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Biomedical subjects

A Silber

Publications and source records attributed to A Silber.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Maternal plasma and amniotic fluid 17 beta-estradiol, progesterone and cortisol concentrations in women with successfully and unsuccessfully treated preterm labor.

Maternal plasma and amniotic fluid (AF) were obtained for measurement of 17 beta-estradiol, progesterone and cortisol concentrations from 40 patients with preterm labor and intact membranes at 28-32 weeks of gestation: 20 delivered preterm and the remaining 20 patients responded to tocolytic treatment and delivered at term. Maternal plasma and AF concentrations of these hormones were measured with specific commercially available radioimmunoassay kits. Maternal plasma and AF 17 beta-estradiol concentrations were significantly higher in women who delivered preterm than in those who delivered at term, 8.0 ng/ml vs 3.5 ng/ml and 0.85 ng/ml vs. 0.6 ng/ml, respectively. No significant differences were found between groups in maternal plasma and AF progesterone concentrations. Maternal plasma cortisol concentrations were higher in the preterm delivery group than in the term group (235 ng/ml vs. 55 ng/ml, respectively). No significant differences were found in AF cortisol concentrations between groups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Poly(methylene blue)-modified thick-film gold electrodes for the electrocatalytic oxidation of NADH and their application in glucose biosensors.

Electropolymerization of the phenothiazine derivative methylene blue (MB) on screen-printed, thick-film gold electrodes leads to electrocatalytically active and conducting layers of poly(methylene blue) (PMB) in intimate and stable contact with the electrode surface. The catalytic properties of the PMB films allow anodic oxidation of NADH at potentials as low as +200 mV vs. the saturated calomel electrode (SCE) reducing interferences from cooxidizable species as well as minimizing electrode fouling by enabling a simultaneous two-electron transfer mechanism. Dehydrogenase-based biosensors employing PMB-modified thick-film electrodes are obtained either by entrapment of the enzyme into the PMB layer itself or by laminating an enzyme membrane made of an aqueous poly(vinylacetate) dispersion over the PMB-modified electrode. Both methods are used to fabricate glucose biosensors which can be operated at low overpotentials, i.e. +200 mV vs. SCE.

Biosensing Techniques↗
PubMed1996

Analysis, reanalysis, and self-analysis.

This paper describes a training analysis which required a reanalysis. An evaluation of the circumstances leading to the need for further psychoanalysis for the practicing analyst is detailed. A discussion of the value and necessity for self-analysis following analysis is presented. The description of a specific technique for conducting a self-analysis is rendered.

Dreams↗
PubMed1994

Recruitment of lymphocytes during cutaneous delayed hypersensitivity in nonhuman primates is dependent on E-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1.

