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Biomedical subjects

M Kirsch

Publications and source records attributed to M Kirsch.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

[An arsonist with a sexual motivation].

In the period 1963-1983 expert opinion was given 147 times on the criminal accountability of premeditated arsonists. In 12% of the cases the crime was sexually motivated. We exemplify the transition of the motive from heightened SELBSTWERTERLEBEN through FREUDE UND ALLGEMEINE LUST in fire to (pre)sexual motivation. The individual features of these 18 cases are noted and distinguished, and the conclusions reached in the expert testimony set out.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

[Tuberculosis control strategy after 1988].

The early detection of new cases of tuberculosis, especially such with positive sputum, and the application of potent chemotherapy aiming at an early and lasting elimination of potential infection sources are urgent requirements of the basic strategy to combat the disease. The case finding must mainly aim at patients with bronchopulmonary complaints lasting over 3 to 4 weeks. X-ray testing of the whole population is no longer necessary. It should be abandoned in favour of careful screening of well defined high-risk-groups. Bacteriological diagnostics and tuberculin testing are now of greater importance within the changing case-finding-strategy. Major changes of therapeutical principles are not to be expected. Generalized protection and isolation measures should be critically scrutinized and reduced to the strictly necessary. Until the final eradication of tuberculosis a generally acceptable strategy related to the dynamic is required.

Antitubercular Agents↗
PubMed1988

Fatal adult respiratory distress syndrome in a patient with Lyme disease.

A dry cough, fever, generalized maculopapular rash, and myositis developed in a 67-year-old woman; she also had markedly abnormal liver function test results. Serologic tests proved that she had an infection of recent onset with Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent that causes Lyme disease. During a two-month course of illness, her condition remained refractory to treatment with antibiotics, salicylates, and steroids. Ultimately, fatal adult respiratory distress syndrome developed; this was believed to be secondary to Lyme disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Glutamate and dopamine modulate synaptic plasticity in horizontal cell dendrites of fish retina.

Horizontal cell dendrites protruding into the cone pedicles in fish retina exhibit a light-dependent plasticity. In a light-adapted retina they form numerous spinules having membrane densities at their tips. These spinules disappear during dark adaptation. Experiments with light- or dark-adapted retinas which were incubated in glutamate or its agonists and antagonists, respectively, revealed that this putative cone transmitter is able to reduce the expression of spinules in a light-adapted retina. Dopamine, on the other hand, induces the formation of spinules in a dark-adapted retina and haloperidol reduces the expression in a light-adapted retina. These data suggest a control of spinules plasticity through two retinal neurotransmitter systems.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Plasticity of cone horizontal cell functioning in cyprinid fish retina: effects of background illumination of moderate intensity.

In electrophysiological experiments involving intracellular recording from horizontal cells in the isolated retina of the roach, light adaptation of the retina has been shown to result in potentiation both of (1) the depolarizing component of biphasic chromaticity type S-potentials, and (2) the temporal frequency transfer functions of photopic luminosity type horizontal cells. Under identical light adaptation conditions, the number of spinules on horizontal cell dendrites positioned laterally at cone pedicle ribbon synapses, increase by some threefold. The latter effect occurs equally in pedicles of red- and green-sensitive cones. Thus, horizontal cells are 'plastic' in both structural and electrophysiological respects. Furthermore, since the two electrophysiological parameters studied depend on negative feedback from horizontal cells onto cones, the results suggest that it is the inhibitory synapses that are plastic and that spinules may be sites of the negative feedback interaction. Physiological and behavioural aspects of light-dependent horizontal cell plasticity are also discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

[Arson and (para-) suicide].

There have been forensic-psychiatric observations from 1963 to 1983 concerning the offenders responsibility in case of deliberate arson with 12 out of 147 suits being closely related to (para-)suicide. According the variety of relations we distinguish between fire as pure means of suicide, fire used to take along the living space or people, suicide committed in consequence of arson, furthermore arson as a symbolic suicide, and finally acting alternately with both arson as well as parasuicide.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Polychlorinated biphenyls in the electrical machinery industry: an ethnological study of community action and corporate responsibility.

Environmental and occupational health problems cannot be understood through purely medical and epidemiological analyses, the social forces affecting biologically adaptive behavior must also be analyzed. Research on the political economy of health needs to generate an ethnology of community action relevant to the analyses of corporate structures for which it is best known. In studying the community of Pittsfield, Mass., where a General Electric plant is located, we encountered environmental and occupational health problems in just this context. This essay is, therefore, an effort to extend the political economy of health into the ethnological domain of community research.

Community Participation↗
PubMed1983

High-dose methotrexate in small cell lung cancer. Lack of efficacy in preventing CNS relapse.

