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Biomedical subjects

J Stanford

Publications and source records attributed to J Stanford.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Skin-test sensitisation by tubercle bacilli and by other mycobacteria in Ethiopian school-children.

Quadruple skin-testing with a range of 22 new tuberculins and PPD-RT23 was carried out on 665 school-children without BCG scars and 666 with BCG scars, in and around the towns of Butajira and Hosana in Shoa district of Ethiopia. Marked differences in patterns of sensitisation were distinguished between the 5 schools visited. In general, Mycobacterium chitae, M. diernhoferi, M. kansasii and M. vaccae were common sensitising agents in all schools, M. avium subspecies brunense, M. gilvum, M. rhodesiae and M. xenopi were absent, and the remaining species investigated were variably present between the schools. Contact with M. tuberculosis and M. leprae appeared greatest in Hosana and the possibility of sensitisation by M. ulcerans around the village of Enseno was discovered. The data also provided indirect evidence of the value of BCG in Shoa district. An interesting observation was the very variable enhancing effect that BCG vaccination had on sensitisation to individual fast growing species.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Control of burn wound infections by pefloxacin and its silver derivative.

As might be anticipated, strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant to silver sulfadiazine have appeared. We have found an analogue of nalidixic acid (pefloxacin) which, along with its silver derivative, is highly effective against these resistant strains. In vitro the minimal inhibitory concentrations are 10 to 20 times lower than that of silver sulfadiazine against bacteria. In burned mice and rats infected with silver sulfadiazine resistant pseudomonas strains, mortality in groups receiving topical therapy with pefloxacin and silver pefloxacin is about 10 per cent compared to 80 per cent with silver sulfadiazine (100 per cent in untreated controls). There is little systemic absorption of pefloxacin and no absorption of silver from topical treatment. In addition, silver pefloxacin exhibits higher antifungal activity in vitro.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMed1977

Topical chemotherapy for burns using cerium salts and silver sulfadiazine.

These experimental data indicate that cerium compounds exert a measurable antimicrobial action in vitro. In vivo the simultaneous use of cerium sulfadiazine and silver sulfadiazine was more effective than silver sulfadiazine alone or the combination of cerous nitrate and silver sulfadiazine. When cerous nitrate was used clically, gram-positive bacteria predominated. In contrast, wounds exposed to silver salts alone harbor a predominately gram-negative flora. The combination of cerous nitrate and silver sulfadiazine appears to provide a broad spectrum inhibitory to both types of organisms. It is apparent that a sampling problem exists in any attempt to monitor wounds that may exceed a square meter in extent. These bacteriologic data pertain only to the surface flora. The need to culture tissue samples of burn wounds has been emphasized. Our experience, however, is that invasion of deep tissue without dense surface colonization, greater than 10(5), is infrequent. Furthermore, fragments of eschar were submitted regularly for culture; those results confirmed the surface culture findins. The characteristic yellow-green color of cerium nitrate treated eschars may results from oxidation of trivalent cerium to yellow ceric ions. Free silver and sulfadiazine ions are available also in small amounts because of limited ionization of the highly insoluble silver sulfadiazine. This might promote the in vivo formation of cerous sulfadiazine and would provide a continuous source of ionic cerium for microbial inhibition. The modification of silver sulfadiazine cream by incorporating cerous nitrate into it strikingly enhances its topical antiseptic effect in burn wounds without increasing toxicity.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Does antibody to mycobacterial antigens, including lipoarabinomannan, limit dissemination in childhood tuberculosis?

