Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M A Braun.
The vascular supply of the liver is variable. An unusual aberrant right hepatic artery arising from the right renal artery is described. The embryologic derivation and clinical relevance are discussed.
Cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), believed to be a major determinant of neurologic outcome, was monitored at the bedside of high-risk premature newborns during the first few days of life. Intraventricular hemorrhage was presumed to have occurred in only one of the seven infants and was associated with ventriculomegaly and early death. The other infants had good neurologic outcomes at age 18 months despite low mean CPPs (less than 30 mm Hg). These low CPPs were determined to be dependent on mean arterial blood pressures and not on intracranial pressures which were low in all infants (and even lower in more premature infants with apnea). Methylxanthine treatment of apnea of prematurity did not apparently change CPP, despite hypothetical effects on cerebral and peripheral vascular tone. Although fairly low CPP can be associated with good neurologic outcome, it may not be useful in monitoring newborn infants.
PURPOSE: To determine the safety, efficacy, and diagnostic utility of percutaneous cholecystostomy in patients with suspected calculous or acalculous cholecystitis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Percutaneous cholecystostomy guided with ultrasound (US) was performed in 58 consecutive hospitalized patients with suspected acute cholecystitis (28 with calculous, 30 with acalculous disease) who were not surgical candidates. RESULTS: The gallbladder was successfully catheterized in all 58 patients; 48 patients (83%) had a final diagnosis of acute cholecystitis. Clinical benefit was seen in 26 of 28 patients (93%) with calculous cholecystitis and in 16 of 20 patients (80%) with acalculous disease. The six patients who did not respond had pathologic evidence of transmural inflammation, and five had a gangrenous wall. The gallbladder was excluded as the source of sepsis in 10 patients with suspected acalculous cholecystitis. These patients' conditions did not improve after percutaneous cholecystostomy. Of the 48 patients with cholecystitis, 18 underwent cholecystectomy, 25 recovered and had their catheters removed, and five died of other causes with their catheters in place. There was one major complication, and seven minor complications. CONCLUSION: Percutaneous cholecystostomy is efficacious in both calculous and acalculous cholecystitis, but it may be most useful in the diagnosis of acalculous cholecystitis.
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A human isolate of Nipah virus from an outbreak of febrile encephalitis in Malaysia that coincided with a field outbreak of disease in pigs was used to infect eight 6-week-old pigs orally or subcutaneously and two cats oronasally. In pigs, the virus induced a respiratory and neurological syndrome consistent with that observed in the Malaysian pigs. Not all the pigs showed clinical signs, but Nipah virus was recovered from the nose and oropharynx of both clinically and sub-clinically infected animals. Natural infection of in-contact pigs, which was readily demonstrated, appeared to be acute and self-limiting. Subclinical infections occurred in both inoculated and in-contact pigs. Respiratory and neurological disease was also produced in the cats, with recovery of virus from urine as well as from the oropharynx. The clinical and pathological syndrome induced by Nipah virus in cats was comparable with that associated with Hendra virus infection in this species, except that in fatal infection with Nipah virus there was extensive inflammation of the respiratory epithelium, associated with the presence of viral antigen. Viral shedding via the nasopharynx, as observed in pigs and cats in the present study, was not a regular feature of earlier reports of experimental Hendra virus infection in cats and horses. The findings indicate the possibility of field transmission of Nipah virus between pigs via respiratory and oropharyngeal secretions.