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Biomedical subjects

K Eriksson

Publications and source records attributed to K Eriksson.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

To understand and alleviate suffering in a caring culture.

The purpose of this study is to help understand what suffering is, i.e. how patients and nurses describe suffering, and how suffering can be alleviated. The study has a descriptive-explorative design and its approach is phenomenological-hermeneutical. The informant (research group) are 11 nurses (nurses, doctors, hospital theologians) and five patients in a social-psychiatric nursing unit, based on Christian ideology. The results of the study show that the 'what' of suffering is unclear. The nurses tend to describe more the 'why' of suffering, i.e. the reason for suffering. The what of suffering is pain, fear, despair, lack of strength. It is a form of lack of freedom and non-motion. It is a struggle between wanting and knowing, between guilt and responsibility. The form of suffering tends to mould the caring relation. To be touched in some way by another in a meeting can alleviate the deepest suffering. Compassion will always alleviate suffering.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1993

Effects of long barbiturate anaesthesia on eight children with severe epilepsy.

Frequent epileptic seizures in children are often related to delayed psychomotor development, and status epilepticus is always a neurological emergency. In both situations barbiturate anaesthesia has been used for status epilepticus since the 1960s, and for intractable seizures in children since the 1980s. However, the clinical results on the effectiveness of barbiturate anaesthesia in children with chronic epileptic disorders remain contradictory. Between 1986 and 1991 in Tampere University Hospital in Finland long barbiturate anaesthesia was introduced--using thiopentone sodium--to eight children with very severe epilepsy. Children were 10 months to 7 years 11 months of age and the mean time from the onset of seizures to the introduction of BA was 2 years 8 months. Effects upon seizure frequency, antiepileptic medication and/or psychomotor development were clearly positive in three patients, slightly positive in one patient and in four patients there was no effect. Good effect seemed to be associated with an anaesthesia which is deep and long enough to produce loss of consciousness and spontaneous reactions, and an electroencephalographic pattern of burst-suppression. Positive results were also more often achieved when the treatment lag was less than 12 months. Physical and neurophysiological properties of barbiturates make their effectiveness as anticonvulsants understandable, but there is only little evidence to explain the mechanism of this action.

Anesthesia, General↗
PubMed1993

Intestinal antibody responses to oral vaccination in HIV-infected individuals.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether and at what stage mucosal immune responsiveness is impaired during HIV-1 infection. DESIGN: Intestinal and systemic antibody-secreting cell (ASC) responses were examined in eight HIV-1-infected volunteers and 10 seronegative control subjects after oral cholera and parenteral tetanus vaccinations. METHODS: ASC numbers were determined before and after booster vaccinations by the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) technique. This technique was performed on cell suspensions obtained from enzymatically dispersed duodenal biopsies and from peripheral blood. RESULTS: Oral cholera vaccination evoked ASC responses in the intestinal mucosa of six out of eight HIV-1-infected volunteers, including patients with advanced disease and very low levels of circulating CD4+ T cells. The intestinal cholera ASC responses in HIV-infected volunteers were comparable to those in uninfected controls with regard to both magnitude and distribution of antibody classes. Most HIV-infected volunteers with only moderately reduced CD4+ T-cell counts also responded with vaccine-specific ASC in the blood, whereas none of the patients with < 200 x 10(6)/l CD4+ T cells per litre blood had detectable circulating ASC. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that mucosal humoral immune responsiveness to a T-cell dependent antigen is maintained in HIV-infected individuals, despite concomitant systemic humoral hyporesponsiveness.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1993

Collagenolytic effect of disintegrated bacterial cell extracts on the human amniotic membrane at term pregnancy.

Bacterial ascending from the cervix may infect the membranes and amniotic fluid, contributing to their premature rupture. In the present in vitro study, isolated amniotic membranes were exposed to different concentrations of disintegrated bacterial cells. Collagenolysis was estimated by the ratio of acid-soluble/insoluble hydroxyproline. The amniotic membrane proteins were separated by electrophoresis after incubation with 14C proline and disintegrated bacterial cells. The proportion of soluble hydroxyproline increased with the bacterial concentration used, and the radioactivity decreased in proteins of the 30- to 80-kD range. The data support the notion that bacteria contain collagenolytic enzymes affecting human amniotic membranes.

Amnion↗
PubMed1993

Hepatitis B carriers in Sweden--effects of immigration.

The number of hepatitis B carriers in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, has gradually increased between 1980 and 1990. Altogether 525 chronic carriers (35% females) were found, corresponding to a prevalence of 0.11%. 401 (76%) were immigrants from high or medium prevalence regions, mainly the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 102 were native Swedes (19%). In 1988-90 the immigrants constituted 85% (154/182) of all new cases. 93% (245/264) of the carriers born in 1960-89 were immigrants, whereof 53% (130/245) were HBeAg positive. The increasing number of hepatitis B carriers in Sweden places demands on the public health service to undertake measures to prevent new cases of hepatitis B, as well as to discover and treat chronic liver disease induced by hepatitis B virus.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Amplified ELISPOT assay for the detection of HIV-specific antibody-secreting cells in subhuman primates.