Serum immunoglobulin (Ig) G responses to a variety of mycobacterial antigens were measured in children from the UK, in children with tuberculosis from Hyderabad, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh, classified according to whether the disease was disseminated or localized, and in non-tuberculous controls. Anti-lipoarabinomannan (LAM) IgG responses in UK children showed a marked trough between 6 months and 3 years coincident with the reported peak incidence of disseminated tuberculosis. Geometric mean IgG responses to sonicates of slow-growing mycobacteria (rich in LAM) in 36 children with disseminated tuberculosis were markedly lower than in 99 children with localized tuberculous lesions (for Mycobacterium scrofulaceum P < 0.01, for M. tuberculosis P < 0.01, and for M. vaccae P < 0.01). Responses to purified LAM were also lower in the disseminated tuberculosis group (P < 0.05) but there was no difference between the groups in their response to mycobacterial 65 kDa protein. Multiple regression analysis showed that the reduced response to sonicated mycobacterial antigens and to LAM in children with disseminated disease was independent of age, nutritional status, skin test reactivity, duration of previous symptoms, and city of origin. There was no evidence for sequestration of antibody to immune complexes. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that children with low levels of antibody to sonicated mycobacterial antigen and to LAM, or those who cannot mount an antibody response, are predisposed to dissemination. A role for antibody in preventing disseminated forms of tuberculosis in childhood has implications for the development of improved vaccines and for the optimum timing of vaccination with bacille Calmette-Guérin.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Poncet's disease: tuberculous rheumatism.

Poncet's disease is characterized by a polyarthritis that occurs during acute tuberculosis infection in which no mycobacterial involvement can be found or other known cause of polyarthritis detected. It is a different entity from tuberculous arthritis, which is usually monoarticular and is caused by direct tuberculin infection. Poncet's disease remains a diagnosis of exclusion. Thirteen cases have been reported in the English-language literature since 1974. All patients who received the Mantoux test reacted positively, and 10 of 11 patients treated with antituberculous drugs had resolution of arthritis on therapy. Poncet's disease and erythema nodosum could be differing expressions of a common immunopathogenic response to tuberculin.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Are all contraceptive failures unintended pregnancies? Evidence from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth.

CONTEXT: The incidence of unintended pregnancy has long been used as a primary indicator of the state of reproductive health. However, the definition--and therefore the measurement--of this indicator has been elusive. METHODS: Data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) were used to compare levels of unintended pregnancy among contraceptive users based on two definitions--the standard definition based on women's reports of contraceptive failure, and the NSFG definition based on pregnancy timing (wanted then, wanted later, or not wanted then or in the future). An attitudinal scale was used to examine women's feelings about their unintended pregnancy. RESULTS: Of pregnancies classified as contraceptive failures under the standard definition, only 68% were unintended pregnancies--94% of those ending in abortion and 60% of those ending in birth. Just 59% of women with a contraceptive failure classified as an unintended pregnancy reported feeling unhappy or very unhappy about their pregnancy, while 90% of those with a failure classified as an intended pregnancy reported being happy or very happy. CONCLUSIONS: Measures of wantedness based on women's feelings about their pregnancy may correlate more closely with important pregnancy outcomes than do traditional measures of intendedness.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mycobacterial antigens in antibody responses of leprosy patients.

A reference system for M. smegmatis antigens in crossed immunoelectrophoresis was used to study antibody activities in serum samples of 91 leprosy patients. All polar and borderline lepromatous patients were positive. Mean numbers out of 14 M. smegmatis antigens involved were 4.3 and 3.5, respectively. Precipitins against antigen no. 1 were seen in all lepromatous cases. Antibodies against this antigen were detected in 50% of tuberculoid (polar, subpolar and borderline) cases. Antibody activity against M. avium and M. duvalii antigens was also detected using a staphylococcal radio-immuno-assay. Borderline and polar lepromatous cases showed elevated levels. Antigenic comparisons were made between four slow growing mycobacteria, fourteen fast growing mycobacteria and the leprosy bacillus using lepromatous serum pools as antibody reagents. Four of the antigens detected in M. leprae were also found in slow growing as well as fast growing species indicating a common occurrence among mycobacteria. Antigen no. 1 of M. duvalii, with an apparent molecular weight of 290,000, showed nonprotein characteristics. Further analysis of antigen no. 21, using lepromatous serum pools as antibody reagents, indicated the existence of at least two groups of antigenic determinants. In addition to determinants shared by all mycobacteria, there were antigenic structures apparently unique to M. leprae.

Antibody Formation↗