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Biomedical subjects

A C Nicodemo

Publications and source records attributed to A C Nicodemo.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Immunodeficiency secondary to juvenile paracoccidioidomycosis: associated infections.

Four patients with acute paracoccidioidomycosis, hypoalbuminemia, ascites and associated infections are reported. They have been admitted to hospital 35 times, 4 of them due to active paracoccidioidomycosis, 14 to associated infections, 14 to ascites, edema and diarrhoea and 3 to herniorrhaphy. Two of them recovered after sepsis and central nervous system, muscular and subcutaneous cryptococcosis. The remaining two died. One had infectious diarrhoea (S. flexneri), peritoneal tuberculosis and sepsis (S. epidermidis); the other had bacterial meningitis, erysipelas, beta-hemolytic Streptococcus sepsis and miliary tuberculosis. Their immunodeficiency was attributed to enteric protein loss and/or malabsorption and malnutrition and was recognized by reduced response to delayed hypersensitivity skin tests in four patients and hypogammaglobulinemia in three of them. The authors discuss the need for prospective studies to be carried out, aiming at the mechanisms involved in secondary infections. Alternatives for maintaining the patients' adequate nutritional state should be investigated, to guarantee proper immune response and thus the ability to control intervening infections in patients with juvenile paracoccidioidomycosis.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Hematologic changes in leptospirosis].

30 cases of leptospirosis admitted to the Clinica de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo were studied for blood count alterations. 16 patients (53.3%) had a normal white blood cell count at the moment of admission. 12 patients (40%) presented a high white blood cell count and 2 (6.6%) had a low count. 29 patients (96.6%) had a high proportion of neutrophils and 25 patients (83.3%) presented a high number of immature forms. 24 patients had anemia. Thrombocytopenia was present in 26 patients (86.6%). The most characteristic changes found in bone marrow aspirate were the alterations of M:E ratio (myeloid-erythroid ratio) due to relative and/or absolute hyperplasia of the myeloid series, and/or relative and/or absolute hypoplasia of the erythroid series; erythropoiesis was predominantly micro-erythroblastic in many patients; mild to moderate plasmocytosis was found; and, regarding the interstitial series, increased macrophagic activity was noted. There was no direct correlation between the number of megakaryocytes and the blood platelet count, but there was a direct correlation between the bone marrow platelet production and blood platelet count. We believe that it is very difficult to have a good idea of the dynamic mechanisms that lead to medullar platelet production in the presence of platelet consumption, through a random test of the bone marrow.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Thrombocytopenia and leptospirosis.

The present study has intended to contribute to the elucidation of the pathogenic mechanisms, involved in the thrombocytopenia and in the bleeding diathesis seen in the course of Leptospirosis. The group of cases included in the present prospective study consisted of 30 patients with Leptospirosis, admitted to the Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Ward, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo. The following possible mechanisms of thrombocytopenia have been considered and therefore investigated: platelet consumption, due to disseminated intravascular coagulation; immune-mediated platelet destruction, due to platelet-associated antibodies and an inhibited platelet production in the bone marrow. Thrombocytopenia occurred in 86.6% of 30 patients and did not seem to be immune-mediated by platelet-associated antibodies. Furthermore it did not seem to be due to a disseminated intravascular coagulation consumption. Although there was a statistically-significant correlation between bone marrow platelet production and platelet counts we think that the static microscopic examination of a bone marrow aspirate cannot accurately depict the dynamic mechanisms of platelet production when these cells are being consumed in peripheral blood. Vasculitis should be considered as the most important factor for the pathogenesis of the bleeding disturbances in Leptospirosis. However, we believe that thrombocytopenia, uremia and coagulation disorders, individually or as a group, should be included among the contributing factors that lead to and worsen bleeding episodes, which represent the leading cause of death in this disease.

Antibodies↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Clinical use of immunoglobulins].

This article is a review of literature about the clinical use of immunoglobulins and the main purpose of this paper is to direct those who prescribe theses products. In this review are analysed and discussed the principal indications for the use of these compounds, the complications and the safety of the immunoglobulins.

Bacterial Infections↗