A novel immunoenzyme amplification technique has been evaluated in an ELISPOT assay for the detection of antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells (ASC) in monkeys. In this assay, mononuclear cells containing putative ASC are incubated for a few hours in antigen-coated wells. Following removal of the cells, zones of solid phase bound antibodies secreted by individual ASC are visualized in four consecutive steps. First, a primary biotinylated anti-immunoglobulin (Ig) reagent is added followed by enzyme-labelled avidin. The amplification procedure comprises the addition of biotinylated anti-enzyme antibodies in the third stage, followed by enzyme-conjugated avidin and substrate. When evaluated in a modified ELISPOT assay for the detection of simian B cells secreting antibodies to the envelope glycoprotein gp120 of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), this amplification procedure proved to be suitable even when using anti-human Ig antisera as primary antibody reagents. This development should be useful for other ELISPOT assays where species specific anti-Ig reagents are not always available and, most importantly, for enumerating cells producing immunoreactive substances in such minute amounts that they may escape detection by conventional ELISPOT assays. Furthermore, a functional simian HIV-specific ELISPOT assay could prove valuable for assessing the humoral immunogenicity of future candidate vaccines against the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Renal elimination of verbenols in man following experimental alpha-pinene inhalation exposure.

The renal elimination of verbenols after experimental exposure to (+) and (-)alpha-pinene was studied in humans following exposure to 10, 225, and 450 mg.m-3 terpene in an exposure chamber. The pulmonary uptake was about 60%. About 8% was eliminated unchanged in exhaled air. Depending on the exposure level, about 1%-4% of the total uptake was eliminated as cis- and trans-verbenol. Most of the verbenols were eliminated within 20 h after a 2-h exposure. The renal excretion of unchanged alpha-pinene was less than 0.001%.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The alleviation of suffering--the idea of caring.

Caring science is seeking a basic category or the primary form of caring, the focus of caring science which includes the meaning of caring. Caring science does not deny the presence of suffering, even though it aims at soundness and health; suffering is the point from which it begins. Not until the patient has come to terms with his suffering can he hope to recover. Suffering is the most important basic category of all caring. It gives caring a unique quality and soundness and is something which all forms of caring aim to alleviate. Real caring is not just an abstract idea, philosophy or ideology, it is concrete work confronting suffering in real situations.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1992

Never ending growth and a growth factor. I. Immunocytochemical evidence for the presence of basic fibroblast growth factor in a tapeworm.

Basic fibroblast growth factor immunoreactivity (bFGF-IR) was detected in a specific set of nerve cells in the central nervous system of the gull-tapeworm Diphyllobothrium dendriticum (Cestoda)--an obligatory endoparasite. The long varicose processes of the bFGF-IR neurons extend along the two main nerve cords, which contain an actively growing population of nerve cells. A neurotrophic function for the bFGF-like material is proposed. The adult tapeworm lives in the intestine of a homeothermic host and has a pattern of very active and never ending growth. The larval stages live in poikilothermic hosts and grow very slowly. The bFGF-IR nerve cells occur both in II stage larvae and in adult worms. Thus, no correlation between the presence of bFGF-IR and the general growth rate of the worm was found. Western blot analysis revealed the presence of an anti-bFGF immunoreactive peptide with a molecular mass of 47 kDa in both larval and adult worms.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Immunizations of monkeys with synthetic peptides disclose conserved areas on gp120 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 associated with cross-neutralizing antibodies and T-cell recognition.

Site-directed immunization was employed to identify sites on the envelope glycoprotein gp120 for antibody-mediated neutralization of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Antisera were raised in monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) against a series of 40 overlapping synthetic peptides covering the entire amino acid sequence of gp120 from the HTLV-IIIB strain of HIV-1. Immune sera against 12 of these peptides were reactive with gp120 by immunoblotting analysis, and antisera raised against 5 peptides, corresponding to amino acids (aa) 152-176, 193-218, 206-230, 248-269, and 307-330, were highly efficient in neutralizing HIV-1 (HTLV-IIIB) infectivity in vitro. Admixture of individual neutralizing anti-peptide monkey sera resulted in increment in neutralizing antibody titer. Antisera with reactivity to the relatively conserved regions defined by aa 152-176, 193-230, and 248-269 also neutralized to different extents the infectivity of the five Swedish clinical isolates of HIV-1 tested. Only a few HIV-1-infected people were found to make antibodies to these three conserved domains of gp120 as judged by ELISA using synthetic peptides as antigens. Three of the peptides (aa 152-176, 248-269, and 307-330) that induced neutralization antibodies also induced interleukin 2 production and lymphocyte proliferation when added to cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from monkeys immunized with the corresponding peptides, indicating that these domains accommodate T-cell recognition sites. The results have obvious implications for the rational design of subunit vaccines against HIV-1 infection.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1990

Identification of cis- and trans-verbenol in human urine after occupational exposure to terpenes.

Urine from sawmill workers exposed to alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and delta-3-carene was collected and hydrolyzed with beta-glucuronidase at pH 5.0 for 24 h at 37 degrees C. After hydrolysis the urine was cleaned on a SEP-PAK C18 cartridge. The cartridge was eluted with n-heptane. The eluate was injected onto a gas chromatograph equipped with a 25-m (0.32-mm ID) SP-1000 capillary column. The major peak in the chromatogram was identified by GC-MS as trans-verbenol by electron impact at 70 eV. cis-Verbenol was also identified. These metabolites could not be detected in non-hydrolyzed urine from the exposed workers or in hydrolyzed urine from an unexposed individual. The recoveries of the verbenols from hydrolyzed urine were in the range of 85 to 94% and the metabolites were stable both in urine and in n-heptane after sample cleaning at -20 degrees C for at least 12 weeks. We suggest that these metabolites are formed from alpha-pinene by hydroxylation.

Bicyclic Monoterpenes↗