PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B Freitag

Publications and source records attributed to B Freitag.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Postoperative nausea and vomiting--still a problem?].

Based on a questionnaire of the General Hospital of Hamburg-Altona, we asked 738 patients about postoperative complaints such as nausea, vomiting, pain in the operating field and feeling of coldness in order to record the quality of the results of operation and anaesthesia in 1997 and 1998. The incidence of nausea and vomiting amounted to only 29% on average. One of our earlier studies of postoperative vomiting from 1995-1997 and the results gained from a control group of non-treated patients in our ondansetron study from 1995, which was conducted using information drawn from the routinely-used anaesthesia protocol and was therefore limited to data from the immediate pre- and postoperative period up to discharge of the patients from the recovery ward, showed much higher frequencies of nausea and vomiting (44 and even 66% on average, respectively). We cannot definitely evaluate whether the reduction in the average rates of nausea and vomiting in our present study is due to the additional preoperative application of 150 mg vomex supp. and 1.0-2.5 mg dehydrobenzperidol and/or 20-30 mg metoclopramid given i.v. shortly before the end of anaesthesia or to more intensive observation of non-medicinal prophylactic possibilities. But when we look at the frequency of nausea and vomiting in special groups of our present study, we can still find unacceptably high rates of nausea and vomiting, for instance 40% after cholecystectomies and abruptios and even 50% after struma operations. This shows that a satisfactory solution to this problem has not yet been found--partly due, unfortunately, to financial restrictions. Nevertheless, for 15% of the patients postoperative nausea and vomiting were of only minor importance for general satisfaction with the treatment given them. This was probably due to good premedication of amnestic after-effects of narcosis.

Adolescent↗

Inelastic electron holography

Coherence of inelastically scattered electrons was investigated by means of biprism interference experiments performed in a transmission electron microscope equipped with a highly coherent field emission gun and an imaging filter. The experimental results show that within the wave inelastically scattered at aluminium plasmons there is in fact an area of about 10 nm diameter with coherence sufficient to take electron holograms.

Journal Article↗

A myxozoan-like parasite causing xenomas in the brain of the mole, Talpa europaea L., 1758 (Vertebrata, Mammalia).

Light and transmission electron microscopy revealed pericytes of brain capillaries of moles (Talpa europaea L., 1758) as parasitized intracellularly. These host cells were enlarged and of globular or ellipsoid shape, and incorporated a cell-within-cell sequence of primary, secondary and, rarely found, tertiary developmental stages of an eukaryotic organism. Other stages like spores were not discovered either in brain or in other organs. Due to the vertebrate host, and the parasitic cells showing the enveloped state this parasite can be classified as belonging to the Myxozoa rather than Paramyxea. Since spores, which would allow an exact identification of the parasite, could not be detected and mammals are very unusual hosts for Myxozoa, the parasite was designated a myxozoan-like organism.

Animals↗

Element specific imaging with high lateral resolution: an experimental study on layer structures.

Planar defects and individual layers in ceramic material are chemically imaged by high resolution energy-filtering TEM using a post-column imaging electron energy filter. Objects are barium layers in the cuprate superconductor NdBa2Cu3O7-delta (isostructual to YBa2Cu3O7-delta) as well as planar defects and precipitates of beta-WB in tungsten- and chromium-doped TiB2. The barium layers with a spacing of 0.42 nm in the cuprate are resolved in jump-ratio images using the Ba_N edge. In the boride system the beta-WB precipitates with thickness of 0.8 nm can be chemically imaged in elemental maps of B_K, Ti_L,Cr_L and W_M. The B as well as the Ti map show a decrease in intensity at the precipitates, whereas in the W map an increase in intensity is observed. The boron-deficient layers with a spacing of 0.38 nm in the beta-WB precipitate can be resolved in boron jump-ratio images. Additionally, defects containing single boron-deficient layers are chemically imaged. Hence structures in the dimension of interatomic distances can be imaged with respect to their elemental constituents. Although high resolution electron spectroscopic images contain strong interference contrast from elastic scattering, after normalization or background subtraction the element specific images are dominated by chemical contrast.

Journal Article↗

Stem cell factor binding to retrovirus primer binding site silencers.