Previous investigations of cutaneous delayed hypersensitivity (DHR) in humans and animals have demonstrated that lymphocyte recruitment from blood is temporally and spatially associated with the de novo, asynchronous expression of both vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and E-selectin on dermal endothelium. In this study, DHR was induced in rhesus monkeys sensitized against tuberculin in order to investigate the contribution of E-selectin and VCAM-1 in lymphocyte recruitment to skin. Intravenous infusions of neutralizing doses of F(ab')2 fragments of murine antibodies to either E-selectin or VCAM-1 during the early inductive phases of DHR showed that murine IgG localized to dermal endothelium at the site of DHR in a pattern kinetically similar to the expression of each endothelial adhesion protein. Most importantly, the relative numbers of lymphocytes localized to the inflammatory site were significantly reduced in DHR modified with infusions of antibodies to either VCAM-1 or E-selectin, while the numbers of lymphocytes recruited to skin in the animal given F(ab')2 fragments of an irrelevant murine monoclonal antibody of the same isotype and at the same dose were not changed. Moreover, in individual animals, the relative inhibition achieved with a particular antibody was proportional to the magnitude of expression of the targeted adhesion protein. Therefore, both VCAM-1 and E-selectin are functionally relevant in the genesis of cutaneous DHR, and each appears to contribute to lymphocyte recruitment in relation to its relative degree of expression in any one particular animal.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Kinetic expression of endothelial adhesion molecules and relationship to leukocyte recruitment in two cutaneous models of inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Adhesive interactions between circulating leukocytes and endothelium is requisite for subsequent leukocyte extravasation at inflammatory sites. These adhesive events are mediated by a repertoire of proteins and carbohydrate moieties on both leukocyte and endothelial membranes. Understanding the kinetic expression of these adhesion molecules during an inflammatory cascade in vivo is important for the design and testing of rational therapeutic approaches directed at the blockade of adhesion molecule function in inflammatory disease. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Two cutaneous inflammatory models were examined using healthy rhesus monkeys. Acute cutaneous injury was studied during a 72-hour period by intradermal injection of endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide) and subsequent biopsy. These tissues were then compared with those obtained from a cutaneous delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction (DHR), elicited by intradermal injections of mammalian tuberculin in sensitized animals and followed for up to 11 days. Expression of E-selectin, P-selectin, VCAM-1, and ICAM-1 was assessed using immunohistochemistry and compared with leukocyte localization and immunohistochemical expression of interleukin (IL) 1, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Finally, relevant adhesion ligands on leukocytes were assessed using flow cytometry. RESULTS: The lipopolysaccharide model was characterized by early (0.5 hours) and sustained (up to 72 hours) expression of E-selectin on the superficial dermal vasculature, with maximal expression by 8 hours. The expression of VCAM-1 was either not detected or minimal. Neutrophil localization, as detected by elastase immunoreactivity, paralleled E-selectin expression with a 4- to 12-hour lag phase, being maximal by 24 hours. In contrast, DHR was characterized by the dual asynchronous expression of both E-selectin and VCAM-1. Localization of CD2+ lymphocytes, representing the predominant cell type recruited, kinetically followed the expression of E-selectin and VCAM-1, being maximal in number at approximately 48 hours after peak expression of both of these endothelial proteins. Neutrophil recruitment in lipopolysaccharide-induced injury was associated with immunohistochemical localization of TNF-alpha, IL-1, and IL-8, whereas only TNF-alpha was consistently detected in DHR. During DHR, blood lymphocyte expression of L-selectin, VLA-4 (CD49d; alpha chain), and lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (both CD11a (alpha chain) and CD18 (beta chain)) did not change. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study demonstrate that cutaneous inflammatory infiltrates of varying cellular compositions are associated temporally and spatially with unique patterns of endothelial adhesion molecule and cytokine expression.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Panic attacks facilitating recall and mastery: implications for psychoanalytic technique.

A patient, during the course of a lengthy analysis, experienced several panic attacks. These regressive episodes, occurring only in the analytic setting, provided her with her special means for recalling and eventually mastering repressed elements of her life. This facilitating aspect of her disorganization, when identified and analyzed as such, helped deepen the patient's analytic experience. It was necessary for the analyst to define verbally and clarify her reconstructed past as it emerged as part of her panic state, transferentially, so that the patient could finally recognize, acknowledge, and understand hitherto hidden aspects of her life. The psychiatric literature in regard to panic states is briefly noted, as is the relevance of comparing the present almost exclusively organic, pharmacological orientation, with Freud's discussion of the "actual" or current neuroses of his day, almost a century ago. On the basis of this case report, the importance of understanding the content and meaning of the panic attack, by analytic means, is once again emphasized.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1983

A significant "dream within a dream".

This brief clinical note is an attempt to clarify Freud's remarks regarding the significance of real occurrences of the "dream within a dream". There is affirmation of the reality of an actual event in the manifest dream (the "tickling" in adolescence). Certain representations regarding real events are alluded to in the manifest dream and are confirmed by the latent dream thoughts (the underlying homosexual theme involving the patient's mother and herself). Within the ongoing transference neurosis, a new understanding led this patient to experience intense sexual affects which were recalled for the first time during the course of an analytic session. The analyst's attention to this "dream within a dream" led to a facilitating active interpretation of the repressed sexual feelings. At the same time it was possible to observe a developmental arrest which had interfered with the consolidation of the patient's adolescent maturation begin to be undone by interpretation. The process of disengaging the patient from her unconscious bond with her mother (the undoing of the negative oedipal involvement) had been set in motion. The "dream within a dream" seems to represent a special defensive effort of the dream work to encapsulate the memory of one or more related actual events and the intense affects associated with them--affects whose pressure for discharge threaten to arouse the sleeper. The form the dream assumes is related to its hidden sexual origins and engages the active participation of both patient and analyst.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1982

Increased arabinitol levels in experimental candidiasis in rats: arabinitol appearance rates, arabinitol/creatinine ratios, and severity of infection.

