PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Boulier

Publications and source records attributed to A Boulier.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Malnutrition and wasting, immunodepression, and chronic inflammation as independent predictors of survival in HIV-infected patients.

To analyze the long-term survival factors associated with HIV infection, a prospective follow-up study of 165 HIV-infected patients was performed after a clinical, nutritional, and biological evaluation. Survival rate could be determined in 129 patients after a follow-up of 42 mo before the use of protease inhibitors. After univariate analysis, multivariate analysis was performed with the Cox regression proportional-hazard model. Survival curves were calculated and compared with the Kaplan, Meier, and log-rank tests. The study also analyzed the factors associated with impaired nutritional status at the beginning of the study and their effects on the long-term follow-up. Factors that could explain body weight loss before the study were the level of intakes, resting energy expenditure, chronic diarrhea, and the number of previous opportunistic infections. In the long-term follow-up, univariate analysis showed that nutritional status could be separated into four classes of body weight loss (BWL) by degree of loss (BWL < or = 5%, 5% < BWL < or = 10%, 10% < BWL < or = 20%, BWL > 20%); lean body mass (adjusted to height), body cell mass, CD4 count, albumin, prealbumin, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were all significant predictors. Age, stage of disease, number of previous opportunistic infections, and antiviral therapies were not associated with a change in survival. With the multivariate model, only CD4 counts, lean body mass/height squared, and CRP remained significant independent predictors of survival after controlling for other factors.

Adult↗

[Mode of action and results of home assisted ventilation. Study by the Association of Aid to Respiratory Insufficient Patients of Basse-Normandie from 1976 to 1978 (author's transl)].

Since 1970, 168 patients, mostly of the obstructive type, received an apparatus of assisted ventilation at home, according to the degree of their hypoxia-hypercapnia, following one or several acute failures. Oral ventilation, at a daily minimum of 90 min, distributed in 4 to 8 sessions, was continued for variable duration, from 1 to 5 years. The results, analysed statistically for 40 subjects, show a blood-gas improvement greater in patients whose PaO2, PaCO2 and RV/TC ratio were initially lower. For 17 patients controlled before and after assisted ventilation at home, a reduction in the number of days of hospitalization and acute failures was observed. The cost involved was particulary economical because of the simplicity of the equipment and the possibilities of control of patients and apparatus at the C.H.U. (20 F monthly in 1977 for 145 selected patients).

Adult↗