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Biomedical subjects

R Martins

Publications and source records attributed to R Martins.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Serological follow-up of patients with paracoccidioidomycosis treated with itraconazole using Dot-blot, ELISA and western-blot.

Twenty-seven mycologically proven cases of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) were treated with itraconazole (100-200 mg/day in month 1 and 100 mg/day until month 6-8) and evaluated clinically and serologically, up to 3.5 years post-therapy, using Dot-blot and ELISA for measuring the titers of IgG, IgA and IgM anti-P.brasiliensis antibodies and Western-blot for determining IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies against the antigen components of the fungus. Before treatment, 81.5% (Dot-blot) and 84% (ELISA) of the patients presented elevated IgG anti-P.brasiliensis antibody titers which dropped slightly with treatment. On the other hand, the percentages of pre-treatment high-titered sera for IgA and IgM anti-P.brasiliensis were lower (51.9% and 51.8%: Dot-blot; 16.5 and 36%: ELISA, respectively) but the titers tended to become negative more frequently with treatment. Prior to treatment, the percentages of positivity for IgG, IgA and IgM anti-P.brasiliensis antibodies in Western-blot were 96%, 20.8% and 41.6%, respectively. Antigens with molecular weights varying from 16-78 kDa, from 21-76 kDa and from 27-78 kDa were reactive for IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies, respectively. The most frequently reactive antigenic components had molecular weights of 27, 33 and 43 kDa for IgG, and 70 for IgA and IgM antibodies. During the period of study, the patients responded well to treatment. The present data confirm the diversity and complexity of the humoral response in PCM, and the importance of utilizing different serological tests to detect IgG, IgA and IgM anti-P. brasiliensis antibodies.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Outlining passive information offered by the Drug Information Center of the Federal University of Bahia College of Pharmacy].

OBJECTIVE: To outline passive information offered by the Drug Information Center (DIC) of the Federal University of Bahia College of Pharmacy. METHODOLOGY: Descriptive and prospective study of requests received at the DIC from March, 1997 to December, 2003. Results, represented as frequencies, were obtained by using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: 1,267 requests were received in the study period. Thirty seven percent (37%) of these involved patients; 73% were done by telephone and 66% were answered the same way; 68% of the requests were made by pharmacists. About 39% of all requests were originated in hospitals and 23% in community pharmacies. A total of 1,459 questions were received, showing a proportion of 1.2 questions per information request, of which: 18% were related to drug indication/use; 13% to adverse reactions; 17% to identification of national and foreign products and active substances; 8% to posology and 6% to drug interactions. Fifty nine percent of the requests were answered within 23 hours.

Drug Information Services↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Cerebral toxoplasmosis in a kidney transplant patient. A clinical case and review of the literature].

Infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii is a frequent event in Portugal. When this occurs in immunocompetent individuals it is rarely a matter of concern; the contrary occurs with immunosuppressed patients or in pregnancy. Transplant patients are treated with immunosuppressive drugs which mainly disturb their mechanisms of cellular immunity, and that opens the way to infections by opportunistic intracellular microorganisms. We recently treated a renal transplant patient who suffered from cerebral toxoplasmosis, and this provided an opportunity for a review of the other 20 patients reported in medical literature to date.

Adult↗