersed testicular cells from neonatal rats were cultured for 12 days in McCoy's 5a medium of in CCM derived from R1881-treated adult cells, and fresh culture medium or CCM was replaced every 2 days. The human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)-stimulated testosterone production of neonatal cells was abolished in the presence of CCM derived from R1881-treated adult cells. Nevertheless, the steroidogenic response to hCG recovered when neonatal cells were cultured for two additional days in McCoy's 5a medium. Treatment of neonatal cells with increasing concentrations of hCG (0.1-10 ng/ml) resulted in a dose-dependent augmentation in Leydig cell 3 beta-HSD enzyme activity and testosterone production.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