Using modified nuclear lysis and binding conditions, we have examined the binding of an embryonal carcinoma (EC) cell factor, binding factor A, to a stem cell-specific silencer which acts at the DNA level and overlaps the Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) proline primer binding site (PBS). Following our protocol, we found that in vitro binding of factor A correlated with the in vivo activity of the M-MuLV silencer. Factor A bound specifically to the wild-type silencer element at room temperature and 30 degrees C, but not at 4 degrees C, and bound 10-fold better to the full-length silencer than to a minimal silencer core element. The factor was enriched in nuclear compared with cytosolic extracts and in undifferentiated EC cells compared with differentiated cells in which the silencer is nonfunctional. Salt and ion requirements for factor A binding were investigated, and partial purification steps indicated the factor to be a heparin-Sepharose-binding moiety of greater than 100 kDa. To examine possible relationships between silencer and PBS activities, sequences representing phenylalanine, isoleucine, lysine-1,2, lysine-3, methionine, and tryptophan PBS DNA fragments were tested in vivo for stem cell-specific repression of M-MuLV expression and in vitro in DNA binding assays. Of these PBS elements, only the lysine-1,2 PBS DNA fragment showed consistently high levels of repression. Interestingly, the lysine-1,2 PBS DNA fragment also formed a complex with an EC cell factor with characteristics similar to those of factor A. However, the two factors did not cross-compete in binding studies, suggesting that they may be different but related factors. Our results suggest that expression of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, visna virus, and spumavirus, which use the lysine-1,2 PBS, may be inhibited in undifferentiated stem cells.

Base Sequence↗

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a young girl.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is now a widely used procedure in adults. However, reports on this procedure in infants and young children are rare. This paper reports a successful laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a young girl.

Child, Preschool↗

[Acute abdomen--anesthesiologic and intensive care management].

The expression "acute abdomen" is a provisional destination of a complex of various abdominal diseases which require quick diagnostic as well as urgent surgical therapy. A close interdisciplinary cooperation during the whole perioperative period is of high importance for the prognosis of this potentially life-threatening syndrome. The anesthetist must have profound knowledge on causes and clinical signs of this disease, on diagnostic measures and on therapeutic principles. Anaesthesiological problems arise from the discrepancy between an urgent operation on one hand and the necessity of an improvement of the preoperative status of the patient on the other. Furthermore, these patients have high risks of aspiration due to disturbed motility of the gastrointestinal tract. Intensive therapy of these patients is characterized by the peculiarity that a primarily local abdominal disease is frequently followed by severe extraperitoneal general reactions and multiple organ failure, respectively.

Abdomen, Acute↗

Characterization of the Moloney murine leukemia virus stem cell-specific repressor binding site.

The Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) repressor binding site (RBS) mediates cell-type-specific repression in embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells of expression from several different promoters, including the M-MuLV long terminal repeat promoter. Silencing has been shown to depend on an element normally located in the proviral 5' noncoding region and occurs at the DNA level in the absence of retroviral proteins. Using fragments of the RBS region, we now show that the minimal size of the silencer corresponds to M-MuLV nt 147-163 and overlaps with the retroviral primer binding site region by 17 of its 18 bp. A panel of point mutations within the RBS has been examined to yield a consensus RBS sequence which is consistent with the notion that a previously identified nuclear factor (binding factor A) mediates RBS repression. Viral vectors using neomycin, beta-galactosidase, and luciferase reporters have been employed to show that RBS-mediated repression occurs in EC and embryonal stem, but not in other tested cell types. Repression was observed to occur within 48 hr of infection, prior to when global methylation of proviruses has been reported to occur. Repression also occurred after azacytidine treatment of EC cells, supporting the notion that the RBS functions independently of provirus methylation. However, levels of provirus methylation in selected cells were increased in the presence of a wild-type RBS, and methylation correlated with a secondary stage of virus repression. Thus, the M-MuLV RBS acts directly to control expression in EC cells and also appears to trigger a secondary level of repression which is coincident with provirus methylation.

3T3 Cells↗

The effect of cisapride on gastro-oesophageal dysfunction in systemic sclerosis: a controlled manometric study.

