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Biomedical subjects

T Baldwin

Publications and source records attributed to T Baldwin.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Low energy level internal defibrillation during cardiopulmonary bypass.

Low energy level internal direct current shocks were used to defibrillate the hearts of 168 patients during procedures performed on cardiopulmonary bypass. In all cases, the core temperature was greater than 32 degrees C and care was taken to correct hypokalaemia and acid-base balance prior to defibrillation. In 78 patients (46%), defibrillation required 2 joules or less, and in 139 (82.7%) cases, defibrillation was effected with 4 joules or less. Only 4 patients required more than 10 joules to defibrillate the heart. This study shows that it is possible to defibrillate hearts during cardiopulmonary bypass with energy levels well below the 20-30 joule shocks commonly used.

Adolescent↗

Use of cardiovascular drugs in the elderly. What difference does age make?

Pharmacologic treatment of cardiovascular disease is both challenging and rewarding. Multiple medications and the variable nature of most cardiac problems necessitate careful monitoring of drug regimens in patients of any age. The elderly require even more attention to optimize therapy in light of variable drug absorption, effects, metabolism, and excretion. This challenge will present itself more frequently as the US population ages.

Age Factors↗

Actin accumulation at sites of bacterial adhesion to tissue culture cells: basis of a new diagnostic test for enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) adhere to the intestinal mucosa and produce an attaching and effacing (AE) lesion in the brush border microvillous membrane; the AE lesion is characterized by localized destruction of microvilli and intimate attachment of bacteria to the apical enterocyte membrane. A similar lesion is seen when bacteria adhere in vitro to a variety of human tissue culture cell lines. In both cases, dense concentrations of microfilaments are present in the apical cytoplasm beneath attached bacteria. Using a fluorescein-labeled phallotoxin, we have shown that these microfilaments are composed of actin. Cells infected with EPEC and EHEC strains known from electron microscopic studies to produce the AE lesion all exhibited intense spots of fluorescence which corresponded in size and position with each adherent bacterium; cells infected with adherent E. coli strains known not to produce the AE lesion did not produce this striking pattern of fluorescence and were indistinguishable from uninfected control cells. These results indicate that such site-specific concentrations of cytoskeletal actin are characteristic of the AE membrane lesion and can form the basis of a simple, highly sensitive diagnostic test for EPEC and EHEC.

Actins↗

Expression in Escherichia coli K-12 of the 76,000-dalton iron-regulated outer membrane protein of Shigella flexneri confers sensitivity to cloacin DF13 in the absence of Shigella O antigen.

One of the chromosomal segments associated with virulence in Shigella flexneri encodes the production of aerobactin and the synthesis of an iron-regulated 76-kilodalton outer membrane protein believed to be the ferric-aerobactin receptor. However, S. flexneri expressing this putative aerobactin receptor, which is slightly larger than that encoded by pColV, is insensitive to the killing action of cloacin DF13, a bacteriocin which binds to other aerobactin receptor proteins and kills the cells. In this paper we show that the conjugal transfer of DNA encoding the iron-regulated 76-kilodalton protein from S. flexneri to Escherichia coli K-12 conferred cloacin DF13 sensitivity on the recipients. However, E. coli K-12 which had also inherited genes specifying Shigella O-antigen biosynthesis remained cloacin insensitive. The data suggest that it is unwise to use cloacin DF13 sensitivity alone to screen transconjugants or clinical isolates for the expression of aerobactin receptor proteins.

Antigens, Bacterial↗