Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Popescu.
By means of two original histochemical methods, the folate metabolism was investigated in the gastric glands proper. The presence of a high concentration of folic acid and dihydrofolate reductase in the parietal cells suggests a straight metabolic interrelation between the intrinsic factor, vitamin B12 and folate in these gland cells.
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By means of an original cytochemical method, folic acid was demonstrated "in situ" in peripheral white blood cells in acute and chronic granulocytic leukemia. In control blood smears folic acid-relevant granules were found predominantly in the nuclei of neutrophils and basophils. Eosinophils were found positive for folic acid reaction both in nuclei and cytoplasm. In leukemic undifferentiated cells, less marked in acute than in chronic granulocytic leukemia, the cytoplasms contained a great quantity of folate. Nuclei were fewer or nonreactive. Therefore the cytochemical localization may be related to the degree of the white cells differentiation.
The precipitation reaction with potassium oxalate was used to investigate the subcellular localization of Ca2+ in atrial myocardocytes and in Schwann cells of non-myelinated nerve fibers. Chelation with EGTA was used to prove the presence of Ca2+ in the electronoopaque deposits. In both cell types the oxalate reaction was intense in the classically described Ca2+ deposits: the perinuclear cisterna, the endo (sarco) plasmic reticulum, the mitochondrial matrix, but also in a novel localization: the cisternae of the Golgi stack in all cis to trans positions, suggesting that Golgi Apparatus is a major intracellular Ca2+ pool.
Periodical measurement of total adenosine phosphates and cAMP in liver, intestinal mucosa and brain carried out in rats after irradiation with either 500 rads or 750 rads generally revealed high intratissular levels of these compounds, suggesting both a stimulated cellular synthesis and an abnormal redistribution in different tissues. The most interesting findings were those regarding the brain considering their close relationships with the clinical evolution of the animals and other previously described biochemical observations.
The effectiveness of the intermittent treatment (2/7) with Rifampicin + Etambutol, administered over periods of 3 to 24 months, was tested in a log of 229 out-patients suffering from tuberculosis (bacilli carriers). Negativation of the cultures was obtained in 88.4% of the cases, most of the failures being recorded in the aged patients from rural areas, suffering from various other associated diseases and in those who did not cooperate. As these patients raise particular problems concerning the therapeutical attitude, the authors consider they should be admitted to hospital, at least during the critical periods of the disease.
In a lot of 452 patients with various forms of tuberculosis, in various locations, the authors have investigated the efficiency of tests currently employed in detecting tuberculin sensitivity (intradermoreaction to PPD, the test to sensitines and the Ustvedt test), in relation with several immunologic tests performed in vitro (index of lymphoblastogenesis to PPD and/or phytohaemagglutinin, leucocyte migration inhibition test, and the rosette test). It was noted that the two groups of investigations give similar results when tuberculin reactions are positive and intense. Under the conventionally admitted threshold of tuberculinic allergy the test of blastic transformation of lymphocytes, and especially the leucocyte migration inhibition tests are still positive and may be considered as a valuable means for measuring infra-tuberculinic allergy, as well as for the diagnosis of latent tuberculous infections.
The authors have performed 58435 microscopic examinations, of which 3813 were positive, and found 209 (5,48%) cases of non-cultivable Koch bacilli. The major bacteriological, clinico-evolutive and therapeutical aspects are examined. Most of the cases showing a syndrome of positive homogenate with a negative culture were rather recent ones (an evolution of less than 2 years in 73,68% of the total) and the highest frequency was found in those in which the treatment was in its first year. No direct relationship could be demonstrated between the number of germs (the Gaffky scale) and the frequency of the syndrome. The factors influencing the occurrence and the development of the syndrome are: the structure of the lesions, the method of bacteriologic examination, the therapy applied, and a certain immunologic reactivity. According to the authors the significance of this syndrome is positive in most of the cases, indicating a regression that has not been completed. The most reasonable attitude is a differentiated one, depending on each case, integrating the data obtained by the bacteriological examination in the therapeutic and evolutive clinico-radiologic context.
A study was carried out in 266 571 students, examined during the 1952--1974 interval, on a series of risk factors of infection and morbidity from tuberculosis with regard to certain epidemiological, immunobiologic and peristasis parameters. In the interval studied, morbidity from tuberculosis fell sharply from 923 per 100,000 in 1952 to 83 per 100,000 in 1974. The highest proportion of infection occured in the first three years at the university, particularly among meidcal students. The risk of infection of alergic subjects with an intradermoreaction greater than 15 mm in diameter, was approximately twice that the hypo- or normoergic subjects and the proportion of vaccinates who contracted the disease three times smaller than that of the non-vaccinated subjects.
