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Biomedical subjects

K Worthington

Publications and source records attributed to K Worthington.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Addition of monoamine oxidase inhibitors to carbamazepine: preliminary evidence of safety and antidepressant efficacy in treatment-resistant depression.

BACKGROUND: Depression is often resistant to treatment with mood stabilizers. The antidepressant effects of carbamazepine can be potentiated by lithium supplementation, but some patients fail to respond to the combination. Although monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) appear useful in atypical and bipolar depressions, concerns have been raised regarding safety and pharmacokinetic interactions when they are combined with carbamazepine. METHOD: Ten inpatients (7 bipolar, 3 unipolar) with refractory DSM-III-R major depression, also resistant to double-blind treatment with carbamazepine, plus lithium augmentation in 8, received double-blind MAOI augmentation (phenelzine in 4, tranylcypromine in 6). RESULTS: All 10 patients tolerated the addition of an MAOI well, and mean self-rated side effect scores did not change significantly. Four of 10 patients improved substantially and became euthymic, allowing discharge from hospital on the carbamazepine +/- lithium plus MAOI combination. These 4 patients improved in spite of prior inadequate responses to the same MAOI without carbamazepine and carbamazepine without an MAOI. CONCLUSION: This preliminary evidence suggests that the addition of MAOIs to carbamazepine +/- lithium may be well tolerated, may not affect carbamazepine and lithium pharmacokinetics, and may provide relief of refractory depressive symptoms in some patients. Further studies are needed to establish the safety and efficacy of combining carbamazepine with MAOIs.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Kinin levels in the peripheral venous blood of patients with severe vasomotor dumping before and after revisional surgery.

The kinin activity in peripheral venous blood was estimated before and after jejunal interposition in 17 patients with severe vasomotor dumpling. In each case the kinin activity was assayed both under fasting conditions and after the oral administration of a liquid hypertonic glucose meal (100 g). No significant difference in the preoperative fasting kinin values was found between patients who were improved of their symptoms (11 cases) as distinct from those who did not derive any benefit from jejunal interposition (6 cases). However, in patients who obtained relief after revisional surgery, the kinin level after glucose administration (56-15 +/- 11-19 ng/ml) was significantly higher (P less than 0-01) than the release obtained in patients who were not improved by surgery (3-65 +/- 2-33 ng/ml). Furthermore, the kinin release was reduced to near normal levels on re-challenge with glucose 3 months after jejunal interposition in patients who were cured or improved of their symptoms.

Dumping Syndrome↗
PubMed1975

Immunoperoxidase labeling of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis virus in hamster acute encephalitis.

A hamster neuroadapted strain of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) virus induces in the newborn animal an acute encephalitis with ultrastructural features similar to those observed earlier in measles encephalitis and characteristic of a productive viral infection. The direct immunoperoxidase technique, using labeled SSPE gamma-globulin, was applied to formaldehyde-fixed thick sections. These were either chopped after perfusion of the animal or cryocut after quick freezing of the tissue and then fixed. The latter procedure showed good correlation with light microscopic immunoperoxidase or fluorescent antibody staining on paired thin cryostat sections, whereas the former procedure resulted in easier handling of the sections and better ultrastructural preservation, especially when the lysine-periodate-formaldehyde fixative was used. Under electron microscopy the plasma membrane of the nerve cells was often labeled on its inner side in areas where nucleocapsids accumulate to form buds. The membrane antigen appeared to be more focal than in productive SSPE infection in vitro. Within the cytoplasm, most of the tubular inclusions were stained with the label located on the external granular coat of the nucleocapsid. Nonstructural antigen was also detected in the rough endoplasmic reticulum membrane (often on the side of a tubular inclusion), in the cytoplasmic matrix, and sometimes in the nucleus and on the nuclear membrane of giant cells. It thus seems that SSPE gamma-globulin reacts with viral proteins close to the site of synthesis. Because of the high specificity and reproducibility of this method for the detection of intracellular viral antigens, its use is recommended for further studies of conventional and nonconventional viral central nervous system diseases in which an immune response is present.

Acute Disease↗