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Biomedical subjects

M Medina

Publications and source records attributed to M Medina.

246 records · Page 14Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Influence of the oral administration of lactic acid bacteria on iga producing cells associated to bronchus.

Intestinal, respiratory and genitourinary mucosal surfaces are the most important routes of entry for microbial pathogens. The stimulus of the mucosal immunity is not easy because the trigger keys for the activation do not follow the ones of the systemic immune response. In previous works we have demonstrated that some Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB), when orally administered, can induce an enhance of the gut immune response. Taking into account the concept of a common mucosal response, we studied the effect of orally administered mice with Lactobacillus casei, L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus and Lactococcus lactis on the IgA secreting cells associated to bronchus. As shown before, oral immunostimulation with LAB induced an increase of the IgA* cells at intestinal level by a dose depending effect. In this study it is also showed that the LAB assayed, with exception of L. acidophilus, were able to enhance IgA+ cells at bronchial level, being also this effect dose dependent. The increment induced by some LAB in the number of IgA+ cells on the mucosa surface of the lower respiratory tract may be very important to prevent bronchus diseases.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Diagnosis by non-invasive methods of incipient left ventricular lesions in patients with Chagas' disease. Use of echocardiography and mechanocardiography].

In this study, ninety-seven patients with positive complement-fixation reaction for Chagas' disease were submitted to M-mode echocardiograms, fonomechanocardiograms, right and left heart catheterization and left cine-ventriculogram, in an attempt to establish the usefulness of these non-invasive methods for the diagnosis of myocardial damage in Chagasic patients. Only the left ventricular end-diastolic volume determination showed a significant echo-angiographic correlation, as well as a satisfactory sensitivity and specificity to detect early myocardial damage. Therefore, with this parameter it was possible to diagnose 33% of patients which had left ventricular cine-angiographic damage, without clinical, electrocardioangiographic or radiological abnormalities. All other non-invasive parameters measured in this study were useful only in patients with advanced myocardial damage, recognizable by abnormal ECG or clinical signs of congestive heart failure. We recommend to obtain good quality left ventricular ecocardiograms in every chagasic patient, particularly those with normal ECG. This will allow the diagnosis of incipient cardiomyopathy in almost one third of all chagasic patients with early left ventricular abnormalities, recognizable by cine-ventriculograms.

Chagas Cardiomyopathy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Risk factors and length of stay attributable to hospital infections of the urinary tract in general surgery patients].

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the second frequent site of infection in surgical patients; nevertheless, its study has been frequently neglected. The main objective of this report is the analysis of risk factors for ITU in general surgery. METHODS: A prospective study on 1,483 patients admitted at a service of general surgery for a 20-month study period has been carried out. The criteria used for diagnosing nosocomial were those of the CDC. Crude and adjusted for by logistic regression relative risks and its 95% confidence interval were estimated. To assess the length of stay attributable to UTI, infected patients were 1:1 matched with non-infected patients for surgical procedure, ASA score, age (+/- 10 years), emergency surgery, pre-operative stay, and urinary catheter. RESULTS: 33 patients (2.2%) developed UTI. In crude analysis, UTI risk was significantly associated with urethral catheter (and its duration), advanced age, severity of illness (McCabe-Jackson scale, ASA score, number of diagnoses), type of surgical wound, intrinsic risk of infection (measured by the SENIC and NNIS indices). Stepwise logistic regression analysis selected three independent predictors: urethral catheter, age and pre-operative stay. All urinary drain-ages were open. UTI prolonged hospital stay 4.7 days (95% Cl 3.4-6.2). The use of closed drain-age systems would eliminate 6 UTIs. Assuming a cost per day of hospital stay of $250 the use of closed systems would save $7,000 (IC 95%, 5300-9300). CONCLUSION: The use of closed systems for urethral catheters is cost-saving.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Gammagraphy of the carotid glomus].

Using the colorant proteic complex labell with Tc-99 m. we visualize--by the first time--the carotideal glomus in the human in 6 volunteers and one patient with tumor. The results are very encorageous: the method was simple and safe (one single dose endovenously) and hardless (no radiotoxicity presents in 3 months of clinical and laboratory controls) and there is a good visualization by scan of carotideal bodies "in vivo", in human being. We think this new method and labell compound could be useful in research and medical diagnoses.

Carotid Body Tumor↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Image rotation and reversal--major obstacles in learning intracorporeal suturing and knot-tying.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A major stumbling block to teaching and learning the finer skills of laparoscopy is related to the "optical illusions" the video camera plays on the surgeon's eyes. Until now, the belief was that lack of coordination was the result of depth perception deficiencies resulting from the two dimensional plane of the video monitor. In reality, this is a minor problem that is easily surmounted with practice. A closer analysis of how organ orientation at the operative site compares to the video camera's fields of focus reveals the real problem: the major optical difference between laparotomy and laparoscopy involves rotation of the images received by the brain. CONCLUSIONS: There are four major operating positions in laparoscopy: camera position, right camera position, left camera position and opposite camera position. The object in front of the camera has two components; the first, a reality image, which results from light reflected off the object as it exists in time and space. The second, a visual image, which represents the actual light entering our eyes. At right camera position the visual image is a 90 degrees counter-clockwise rotation of the reality image. At the left camera position the visual image is a 90 degrees clockwise rotation of the reality image. At opposite camera position, a 180 degrees rotation and complete reversal of the reality image occurs. It is only at camera position that the visual image is equal to the reality image, and we approach a scenario similar to that found in laparotomy. Every other position will be unlike what we were accustomed to in open surgery.

Clinical Competence↗