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Biomedical subjects

R L Myerowitz

Publications and source records attributed to R L Myerowitz.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Carcinocythemia (carcinoma cell leukemia) due to metastatic carcinoma of the breast: report of a case.

A patient with a 17-year course of metastatic lobular carcinoma of the breast is described who developed large numbers of circulating carcinoma cells which were easily detectable in several routine peripheral blood smears shortly before death. This rare complication of carcinoma has been called "carcinocythemia." Carcinocythemia is probably due to widespread infiltration of many bone marrow sites and may also be related to splenectomy, which may impair reticuloendothelial clearance of circulating tumor cells. The differential diagnosis of carcinocythemia from superimposed acute myelogenous leukemia, which can complicate radiotherapy and chemotherapy for the primary tumor, is discussed. Cytomorphology, histochemistry, and electron microscopy of abnormal circulating cells should aid in the distinction of these two processes.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Potentiation of experimental meningitis due to Haemophilus influenzae by influenza A virus.

When Haemophilus influenzae type b was given intranasally to infant rats, a very large dose was required to produce histologic evidence of meningitis in even half of the animals tested; meningitis developed in 16 of 31 rats that received 10(7) viable bacteria at the age of five days. However, when the animals first received influenza virus, the dose of bacteria required to produce meningitis was reduced 100-fold; meningitis occurred in 10 of 21 rats given virus at two days and 10(5) viable bacteria at five days. These results suggest that prior viral infection of the upper respiratory tract may be a factor in the pathogenesis of haemophilus meningitis.

Animals↗

Immunology of the infant rat experimental model of Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis.

The age-related acquisition of serum anticapsular and bactericidal antibodies to Haemophilus influenzae type b observed in rats was similar to that of humans. The antigenic source for this "natural" immunity was not identified since neither pharyngeal infection with H. influenzae b nor enteric colonization by cross-reacting bacteria was detected. Infant rats surviving H. influenzae b bacteremia failed to respond immunologically to the capsular polysaccharide. However, surviving rats demonstrated no impairment of immune responsiveness to this antigen after subsequent immunization with live bacteria in adulthood. In passive protection experiments, antibodies directed against the type b capsular polysaccharide represented the major protective specificity. However, a small protective effect of antibodies to noncapsular antigens also appeared to have been demonstrated.

Aging↗

Effect of neonatal gastrointestinal colonization with cross reacting Escherichia coli on anticapsular antibody production and bacteremia in experimental Haemophilus influenzae type b disease of rats.

Neonatal gastrointestinal colonization of newborn rats with Escherichia coli 075:K100:H5, cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b, was harmless but failed to stimulated detectable ( greater than 200 ng/ml) serum anticapsular antibodies. Neonatally colonized rats, when challenged at age 13 weeks by intraperitoneal inoculation of H. influenzae b, showed no difference in the frequency, magnitude, or duration of bacteremia or in the postinfection anticapsular antibody response when compared with saline-fed controls. However, neonatally colonized rats challenged at age 4 weeks had a significantly decreased incidence of sustained bacteremia and/or endophthalmitis when compared with controls. This decreased frequency of disease correlated with a significant increase in postinfection serum anticapsular antibodies. Neonatal gastrointestinal colonization with cross-reacting E. coli appears to "prime" the young host to respond to infection with H. influenzae b with an anticapsular antibody response that protects against sustained H. influenzae b bacteremia and its complications.

Animals↗

Relationship of K1 antigen to biotype in clinical isolates of Escherichia coli.

Two hundred and ninety-four isolates of Escherichia coli, including 105 from blood cultures, 94 from stools of hospital inpatients, and 96 from rectal cultures of healthy young adults, were biotyped by using the API-20E system and tested for the presence of K1 antigen. The overall frequency of K1 strains was 14.2% and was similar among the three sources. Forty-eight biotypes were observed, but two-thirds of all isolates, including two-thirds of the K1 strains, belonged to only five biotypes. Among the five commonest biotypes, the distribution of K1 strains was nonrandom, since 23 of the 27 K1 strains belonged to only two biotypes. Analysis of the O and H antigens of K1 strains indicated that this correlation of biotype with K1 antigen was due to a restricted number of serovars ("clones") that were repeatedly isolated from the population studied. These serovas included O18:K1:H7, O1:121:H6 and O16:K1:H6. Although a statistically significant correlation between biotype and K1 antigen was observed, the correlation was not sufficiently great to alow biotyping to be of significant predictive value as a marker for the K1 antigen.

Antigens, Bacterial↗

The behavior of infected arterial prostheses of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (Gore-Tex).

In 11 dogs the bacteriologic and morphologic reaction of arterial prostheses made of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (Gore-Tex) to an induced Staphylococcus aureus septicemia at time of graft implantation was evaluated and compared to that observed with Dacron grafts in 10 dogs. Graft infection developed in all dogs, manifested by positive blood and graft cultures. Grafts, however, could be clearly classified as either histologically infected or uninfected with a marked difference in the pattern of positive blood cultures. Histologically uninfected grafts in general demonstrated the tissue ingrowth and neointima formation which characterize Gore-Tex despite positive graft culture. The appearance of overt histologic infection was correlated with failure of a neointima to develop. Gore-Tex did not loose its structural integrity despite frank injection. The use of the Gore-Tex in the face of overt infection cannot be supported.

