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Biomedical subjects

N Yoshimura

Publications and source records attributed to N Yoshimura.

At least 649 records · Page 36Linked to original sources
PubMed1979

Chronic hepatic encephalopathy. Long-term therapy with a branched-chain amino-acid-enriched elemental diet.

Therapy of chronic hepatic encephalopathy is often frustrating, limited as it is by the ability to adequately nourish such patients. Protein is needed for repair, but such patients are intolerant of protein. Previous work from this and other laboratories has suggested that the distorted plasma amino acid pattern may be causally related to hepatic encephalopathy. A single, well-studied, long-term patient received therapy with a branched-chain amino-acid-enriched elemental diet that not only enabled adequate nutrition with protein but resulted in improvement in hepatic function as well as reversal of some aspects of hepatic encephalopathy that heretofore have been deemed irreversible. The results confirm that branched-chain-enriched amino acid diets previously successful in the intravenous mode may be successfully used in chronic long-term support of patients with protein intolerance, with improvement in hepatic function secondary to improvement in nutrition.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1979

Chronically persistent infection with human cytomegalovirus in human lymphoblasts.

Cells from a line of human lymphocytes originating from a leukemic patient were persistently infected with human cytomegalovirus. Assays of infectious centers and fluorescent antigen staining indicated that 1%--10% of the cells were infected. It appears that persistent infection is due to an equilibrium between the release of virus by infected host cells and the growth of uninfected cells rather than to defective virus or temperature-sensitive mutants.

Antigens, Viral↗
PubMed1979

Effect of exercise on postoperative nitrogen balance.

This study was designed to investigate whether exercise, when used as an adjunct to parenteral nutrition, has any influence on postoperative muscle catabolism, amino acid metabolism, and nitrogen balance. Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups of exercised and nonexercised animals. All animals underwent laparotomy and jugular vein cannulation, were placed in metabolic cages, and were infused with a dextrose-protein solution at 15 kcal and 0.56 g amino acids/100 g body wt per 24 h for a total of 96 h. The exercised animals were run on a treadmill for 15 min/day for a total of 3 days. There was no difference in nitrogen balance and body weight change between exercised and nonexercised animals, as well as no difference between animals who experienced different degrees of exercise. Total and individual plasma amino acids in the exercised group were 15% lower than in the nonexercised group; the total and individual free amino acids in muscle of the exercised group were 66% higher than in the nonexercised group. This pattern of high levels of amino acids in the muscle, coupled with decreased plasma concentrations, is suggestive of increased amino acid turnover in the muscle of the exercised animals. We suggest that, in the postoperative or postinjury period, exercise has a stimulating effect on amino acid turnover in the skeletal muscle resulting from 1) amino acid (mainly the branched-chain amino acids) consumption for energg metabolism and gluconeogenesis, and 2) protein synthesis. The net balance of both results in nitrogen equilibrium similar to that of a nonexercised control group.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1977

Plasma amino acid patterns in hepatic encephalopathy of differing etiology.

Plasma amino acids were measured in 18 patients with hepatic encephalopathy on a protein-restricted diet of 20 g or less daily. Plasma aminograms tended to group into two distinct patterns depending on the etiology of the patients' hepatic pathology. Patients with chronic liver disease with superimposed acute insults, i.e., gastrointestinal bleeding, infection, alcoholic hepatitis, had elevated levels of the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, as well as methionine, glutamate, and aspartate, whereas levels of the branched chain amino acids, valine, leucine, and isoleucine, were consistently depressed. Those patients with previously normal livers and acute hepatic necrosis, i.e., "fulminant hepatitis," had grossly elevated levels of all amino acids except the branched chain amino acids, which were normal. Elevations of amino acid levels in this patient group tended to correlate with extent of hepatic necrosis and hence had prognostic significance. Additionally, the different patterns seen in these two groups tend to suggest the indicated therapy as well as predict its efficacy.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1976

Brain tryptophan, plasma free tryptophan and distribution of plasma neutral amino acids.

Although rat brain tryptophan is strikingly elevated following portacaval shunt, plasma total tryptophan is unchanged and plasma free tryptophan is not elevated to the same degree as brain tryptophan. Investigation of the concentrations of the neutral amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, methionine, threonine, leucine, isoleucine, and valine) revealed that their distribution and the sum of their concentrations were altered following portacaval shunt, and that this pattern was similar to that seen in humans with cirrhosis of the liver. It is suggested that both the elevation in plasma free tryptophan and the decrease in the competing neutral amino acids, act together to increase the transport of tryptophan into brain when portal blood is diverted around the liver. The implications of these findings in therapy of hepatic coma is discussed.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1976

Metabolism of methoxyflurane in man.

Excretion of methoxyflurane was studied in 12 patients receiving anesthesia in a closed rebreathing circuit at a constant alveolar concentration of approximately 0.24 per cent. The mean methoxyflurane uptake was 18 g (range 7.6-31 g) during a mean time of anesthesia administration of 2 hours, 18 minutes (range 55-309 minutes). An average of 19 per cent of the uptake was recovered unchanged in the exhaled air after anesthesia. Urinary excretion of organic fluorine, fluoride, and oxalic acid was equivalent to 29, 7.7 and 7.1 per cent of methoxyflurane uptake, respectively. Approximately a third of the uptake remained unrecovered. It is postulated that a portion of the unrecovered drug became permanently bound to tissues and hence its excretion was delayed beyond the period of the study.

Acetates↗