PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

B K Mandal

Publications and source records attributed to B K Mandal.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Bronchial responsiveness in AIDS patients with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.

OBJECTIVE: To study bronchial responsiveness to inhaled histamine among HIV-infected patients. DESIGN: A prospective study in a regional infectious diseases unit. METHODS: Three groups of patients were studied. Group A consisted of AIDS patients (n = 7) who had had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), group B of AIDS patients (n = 7) not known to have had PCP, and group C of asymptomatic HIV-positive patients (n = 7). Inhalational histamine challenge in cumulative doses (0.03-3.91 mumol) was administered by a nebulizer. It was stopped when the forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) had fallen by more than 20% of the baseline value or when the cumulative dose administered exceeded 3.91 mumol. Response was measured as percentage change in FEV1 from the baseline value, and plotted on a linear scale against log dose histamine to enable the dose of histamine causing a 20% fall in FEV1 (PD20-FEV1) to be determined. Statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance. RESULTS: AIDS patients previously infected with PCP (group A) had a significantly lower PD20-FEV1 [(mean, 0.31 mumol; range, 0.07-0.95; s.d., 0.31; s.e., 0.12; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.03-0.60)] than AIDS patients without PCP (group B; mean, 1.01 mumol; range, 0.20-2.00; s.d., 0.67; s.e., 0.25; 95% CI, 0.39-1.64) or asymptomatic HIV-positive patients (group C; mean, 1.28 mumol; range, 0.49-1.80; s.d., 0.51; s.e., 0.19; 95% CI, 0.81-1.76) (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between groups B and C. All patients recorded PD20-FEV1 within the asthmatic range of bronchial hyper-responsiveness. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that development of PCP in a small group of HIV-infected patients induces a significantly greater degree of bronchial hyper-responsiveness.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections

Primary HIV-I infection associated with pneumonitis.

A 21 year old homosexual man presented with an acute pneumonitis during symptomatic seroconversion for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-I) infection. The symptoms resolved spontaneously without any therapeutic interventions needed. Acute pneumonitis should be added to the ever-increasing spectrum of clinical manifestations in primary HIV-I infection.

Acute Disease

Tuberculosis in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.

A retrospective study of tuberculosis was undertaken among 125 patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who attended our regional infectious disease unit between 1986 and 1989. Nine TB-positive patients (five English, three Africans, one Indian) were identified. In three patients who presented with pyrexia of unknown origin and no objective evidence of any organ involvement, the diagnosis of TB was established from examination of sputum induced by nebulized hypertonic saline. Four other patients had extrapulmonary disease while another two had only pulmonary manifestations of TB. Chest radiographs from five patients were normal, while the other four showed cavities with consolidation, pleural effusion, miliary opacities and hilar enlargement, respectively. All but two mycobacterial isolates were fully sensitive to standard first-line chemotherapeutic drugs. Response to treatment was rapid and only complicated in one patient. There were no relapses following treatment without maintenance therapy after a mean follow-up of 22.2 months (range 9-48). Three patients died, of causes unrelated to TB. Tuberculosis may occur at any stage of HIV disease and is an important cause of fever in HIV-infected British patients, even when chest radiographs are normal and previous BCG vaccination has been performed.

Adult

Campylobacter colitis.

Eleven consecutive patients with diarrhoea from whose stools campylobacter were isolated were investigated by sigmoidoscopy and rectal biopsy. Eight had definite proctitis, and in seven biopsy specimens were abnormal with histological changes ranging from non-specific colitis to gross colitis with goblet-cell depletion and crypt-abscess formation. Nine of the patients passed blood in their stools, and in all but one abdominal pain was a feature of the illness. Severe campylobacter colitis may be clinically, sigmoidoscopically, and histologically difficult to differentiate from ulcerative colitis and is a differential diagnosis in acute colitis.

Adolescent

Mecillinam in enteric fever.

Twelve consecutive patients with enteric fever entered a trial of 14 days' treatment with mecillinam. Only three patients became afebrile within three days; four continued unimproved with fever and toxaemia for seven to nine days, when treatment was changed to chloramphenicol with good results. In one case the fever did not settle until the 13th day, and five days later the patient had a clinical relapse. Although all organisms recovered were fully sensitive to mecillinam, this drug is not an effective or consistent treatment for enteric fever.

Administration, Oral

The declining incidence of infantile hypernatremic dehydration in Great Britain.

The feeding habits of 70 infants under 6 months old hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis were studied to determine whether current efforts to discourage high-solute feeding were having an effect on the incidence of hypernatremic dehydration. Fifteen infants (21%) were fed modified (low-solute) milks and 55 (79%) unmodified (high-solute) milks. Of 47 infants under 3 months old, 15 (32%) had commenced mixed feeding. Plasma sodium level was estimated in 60 infants. Mean values in the modified and unmodified groups were the same, at 137 mEq/liter. Only one infant was hypernatremic (sodium level, 152 m/eq/liter). Osmolalities of 65 samples of milk were measured to provide a measure of milk concentration. Only ten (16%) exceeded by more than 25% that recommended by the manufacturers. Twenty-two (34%) were less than 75% of the recommended concentrations. These improved feeding practices have probably contributed largely to the very low incidence of hypernatremia by preventing dangerously high solute intakes at a time of particular vulnerability.

Acute Disease

Toxic dilatation of the colon in salmonella colitis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Toxic dilatation of the colon may be due to inflammatory bowel disease, either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease of the colon, but recent experience has shown that infective colitis due to salmonella can produce this complication. We present 13 cases with toxic dilatation (9 inflammatory bowel disease and 4 salmonellosis) and outline the diagnostic features and treatment in these patients. It is important to distinguish salmonellosis at an early stage because, whilst toxic dilatation in inflammatory bowel disease is an absolute indication for surgical treatment, cases with this complication due to salmonellosis may be treated conservatively in the majority of instances.

Adolescent

The rectal biopsy appearances in Salmonella colitis.

Rectal biopsies were examined from 22 patients with Salmonella infection of food-poisoning type and from seven patients with inflammatory bowel disease and coincidental Salmonella infection. In the former group the changes observed were mucosal oedema with acute inflammation of varying severity but with preservation of the crypt architecture. Crypt abscesses were present in a few cases but were usually localized in the crypt and mucus depletion only occurred with severe inflammation. These features are not specific and are similar to those seen in other types of infective colitis such as Shigella dysentery, gonococcal proctitis and amoebic colitis. In the majority of cases of infective colitis the appearances are usually sufficiently distinctive, however, to distinguish them from those seen in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The changes in the biopsies from the seven patients with coincidental Salmonella infection were in general those of the underlying idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease.

Adolescent

Colonic involvement in salmonellosis.

Although small intestine is generally regarded as the principal site involved in human salmonella infection of food-poisoning type, the pathophysiology of salmonella diarrhoea remains obscure. A sigmoidoscopic and biopsy study of 23 hospital inpatients with acute salmonella infection revealed presence of active colitis in 21. It is suggested that colonic involvement is common in human salmonellosis and probably plays an important role in the causation of diarrhoea.

Adolescent