The paper reports a study on the involvement of the visual system during work at video terminal. The results of the investigations on a group of operators in a computation centre were used for describing an optimum anatomicofunctional visual type for work at video terminal and the hygiene rules to be observed during work at the computer screen.
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Starting from the premise that in the methodology of tuberculosis control priority should be given to the higher risk groups, the authors tried to identify such groups and list them in the order of their priority within the district of a dispensary serving a population of about 400,000 inhabitants. On comparing the results of the detection of risk factors among the population in general with that per endangered groups it was found that the former presented a decrease (from 1.09 to 0.44 per thousand) and the latter an increase (from 0.91 to 1.5 per thousand). The 126 747 examinations for risk factors revealed a succesive increase in the detection indices as follows: 0.76 per thousand among students, 1.36 per thousand in silicogen risk enterprises, 2.07 per thousand among the workers on building sites, 2.22 per thousand among diabetics, 2.76 per thousand among contacts, 2.85 per thousand among hyperergic subjects, 3.89 per thousand among former patients no longer on the files, 4.17 per thousand among alcoholics and patients under psychical treatment, 6.01 per thousand among patients with minimal lesions and 6.82 thousand among those with sequelae.
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The mode of administration of chemotherapy is evaluated, in conditions of integration, and under strict supervision, in tuberculosis patients in 12 medical dispensaries and in 6 enterprise dispensaries from Craiova over a period of one year. A total of 88,54 +/- 17,99 per cent of the number of programmed doses was administered in the territorial medical dispensary, as compared with 81,9 +/- 21,3 per cent in the tuberculosis dispensary. In enterprise dispensaries 97,69 +/- 16,17 per cent of the doses was given effectively, as compared with 78,17 +/- 29,39 per cent of doses given to the same patients in the tuberculosis dispensary. During the sick-leave 92,14 +/- 9,19 per cent of the doses were given, in the medical territorial dispensary as against 86,98 +/- 17,58 per cent in the tuberculosis dispensary. The difference is not significant. After reinsertion 77,53 +/- 24,84 per cent of the programmed doses were administered in the tuberculosis dispensary, 88,2 +/- 19,84 per cent in the territorial medical dispensary and 97,12 +/- 5,66 per cent in the enterprise dispensary. The differences were not significant. The authors conclude that administration of anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy can be perfectly well carried out in integrated conditions in the urban environment, especially in interprise medical units, after reinsertion. The phtysiologist should make a periodical survey in these units in view of securing a strict administration of the treatment regimens.
The dynamics were studied of the tuberculous endemy in a limited area of the Cluj-Napoca District over a period of 5--16 years. An industrial environment was considered in comparison with a non-industrial one in the vicinity. The results show a marked decrease in the incidence of tuberculosis in the industrial environment (from 710 0/0000 in 1961 to 102 3/0000 in 1976), but, at the same time, it was demonstrated that morbidity due to tuberculosis is higher as compared with the non-industrial area (318 0/0000 as compared with 49 0/0000). The importance is discussed, of some particular factors of the industrial environment, such as pneumoconioses -- of which the most important are those due to silica -- which are significant risk factors for tuberculosis. A close cooperation is recommended, between enterprise physicians and pneumophtysiologists working in territorial polyclinics.
An improved knowledge of anatomy and psysiology of the apical radicular region has made mandatory a better classical endodontic technique concerning the apical limit of instrumentation, and has stressed the importance of a precise determination of the cemento-dentinal junction as the apical limit of canal obturation. On the basis of these orientations a clinical and radiographic study was carried out on 120 teeth extracted form humans, in which the frequency was determined of the excentric position of the cement conus with regard to the apex, and the distance between the cemento-dentinal junction and the apex. In 45 teeth in situ, with pulpar inflammation, gangrene and apical parodontitis a clinical and radiological appraisal was done of the cemento-dentinal junction, and evolution was followed after canal obturation.
A prospective study was made of 30 patients, admitted to the neurology ward with subarachnoidal hemorrhage (SAH), at its onset. The diagnosis was established on the basis of anamnesis, clinical examination, spinal puncture, anatomopathological examination. The patients with other cerebrovascular affections or with antecedents of ischaemic cardiac affections were excluded. ECG tracings, serum ionogram, AT and VA at the onset and in evolution, and their modifications were followed and assessed in all the patients. The conclusion is reached that SAH in acute phase is associated with transitory ECG and pressure anomalies which become elements of unfavourable prognosis when persistent and deeply altered. They are valuable, at hand, elements in the differential diagnosis, and in the opportune therapeutical intervention.
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