Few studies have incorporated high-dose methotrexate (MTX) with leucovorin rescue in the treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Potentially therapeutic levels of MTX can be achieved in the central nervous system (CNS) by systemic administration of high doses of this drug. Utilizing a combination chemotherapy program of Adriamycin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and methotrexate, 31 patients were sequentially assigned to receive either low-dose MTX (40 mg/m2), or high-dose MTX (500 mg/m2) with leucovorin rescue. Radiation therapy to the primary site was also administered. At these dosage levels there were no statistically significant differences in response rate or survival between the two groups. High-dose MTX did not prevent the appearance of CNS disease; there being 2/15 and 3/15 CNS relapses in the HD MTX and LD MTX treated groups, respectively. The occurrence of CNS disease did not significantly affect overall survival as compared to patients not similarly affected.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Carcinoma of the cervix stage IB: results of treatment with radiation therapy.

An analysis has been made of 101 patients treated with radiation therapy for epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix Stage IB (FIGO) from January 1970 through December 1976. The patients were treated with a combination of intracavitary therapy and external beam therapy delivering a total combined dose of 8000 rad to the paracervical areas (Points AR and AL) and 5500 rad to the pelvic lymph nodes (Points IR and IL). The cumulative, disease-free survival at 2, 3 and 5 years was 89%, 87% and 84%. Sixteen failures were recorded in this group of patients, of which 3 were a result of loco-regional disease, 5 loco-regional disease plus distant metastasis and 8 distant metastasis only. The failure rate was greater among the patients who had lesions 4 or more cm in diameter and in patients who received doses of external beam therapy to the whole pelvis of 4000 rad or more. Eighteen patients developed complications; however, one patient had a recto-vaginal and a vesico-vaginal fistula; thus 19 complications were recorded. The complications were divided according to their severity into three groups: Grade I (mild), Grade II (moderate) and Grade III (severe). There were 10 Grade I, 4 Grade II and 5 Grade III complications.

Brachytherapy↗
PubMed1983

The determination of pentachlorophenol and tetrachlorophenols in wadden sediment and clams (Mya arenaria) using triethylsulfonium hydroxide for extraction and pyrolytic ethylation.

A method to determine the concentration of pentachlorophenol and tetrachlorophenols in wadden sediments and clams is described. This method involves the extraction of lyophilized specimens with toluene under acidic conditions and the back extraction of the chlorophenols into a methanol/water solution of triethylsulfonium hydroxide. Upon injection of the methanol/water phase into the gaschromatograph a pyrolytic ethylation is performed and the ethylethers of pentachlorophenol and tetrachlorophenols formed thereby are separated in quartz capillary columns and detected by an electron capture detector. Using tribromophenol as internal standard the recovery rates for the chlorophenols were within the range of 76.7 and 98.8%. The method described does not require any evaporation or chromatographic clean-up steps. The detection limit was found to be 2 nmol/kg (approximately 500 ng/kg) for sediment and 0.1 mumol/kg (approximately 25 micrograms/kg) for clams. Its accuracy was verified by gaschromatography-mass spectrometry experiments.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

[Radiation load of kidneys in telecobalt irradiation of aortic lymph nodes].

The kidneys of 117 patients were examined before and after (immediately until several weeks) a telecobalt irradiation of the aortal lymph nodes. In 36 out of them, another control examination could be performed after 1 1/2 years. In 17 patients, the early examinations showed functional troubles of the kidneys which regressed in nine cases. The late examinations showed in 19 cases functional restrictions which have to be considered to be irreversible. The conclusion must be drawn that it is necessary to examine the kidneys before and until several years after a radiotherapy of the aortal lymph nodes and that the dose distribution has to be optimized with respect to a conservation of the kidneys, as far as this is oncologically possible.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Inhibition of tubulin self-assembly in vitro by fluorodinitrobenzene.

The self-assembly of bovine brain tubulin into microtubules is inhibited by low molar ratios of 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobezene (FDNB). Binding studies using [14C]FDNB indicate that the incorporation of between one and two dinitrophenyl groups is sufficient to inhibit assembly completely, although more dinitrophenyl groups can be incorporated using higher FDNB/tubulin ratios. Dinitrophenyltubulin, under assembly conditions, tends to assemble into amorphous aggregates. Thiolysis by 2-mercaptoethanol removes the dinitrophenyl moieties. Paper chromatography and high-voltage electrophoresis of acid-hydrolyzed modified tubulin containing one dinitrophenyl group identified the residue as S-dinitrophenylcysteine. The beta-monomer of tubulin is preferentially modified at low FDNB/tubulin ratios. The reaction with FDNB is greatly reduced when tubulin is in polymerized form. FDNB reduces the colchicine binding activity but does not affect the Mg(II) content of the protein.

Animals↗