Renal colony counts, total arabinitol appearance, and the arabinitol/creatinine ratios in the serum and urine of rats with lethal candidiasis were measured. Total arabinitol appearance and the arabinitol/creatinine ratios increased significantly after infection. The serum arabinitol/creatinine ratio was high (2 SD above the mean value in normal animals) in five of six infected rats at 24 hr, in eight of eight at 48 hr, and in none of the control animals. The urinary arabinitol/creatinine ratio was high in 14 of 19 infected rats by 24 hr, in 11 of 11 by 48 hr, and in none of the control animals. Total arabinitol appearance and the arabinitol/creatinine ratios were highly correlated with renal colony counts. Arabinitol production in vitro was sufficient to account for the increased arabinitol appearance observed in vivo in 12 of 14 rats. Thus it is concluded that the excess arabinitol that appeared in vivo was produced by the infecting fungus and that arabinitol is a quantitative marker substance for candidiasis.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

A tic, a dream and the primal scene.

The analysis of a tic and a dream stimulated by the primal scene is described. The tic and the dream represent efforts exerted by the patient's hard-pressed developing ego to master the effects of overstimulation. Urethral and faecal incontinence, constipation, faecal impaction and finally enema administration, detail the assault upon his sphincters. Fantasy formation, a sleep disturbance, and a hypnoid state are other consequences related to this traumatic event. The importance of childhood conceptions of bodily functioning and the integration of these notions with the fantasies fostered during phase specific developmental conflicts is described. The re-evoked pre-oedipal and negative oedipal themes of adolescence are explicated and reworked. In this way the early traumatic events were refashioned during the course of the patient's analysis as his symptom and dream were progressively clarified and finally understood.

Dreams↗
PubMed1979

Childhood seduction, parental pathology and hysterical symptomatology: the genesis of an altered state of consciousness.

A particular kind of altered state of consciousness, as it occurred during the course of a lengthy analysis, was analysed. Its structure was that of a hysterical symptom and it was based on a 'reminiscence' from the past. The rather specific pathogenic effect of a series of seduction/assaults, which formed the nidus for this symptom complex was carefully outlined. As a result certain defensive manoeuvres were set in motion. First a hypnoid state, based on a primitive identification with his mother and resting upon a fantasied symbiotic union with her, was activated. Then a specific defence, based upon the mechanism of denial and fostering a far reaching turning away from reality and espousing the primacy of a special type of fantasy formation which substituted for and acted as the emotional tie to this same parent was described. The importance of both the hypnoid state and the accompanying imagery (fantasy) formation for aiding in discharging the excitement of the overstimulated state was commented upon.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

The alcohol induced hypnoid state and its analytic corollary.

Alcohol can be ingested to achieve a hypnoid state. This altered awareness is actively sought by the alcoholic as part of an ongoing attempt at mastery. By this symptomatic resort to a change in consciousness, the painful affects connected with earlier assaults and seductions carried out by severely disturbed parents, are maintained in repression. At the same time this self-induced hypnoid state facilitates the gratification of both conscious and unconscious fantasies. The case history of a patient is reported who while in analysis, and on the analytic couch, evoked a hypnoid state. For this patient the analysis of this hypnoid state led to the recall and verbalization of early traumatic experiences. The similarity of early life circumstances, in regard to disturbed and inadequate parenting, in both the carefully studied analytic patient and the less frequently available data on patients treated by psychotherapy in an alcohol clinic is discussed.

Alcoholic Intoxication↗