1. Cisapride is a novel prokinetic drug which facilitates or restores motility throughout the gastrointestinal tract. Its mechanism of action is thought to involve enhancement of acetylcholine release in the myenteric plexus of the gut. 2. The effect of intravenous cisapride 10 mg on gastro-oesophageal dysfunction was investigated in 20 patients with systemic sclerosis, using a double-blind, randomised, cross-over, placebo-controlled manometric study design. 3. The increase in lower oesophageal sphincter pressure was significantly higher after cisapride (mean +/- s.e. mean, 8.3 +/- 2.1 cm H2O) than after placebo (mean +/- s.e. mean. 0.1 +/- 0.3 cm H2O) (P less than 0.001). The increase in the number of fundic gastric contractions during the 30 min study period was significantly higher after cisapride (mean +/- s.e. mean, 7.7 +/- 2.3) than after placebo (mean +/- s.e. mean, 0.9 +/- 0.6) (P less than 0.01). 4. No serious clinical adverse effects were observed. 5. The study demonstrates that intravenous cisapride induces a significant increase in lower oesophageal sphincter pressure and in the number of fundic gastric contractions, which may be beneficial in the treatment of scleroderma gastro-oesophageal dysfunction. Further long-term studies of the effect of oral cisapride in patients with systemic sclerosis are warranted.

Cisapride↗

Effects of ketanserin on platelet function and red cell filterability in hypertension and peripheral vascular disease.

Serotonin is a vasoactive substance that acts on blood vessels and platelets but whose primary action lies in its role as an amplifier for other agents. The aim of this work was to study the effects on blood platelets and erythrocytes of the S2-serotonergic receptor antagonist ketanserin. Twenty-seven patients with untreated hypertension and/or intermittent claudication received a bolus intravenous (i.v.) injection of 10 mg ketanserin followed by 2 mg/h during 3 h i.v. infusion. Platelet function and erythrocyte filterability were studied before and 30 min, 3 h, and 24 h after the bolus injection. The results showed decreases of plasma beta-thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4 levels (p less than 0.001) and platelet aggregation induced by epinephrine plus serotonin (p less than 0.001), whereas ADP-induced aggregation remained unchanged 30 min and 3 h after ketanserin administration. Red cell filterability was decreased (p less than 0.01). There was a tendency toward lower mean arterial blood pressure but heart rate remained unchanged. The dual effect of ketanserin on platelet function and erythrocyte filterability might be of great clinical value in hypertension and peripheral vascular disease in which microcirculatory flow is altered.

Adult↗

Unresponsiveness to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in Lewis rats pretreated with complete Freund's adjuvant.

A single injection of complete Freund's adjuvant blended with aluminum hydroxide gel (ALU-CFA) was successfully used to prevent clinical as well as histologic experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Lewis rats for more than 330 days. Adjuvant preparations with Mycobacterium tuberculosis were more potent than those with Mycobacterium butyricum. Neither the removal of the ALU-CFA inoculum nor a splenectomy 1 month after immunization arrested the adjuvant induced unresponsiveness. However cyclophosphamide restored responsiveness in more than half of the treated animals when applied 2 days before the encephalitogenic challenge at a dose of 20 mg/kg. Passive EAE was not prevented by the ALU-CFA pretreatment. The disease was induced by the transfer of 4 X 10(6) T lymphocytes of a cell line reactive against myelin basic protein. This indicates that the adjuvant prevents EAE at the inductive rather than at the effector phase of the autoimmune response.

Age Factors↗

[Pharmaco-angiography of liver tumours (author's transl)].

In 36 patients with clinical suspicion of liver tumours, pharmaco-angiography using adrenalin was added to the usual liver arteriography. In 31 of these patients rumour involvement of the liver was confirmed by surgery, laparoscopy or autopsy. In four out of ten patients with benign liver tumours, pharmaco-angiography lead to improved demonstration and therefore classification of the tumour. Four out of seven malignant primary tumours. Four out of seven malignant primary tumours of the liver were also better demonstrated by pharmaco-angiography. Amongst 14 patients with liver metastases, an improvement in the angiographic demonstration by pharmaco-angiography was achieved in nine. This was particularly the case in tumours showing tumour vessels. Neither benign nor malignant tumours showed constriction of their vessels as a result of pharmaco-angiography and this is therefore not able to differentiate between these. It was also found that tumours showing the the same histology could behave differently during pharmaco-angiography.

Adenoma↗