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Biomedical subjects

P J Kumar

Publications and source records attributed to P J Kumar.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

The cellular infiltrate of the jejunum in adult coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis following the reintroduction of dietary gluten.

The cellular infiltrate of the jejunal mucosa has been studied in patients with both treated and untreated adult coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis and serially in treated patients before and after the reintroduction of gluten to the diet. In adult coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis the jejunal mucosa showed similar abnormalities of the cellular infiltrate which was characterized by an increase in intraepithelial lymphocytes and lamina propria plasma cells and eosinophils, with the greatest numbers of cells occurring in untreated patients. At 24-48 hours following a single 25-g gluten challenge there was an increase in lamina propria plasma cells, lymphocytes and eosinophils and intraepithelial lymphocytes. This rise was sustained after seven days on a gluten-containing diet for all of these cell groups except lamina propria lymphocytes. These responses were essentially similar in both adult coeliac disease and in those dermatitis herpetiformis patients who had jejunal lesions before treatment. In dermatitis herpetiformis patients with normal jejunal morphology on a normal diet there was an upward trend in lamina propria plasma cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes within one to three weeks of taking extra dietary gluten. These results are compatible with the view that more than one immunological mechanism may be responsible for the pathogenesis of the jejunal lesion of coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.

Adult↗

Amino acid and peptide absorption in patients with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.

A double-lumen perfusion technique has been used to study amino acid and peptide absorption in eight normal control subjects, 13 patients with untreated adult coeliac disease, and 16 patients with dermatitis herpetiformis who had varying morphological abnormalities of the small bowel. All subjects were perfused with isotonic solutions containing 10 mM glycyl-L-alanine and 10 mM glycine + 10 mM L-alanine. Patients with adult coeliac disease had impaired absorption of glycine (p < 0.01) and L-alanine (p < 0.05) from the amino acid solution compared with the control subjects. Amino acid uptake from the dipeptide solution was not significantly impaired, although four individual patients had impaired uptake of both amino acids. In contrast to these findings, very few patients with dermatitis herpetiformis had impaired amino acid absorption from either solution. Sodium absorption was impaired from both solutions when the groups of patients with adult coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis with subtotal villous atrophy and partial villous atrophy were studied, and there were patients in each group who secreted sodium and water. The results suggest that malabsorption of dietary protein is unlikely to occur in dermatitis herpetiformis but may occur and contribute to protein deficiency seen in some severe cases of adult coeliac disease. The impairment of sodium and water absorption provides evidence that there may be functional impairment of the jejunal mucosa in dermatitis herpetiformis as well as in adult coeliac disease.

Adult↗

Is the xylose test still a worth-while investigation?

In a retrospective survey the results of a D-xylose absorption test have been assessed in relation to jejunal morphology and final diagnosis in 152 adult patients with various types of gastrointestinal disease. Neither urine excretion rates nor serum concentrations alone provide an adequate separation between patients with definite mucosal lesions and those without evidence of gut disease or with other types of gastrointestinal pathology.It is suggested that when a jejunal biopsy can readily be performed the xylose test serves little useful purpose in routine practice and can be positively misleading. It may still be useful as a screening test for referral for jejunal biopsy, provided that strict criteria of normality are applied.

Biopsy↗

Treatment of dermatitis herpetiformis with corticosteroids and a gluten-free diet: a study of jejunal morphology and function.

The jejunal morphological and functional response to either a gluten-free diet or corticosteroid therapy was studied in six patients with dermatitis herpetiformis. In each treatment group there were two patients with subtotal villous atrophy and one with partial villous atrophys. After treatment, in both groups, morphological improvement was seen in villous and surface cell heights, mucosal thickness, and intraepithelial lymphocyte counts. Jejunal function was assessed using the perfusion technique. Absorption of glucose from a 56 mM solution was shown to improve. Water movement from this solution was in a secretory state in four patients (two in each group) before treatment and moved into the normal absorptive range after treatment. These results further outline the similarity between the mucosal lesion of dermatitis herpetiformis and true coeliac disease.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗

The incidence of joint involvement with adjacent osteomyelitis in pediatric patients.

Sixty-six patients admitted to our institution over an 8-year period with the diagnosis of osteomyelitis were analyzed to determine the incidence of adjacent joint involvement. Patients with osteomyelitis of the hand, foot, spine, and extraarticular pelvis were excluded from this study. The average age was 5.8 years (range, 1 month to 17 years). Forty-two percent of our patients who had osteomyelitis had evidence of adjacent joint involvement (either septic or nonseptic). One third of our patients had evidence of septic joint involvement. The most commonly involved joint was the knee. There was no difference in the incidence of adjacent joint involvement in those patients who were younger than 18 months compared with the incidence in older children. Our study suggests that the incidence of adjacent joint involvement in children who have osteomyelitis is higher than that suggested in the literature. We believe that careful evaluation of the adjacent joint should be an important part of the evaluation of any child who has osteomyelitis.

Adolescent↗