Biomedical subjects

J R Lawrence

Publications and source records attributed to J R Lawrence.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMed1975

Dialysis-associated dementia.

Two patients from an Australian Dialysis Centre developed a progressive neurological disorder with features similar to those recently discribed as the snydrome of Dementia Dialytica. These two patients are reported here and this newly recognised syndrome reviewed.

Adult↗

PubMed1975

Hepatitis B antigen, auto-antibodies and liver disease in a haemodialysis and transplantation unit.

This study concerns hepatitis B antigen and antibody, (HBAg and HBAb) auto-antibodies and liver disease in a renal haemodialysis and transplantation unit between February, 1970 and December, 1972. Fourteen per cent of patients on maintenance haemodialysis, 25% of renal transplant recipients, and 5% of the staff were HBAg positive during this period. Three family members of antigen positive patients developed hepatitis; all were either antigen or antibody positive. Both immuno-electro-osmo-phoresis and radio-immuno-assay were used to detect HBAg. No additional carriers were identified among the dialysis or transplant patients by applying the more sensitive technique, although two persons with hepatitis were positive only by RIA. None of the staff members who developed antigen positive hepatitis died, and no one became a carrier. Dialysis patients who had icteric hepatis also cleared the antigen from the serum. Clinical hepatitis did not occur in immunosuppressed graft recipients who were carriers of the ay subtype of the antigen, nor was there histological evidence of liver disease in 18 of 19 of such carriers studied. Moreover, there was no association between long term carriage of the antigen and the presence of the auto-antibodies characteristic of chronic active hepatitis. Rapid reduction of immunosuppression was followed by acute hepatitis in one carrier, while another, whose antigen was of the ad subtype, developed micro-nodular cirrhosis.

Autoantibodies↗

PubMed1975

IgA-associated glomerulonephritis.

Mesangial IgA depostiiton was detected by routine fluorescent microscopy of 19 cases of glomerulonephritis. Twelve patients had a variable degree of diffuse mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis. The heterogeneous histological findings in the other seven patients show that mesangial IgA deposition alone does not have diagnostic specificity. However, when interpretation of the mesangial IgA deposition is complemented by clinical and histological information, a group of patients with the characteristic combined features can be distinguished.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1974

Immunofluorescent studies in renal biopsies in pre-eclampsia.

Renal biopsies were performed on 11 patients considered clinically and histologically to have pre-eclampsia. Immunofluorescent studies with fluorescein-labelled anti-IgG, IgA, IgM, and IgE complement, albumin, fibrin, and fibrinogen were carried out on the tissue obtained. Significant correlation was obtained between the clinical severity of the disease and the density and pattern of IgM and IgG deposition. Complement was found in glomeruli in severe cases, while complement deposition in the walls of afferent and efferent arterioles was a constant finding. These findings support the concept that an immunological mechanism may be responsible for the renal lesions in pre-eclampsia. If immunity does play a part in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia, possible mechanisms include the involvement of histocompatibility antigens and cross-reactivity of fetal and maternal tissues. Renal fibrin deposition in pre-eclampsia may be secondary to an immune process, an occurrence well-described in other forms of glomerulonephritis in man and other species.

Biopsy↗

PubMed1974