Biomedical subjects

M Hommel

Publications and source records attributed to M Hommel.

172 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Protection against Plasmodium chabaudi malaria. I.--Vaccination of mice with merozoites and Freund's adjuvants.

Rodent malaria can be a useful experimental model for preliminary studies of some of the variables of a future malaria vaccine (e. g. optimal doses of merozoites to be used for immunization, nature of adjuvant, etc.). The present study shows that a partial protection can be achieved in outbred OF-1 mice after vaccination with isolated Plasmodium chabaudi merozoites and Freund's complete adjuvant. These results show the relative importance of parasite virulence, number of merozoites used for immunization and size of challenge inoculum. The optimal conditions for using such a model in vaccination experiments are discussed. In these conditions the major effect of immunization is to transform an acute lethal infection into an acute self-curing infection, which is subsequently followed by a solid state of protection against a secondary challenge.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Markers of Loa loa infection in permanent residents of a loiasis endemic area of Gabon.

Different markers of infection were analyzed in 56 permanent residents of a Loa loa endemic village in Gabon. The population was divided into those with parasitological evidence of L. loa infection and those with no history of loiasis over the period of observation (c. 5 years). 26.7% of villagers had L. loa microfilariae, 33.9% had an ocular passage of an adult worm, and 17.8% had calabar oedema. Several other clinical symptoms were present in both groups of individuals, but none was considered to be pathognomonic for L. loa infection. Most of the villagers were polyparasitized, with Plasmodium falciparum and gastrointestinal parasites being particularly prevalent. Mansonella perstans was present in 80% of the villagers and was equally distributed between L. loa microfilaraemic and amicrofilaraemic individuals. Eosinophil levels were elevated in the whole population, and were not significantly different between the groups who were infected and non-infected with L. loa. Polyclonal immunoglobulin (Ig) E levels were high in both the Ambinda villagers and in Gambian serum from patients infected with M. perstans alone and there was no significant difference between the levels of L. loa specific IgG in the Ambinda villagers and the Gambian patients. However, the level of L. loa specific IgG4 was elevated in 75.6% of amicrofilaraemic individuals and could discriminate between most individuals infected with L. loa and those infected with M. perstans, suggesting that this is the best determinant of infection status in the absence of L. loa microfilariae.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Neuropsychological features of dementia due to dural arteriovenous malformation.

We report two patients aged 65 and 61 years, who presented a subacute dementia with normal CT scan without contrast injection. Angiography showed a dural arteriovenous malformation. The patients improved dramatically with treatment of the malformation. Dementia was characterised by frontal dysfunction, emotional disorders, amnesic and praxic impairment. This neuropsychological pattern suggests a profile of global dementia in the field of vascular dementia.

Brain↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Risk factors for lacunar infarcts.

Lacunar infarcts represent a stroke subgroup with controversial risk factors. Lacunar syndromes may be divided into two groups: the classic group (pure motor hemiplegia, pure sensory stroke, ataxic hemiparesis, dysarthria-clumsy hand syndrome, sensorimotor stroke) and the miscellaneous group including all other lacunar syndromes. We studied risk factors of 200 consecutive patients with symptomatic lacunar infarcts diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging. This study tested whether lacunar infarcts represent a homogeneous subgroup of strokes or not. Using descriptive and bivariate statistics, we found that the prevalences of arterial hypertension and cigarette smoking are lower in the miscellaneous group. Analysis of variance shows a significant difference in age between subgroups without interaction of sex. Nevertheless, using multivariate analysis, we did not find a difference between subgroups. Thus, lacunar infarcts seem to be a homogeneous subgroup of strokes, and the miscellaneous group of lacunar infarcts may be included into the lacunar infarct group and not into the vertebrobasilar large-artery infarct group.

Age Distribution↗

PubMedDate not supplied