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Biomedical subjects

A Quintero

Publications and source records attributed to A Quintero.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Attitudes and knowledge toward bicycle helmet by school age children.

Approximately 600 children under the age of 15 years, die each year in bicycle-related accidents. Over 80% of these deaths involve trauma to the head. Almost one fourth of all significant brain injuries in children are bicycle related. In spite of these significant statistics, bicycle helmet use in Puerto Rico has not received the necessary publicity to increase their use. Pediatricians should encourage helmet use and counsel parents about the important of this device. A case control study of accidents among bicycle riders experiencing a crash demonstrates that safety helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 85% and brain injury by 88%. The recommendation of current safety counseling practices should be incorporated as part of the routine pediatrician visit. Educational campaigns targeted at parents and children focusing on the incidence of consequences of bicycle crashes should be the primary goal for all primary practitioners, since the effectiveness of helmets in preventing head injuries might substantially increase helmet ownership among children. To assess the prevalence of bicycle helmet ownership and the associated factors with this, we surveyed 146 school age children evaluated at the Pediatrics Clinics of the University Hospital Dr. Ramón Ruiz Arnau from January to March 1991. We concluded that only 7.5% of our sample use the helmets.

Accidents, Traffic

Bakers' asthma: prevalence and evaluation of immunotherapy with a wheat flour extract.

One hundred thirty-nine bakers and pastry cooks were included in a prevalence study of IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to wheat flour demonstrated by skin tests, specific IgE to wheat flour (RAST), and inhalation challenge. From the sensitized workers, we selected 30 asthmatic patients. Twenty patients were treated with a standardized wheat flour extract, and ten with a placebo in a double-blind clinical trial. Before and after immunotherapy we performed tests in vivo (skin tests with wheat flour and methacholine tests), and in vitro (total IgE and specific IgE to wheat flour). We found substantial prevalence of wheat flour allergy (25.17% of workers), and a significant decrease (P less than .001) in hyperresponsiveness to methacholine, skin sensitivity (P = .002), and specific IgE (P less than .005) to wheat flour after 20 months of immunotherapy. There was also significant subjective improvement (P less than .001). The placebo group showed no changes in these variables.

Adolescent

Role of glutamine as a direct co-repressor of glutamine synthetase in Rhodobacter capsulatus E1F1.

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been used to determine the internal levels of amino acids in Rhodobacter capsulatus E1F1 cells, subjected to different treatments and nutritional conditions. Glutamine synthetase activity and enzyme concentration correlated negatively with the level of glutamine, suggesting that glutamine per se acts as a co-repressor in the enzyme synthesis. Moreover, addition of the specific inhibitor L-methionine-D,L-sulfoximine, that produced an increase in enzyme concentration, specifically promoted a depletion of intracellular glutamine.

Enzyme Repression

In vitro translation of tomato bushy stunt virus RNA.

In vitro translation of tomato bushy stunt (TBSV)-RNA in a rabbit reticulocyte system resulted in synthesis of five proteins P 18, P 25, P 34, P 35, and P 40. The P 40 protein was identified as the viral coat protein. Fractionation of TBSV-RNA and subsequent translation provided evidence for the existence of discrete subgenomic RNAs.

Capsid

Immunoregulation with methisoprinol in Sjögren's syndrome.

In this work, we studied the therapeutic clinical efficacy and the immunoregulating effect of methisoprinol in 4 cases of primary SS and one case of secondary SS. After 12 weeks of treatment, no significant clinical improvement was detected in the glandular histology, in Schirmer's test and sialography. On the other hand, we have observed the following alterations: immunological changes characterized by an increase in the total population of T-lymphocytes (OKT3), a normalization and thereby a diminution in IgM, an increase in T-helper subpopulation (OKT4) in four cases and in T-suppressor subpopulation in one case. A noticeable fact was the best immunological response of the patient showing a negative histology, a functional alteration of the parotid and a short evolution of the syndrome. These findings support the hypothesis that methisoprinol can be an efficient coadjuvant in the treatment of primary Sjögren's syndrome in early stages when there is only functional alteration but no glandular atrophy.

Adult

Immunotherapy with standard bacterial and bacterial ribosomal antigens in childhood bronchial asthma.

UNLABELLED: In this study we compared the therapeutic effectiveness of a lyophilized bacterial vaccine (LBV) with that of a vaccine prepared from bacterial ribosomal antigens (ARB) in 150 children with bacterial bronchial asthma. The immunological response of the patients was assessed clinically at 6 months, 1 year and 3 years, by determining the intensity and frequency of the bronchospasm. The serum immunoglobulin levels, the only immunologic parametres studied, were determined at basal conditions and following immunotherapy. CLINICAL RESULTS: after 360 days we detected a better clinical response in those patients who received the ribosomal vaccine (ARB), whereas after 3 years there was no difference in the clinical response between this group of patients and the group who received the bacterial vaccine (LBV). Immunological results: we were not able to show a statistically significant increase in immunoglobulin levels during the three years of immunotherapy with the two vaccines. However, those patients who possessed a deficit in IgG displayed a statistically significant increase in IgG levels after 360 days (t = 3.58, p less than 0.01), and an even greater increase after 1080 days (t = 7.86, p less than 0.001), of treatment with the standard bacterial vaccine. The ribosomal vaccine produced a significant increase in IgG levels (t = 9.59, p less than 0.001) after 1080 days also in patients with a deficit in IgG. In patients with a previous deficit in IgA we did not observe an increase in serum IgA levels during immunotherapy with the bacterial vaccine, but with the ribosomal vaccine these patients displayed significantly higher levels of IgA (t = 13.09, p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Antibodies, Bacterial