Biomedical subjects

T Schleiffer

Publications and source records attributed to T Schleiffer.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Morbidity in 565 type 2 diabetic patients according to stage of nephropathy.

Between 1988 and 1992, 565 type 2 diabetic patients were examined for nephropathy and diabetes-associated diseases during hospital treatment. Stages of nephropathy were defined as no clinical sign of nephropathy (N = 280), microalbuminuria (N = 38), overt proteinuria (N = 105), impaired renal function (N = 55), and chronic dialysis therapy (N = 87). In dialyzed patients, HbA1c averaged 6.8%, and, in the other groups, HbA1c was between 7.6% and 8.3% (normal range, 3.8%-6.1%). Cataract was not associated with the severity of nephropathy. Stroke was most common in the stage of renal insufficiency (34%). The following complications, as found in medical history or as current event, showed a significant association with the stage of nephropathy and occurred most frequently in dialysis patients (percentage is displayed for patients with nephropathy in comparison to diabetic dialysis patients): hypertension (53%-89%), left ventricular hypertrophy (39%-81%), myocardial infarction (14%-36%), peripheral vascular disease (27%-77%), foot lesions (7%-75%), minor or major amputations (3%-23%), proliferative retinopathy (6%-46%), blindness (2.9%-16.1%), and internal carotid artery stenosis (15%-36%). In this preselected cohort of diabetic patients, a high morbidity was found already without nephropathy that increased several-fold in the course of the development of nephropathy. Our data identify patients with diabetic nephropathy as a high-risk group for excess morbidity.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

'Immune complex' mediated intravascular hemolysis due to IgM cephalosporin-dependent antibody.

Immune hemolytic anemia (IHA) related to cephalosporins is rare and generally considered to be the result of a drug-adsorption mechanism. In previously reported cases, the hemolysis was usually extravascular and the causative antibodies were IgG, incapable of activating complement, and demonstrable by the direct or indirect antiglobulin test using red cells (RBCs) pretreated in vitro with cephalosporin. The authors report a patient in whom acute intravascular hemolysis developed while she was receiving cefotaxime (a cephalosporin as yet not reported to cause IHA). The patient's RBCs were coated only with complement fragments (C3d), even at the peak of the hemolytic episode. Her serum and eluates repeatedly yielded negative results when tested against normal or cephalosporin-coated RBCs. However, strong hemagglutination and C5b-9-mediated hemolysis were observed if the patient's serum was tested against RBCs in the presence of the drug, its ex vivo antigen and, to a lesser degree, cephalothin and ceftriaxon, but not in the presence of penicillin and other related cephalosporins. The positive reactions were not changed by preincubating the serum with different amounts of the drugs. All of these findings reflect the typical picture of drug-induced IHA by the so-called "immune complex" mechanism and not by the drug-adsorption mechanism. The authors conclude that cephalosporin can cause immune hemolysis in two ways: the drug-adsorption mechanism and, as described here, the "immune complex" mechanism.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 activity and lipoprotein(a) in nephropathic patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus versus patients with nondiabetic nephropathy.

Increased plasma activity of plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) is considered as a risk factor for thrombosis associated with atherosclerosis by reduction of fibrinolysis. Since nephropathic patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) are a cardiovascular high-risk group, which has yielded only controversial results as to the regulation of PAI-1, we compared 19 overt nephropathic NIDDM patients (mean age 63 years, serum creatinine 1.9 mg/dl, proteinuria 4.2 g/day) to 17 nondiabetic nephropathic patients with various causes of renal insufficiency (mean age 63 years, serum creatinine 2.8 mg/dl, proteinuria 3.9 g/day). We found normal PAI-1 levels for patients with diabetic nephropathy and significantly elevated PAI-1 levels within the upper normal range for nondiabetic nephropathic patients. Common risk factors in both groups were very high levels of fibrinogen, lipoprotein(a), serum cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol.

Antithrombin III↗