Animals↗

Nephrotoxic and cytoproliferative effects of streptozotocin: report of a patient with multiple hormone-secreting islet cell carcinoma.

The nephrotoxic and cytoproliferative side effects observed in a patient with Streptozotocin-treated, multiple hormone-secreting, pancreatic islet cell carcinoma are described. Streptozotocin induced prolonged partial remission of the patient's multiendocrine syndrome but resulted in progressive azotemia, which was controlled by temporary hemodialysis. A renal biopsy, the first to be reported in detail in such a condition, demonstrated a tubulo-interstitial nephritis and a glomerular alteration consisting of cellular nodules. At autopsy there were numerous bilateral renal cortical spindle cell "tumors" and cellular aggregates in glomeruli. These findings suggest that the tumorigenic effects of Streptozotocin demonstrated in animals may also occur in man.

Adenoma, Islet Cell↗

Experimental endogenous endophthalmitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b.

Experimental endogenous endophthalmitis was produced in infant rats by either intranasal or intraperitoneal inoculation with Haemophilus influenzae type b and 5 days of age. The ocular disease occurred in about 50% of bacteremic animals who survived to age 12 days and probably represents metastatic bacterial infection secondary to hematogenous seeding. The lesion was a highly destructive suppurative endophthalmitis that ultimately progressed to panophthalmitis and was followed by organization of the exudate and phthisis bulbi.

Animals↗

Fatal disseminated adenovirus infection in a renal transplant recipient.

A 61 year old woman died of diffuse interstitial adenovirus pneumonia 55 days after receiving a cadaveric renal allograft. The adenovirus was serologically distinct from the 33 known human adenovirus serotypes and appears to represent a new human adenovirus. Pathologic and virological findings indicate that the pneumonia was only one manifestation of a disseminated infection, the source of which may have been a latent adenovirus infection preexisting in the donor kidney. The establishment of the etiologic diagnosis in this case, which was complicated by the presence of oculocutaneous and esophageal herpes simplex virus infection as well as focal pulmonary aspergillosis, required coordinated histopathologic and virological investigation. Our findings demonstrate that severe viral infections in transplant recipients are not caused exclusively by members of the herpesvirus group.

Adenoviridae↗

Listeroisis in immunosuppressed patients. A cluster of eight cases.

Bactermia due to listeria monocytogenes developed in eight patients who were receiving immunosuppresive medications during a 15 month period at one hospital. Seven survived. Meningitis was documented in only the four who received kidney transplants. Their neurologic signs were minimal, indicating a need to treat any immunosuppressed patient with Listeria bacteremia for meningitis. During this period the incidence of Listeria bactermia in immunosuppressed patients greatly exceeded that previously observed in this hospital or reported elsewhere, but the incidence of infection with other opportunistic agents was not increased. As with previously decreased listeria outbreaks in nonimmunosuppressed patients, no source or mechanism of spread could be identified. Thus, disease due to L. monocytogenes may occur focally among immunosuppressed populations, a pattern which also appears to be emerging for other opportunistic agents. A patient's exposure to different opportunistic agents may be as important as the kind of immunosuppressive therapy he recieves in determining which opportunistic infection he will acquire or even whether any infection will occur.

Adolescent↗

Induction of Haemophilus influenzae type b capsular antibody in neonatal rabbits by gastrointestinal colonization with cross-reacting Escherichia coli.

In two separate experiments, newborn rabbits were fed a live suspension of either of two Escherichia coli strains which possess a "K" antigen cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b. Both feedings were harmless and resulted in fecal excretion of the fed E. coli in most animals as well as active immunization of fed animals toward H. influenzae type b. Feeding non-enteropathogenic, cross-reacting E coli to newborns may be a method for inducing active immunity toward H. influenzae type b diseases by accelerating the acquisition of "natural" immunity.

Animals↗

Polysaccharides of the genus Bacillus cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharides of Diplococcus pneumoniae type 3, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and Neisseria meningitidis group A.

We studied 174 strains of the genus Bacillus for cross-reacting antigens to the capsular polysaccharides of groups A and C meningococcus, types I and III pneumococcus, and Haemophilus influenzae type b. Cross-reactions were detected by immunodiffusion in agarose gel by using type-specific antisera and confirmed by absorption and inhibition experiments. Of 20 Bacillus pumilis strains, six had an antigen cross-reacting with group A meningococcal polysaccharide. Other cross-reactions included one strain of B. pumilis with H. influenzae type b, one of B. cereus var. mycoides with pneumococcus type III, and one of B. alvei with both type b and SIII polysaccharides. These cross-reacting antigens are polysaccharides of vegetative cells and may be extracellular in location. Because these bacilli have antigens cross-reacting with the virulence factors of pyogenic bacteria, they may, as normal flora, be an antigenic stimulus for "natural" serum anti-capsular antibodies to the type b Haemophilus and group A meningococcus polysaccharides.

Antigens, Bacterial↗