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Biomedical subjects

R L Harris

Publications and source records attributed to R L Harris.

113 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Pulmonary and disseminated infection due to Mycobacterium kansasii: a decade of experience.

Fifty-five patients with Mycobacterium kansasii isolates (47 pulmonary and eight disseminated) were identified at a large Texas hospital from 1975 to 1985. The mean age of patients was 60 years, and there was a slight male predominance. Isolation of M. kansasii usually represented disease. The great majority of patients with pulmonary infection due to M. kansasii had underlying pulmonary diseases, and 70% had nonpulmonary predisposing factors. M. kansasii pulmonary disease clinically and radiographically resembled pulmonary tuberculosis. Disseminated M. kansasii infection occurred in severely immunocompromised patients, who frequently had pulmonary predispositions as well. Disseminated infection most of ten involved the lung, reticuloendothelial system, bone, joint, and skin and presented with signs and symptoms related to these organs. Despite only moderate in vitro susceptibility of M. kansasii to routine antituberculous drugs, most patients responded to rifampin-containing regimens. The prognosis of patients with M. kansasii disease was determined primarily by their underlying diseases.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

"Contribution to the Question of Pneumotyphus": a discussion of the original article by J. Ritter in 1880.

In 1880, Dr. J. Ritter wrote a classic infectious disease article (originally in German) on psittacosis entitled, "Contribution to the Question of Pneumotyphus." In this article, Ritter meticulously describes a mini-epidemic--in which three individuals died--of seven cases of psittacosis caused by parrots and finches caged in the study of his brother's house in Uster, Switzerland. Ritter accurately identified the study as the site of the source of infection, considered the birds as vectors, and determined both the incubation period and the nontransmissability of the disease from human to human. His main differential diagnosis was a choice between typhoid and typhus; with pneumonitis being the main pathologic finding, he coined the term pneumotyphus. Ritter's article elegantly describes the clinical presentation, epidemiology, pathologic findings, and natural history of infection due to Chlamydia psittaci. Ritter's astute observations and their significance are discussed in this paper.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bacteremia caused by Aeromonas species in hospitalized cancer patients.

Bacteremia caused by Aeromonas species occurred in 24 hospitalized patients in a cancer institute during a 13-year period. All but one of these patients had a malignancy (88% had leukemia), and most were receiving chemotherapy for cancer. There was a striking numerical predominance of male patients (82%). Unlike some previously described patients with infections due to this organism, none of these 24 patients had recently been exposed to fresh or salt water or to fish. The source of the infecting organism was thought to be endogenous--i.e., from patients' own gastrointestinal tracts. The clinical presentation of sepsis caused by this organism was nonspecific, except that ecthyma gangrenosum occurred in several patients. The overall mortality rate was 28%. The combination of an aminoglycoside and a cephalosporin is appropriate therapy for bacteremia caused by Aeromonas species.

Acute Disease↗