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A Passeron

Publications and source records attributed to A Passeron.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

[Workshop to teach elderly patients how to get up from the ground: pilot prospective assessment in a hospital department of internal medicine].

BACKGROUND: Falls occur frequently among the elderly and often lead to hospitalization. Even if uninjured, some of them cannot get up again, and prolonged time on the floor and failed efforts to get up can cause complications. Training methods and exercises for getting up from the floor exist but have not been evaluated. METHODS: We set up a training course to teach elderly patients to get up from the ground and assessed it over the short term by a prospective observational study of 29 patients over 3 months. Each week, a group training session took place, followed 2-9 days later by an individual assessment conducted according to a written protocol. RESULTS: Of the 29 patients (16% of those older than 65 years admitted to our internal medicine department during this period) who received the training, 24 (80%) underwent the subsequent evaluation. Training was effective: before training, only 2 of 29 assessable patients were able to get up on their own, while at the reassessment, 11 of 24 succeeded (p=0.003). Significant improvement was observed for the first two-and most difficult-steps of the maneuver: rolling over from a supine to a prone position (p=0.003), and then moving up into a quadrupedal position (getting up onto all four limbs) (p=0.006). The only variable that appeared to predict a poor result was a Mini Mental Status (MMS) score lower than 26/30. CONCLUSION: Teaching elderly patients how to get up from the floor can be accomplished in an inpatient internal medicine department and appears to be effective in the short term. Although further studies involving more patients followed for a longer period are required to confirm and assess the actual benefits, this training is safe and can be recommended.

Accidental Falls↗

HIV combination therapy: immune restitution causing cryptococcal lymphadenitis dramatically improved by anti-inflammatory therapy.

Two patients with AIDS developed microscopically verified focal cryptococcal lymphadenitis while treated with highly active anti-retroviral therapy for 8 and 15 months. Both were treated with fluconazole as a secondary prophylaxis for prior cryptococcal meningitis. Cryptococcus neoformans did not grow. Amphotericin was ineffective. Anti-inflammatory drugs had a dramatic effect.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Autoantibodies directed against CD43 molecules with an altered glycosylation status on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected CEM cells are found in all HIV-1+ individuals.

Autoantibodies to lymphocytes have been detected in sera from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals, and several autoantigens have been described. Among them, hyposialylated CD43 has been shown to be a target for autoantibodies in up to 47% of HIV+ individuals. However, the corresponding autoantigen (ie, the incompletely sialylated CD43) has not been isolated from blood cells of HIV-1-infected individuals. Recently, we have observed in vitro that HIV-1 productively or latently infected CEM cells (CEMLAI/NP) express CD43 molecules with modified glycosylation (mogly CD43). Using CEMLAI/NP cells, which do not express any structural viral antigen, we show now that all of the tested HIV+ sera from asymptomatic individuals, and up to 86% of those from subjects at the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome stage contain antibodies (mainly IgM and, to a lesser degree, IgG) that recognize the surface of CEMLAI/NP cells, and precipitate mogly CD43 molecules from the cells lysates. Taken together with our previous demonstration of altered glycosylation of CD43 from HIV-1-infected CEM cells in vitro, the constant antimogly CD43 autoimmune response observed from asymptomatic HIV-1+ subjects is likely to illustrate the occurrence of an altered glycosylation in vivo of the major lymphocyte surface CD43 glycoprotein, associated with HIV-1 infection.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

[Syphilis outbreak in southeast France].

BACKGROUND: Since 2000, syphilis has reappeared in the form of an epidemic in France and more particularly, in the Paris region. However, there is little available data concerning other regions of France. The purpose of this study was to identify the chief characteristics of this epidemic in the Côte d'Azur region. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2001 and July 2003, cases of syphilis were collated by the Department of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases of Nice University Teaching Hospital and by the Department of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases of Fréjus hospital and based on spontaneous reports submitted by general practitioners in private practice. RESULTS: We collected 54 reports of cases of syphilis: 37 in the Alpes-Maritimes region and 17 in the eastern Var region. The epidemic chiefly affected men since 44 of the 54 cases reported (81%) concerned males. 70% of these men were contaminated during homosexual contact (31 patients). In the majority of cases, contamination concerned local subjects. 50% of the patients in the study were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The clinical forms observed were distributed as follows: 12 primary syphilis, 28 secondary syphilis, 13 latent syphilis, 1 case not specified. There was no difference in terms of clinical form between patients with and without HIV. DISCUSSION: Syphilis, which had become rare in France as a whole and in our region in particular, reappeared in the form of an epidemic in the Côte d'Azur region after first resurfacing in the Paris region. This outbreak principally affected homosexual and bisexual male patients, half of whom were HIV-positive. Screening for syphilis, potentially latent, should thus be carried out routinely during initial assessment and at subsequent monitoring of HIV patients.

Adult↗