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Biomedical subjects

B Lako

Publications and source records attributed to B Lako.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

[Etiology and pathogenesis of Lyme borreliosis].

Some characteristics of B. burgdorferi which have crucial role in the pathogenesis of Lyme-borreliosis are described. The pathogenesis of Lyme-borreliosis is a complex process resulting from inflammation, release of interleukin-1, dissemination and adherence of borrelia to different tissues. Dissemination of borrelia is facilitated by the increased permeability of the blood vessels and active penetration of borrelia through the endothelial membranes. Invasion of different type of tissues emerges as a result of B. burgdorferi adherence to several types of cells and structures rather evenly distributed in human host. Immune response, normally protective, is not efficient in eradicating the organisms and can contribute to the illness by development of an autoreactive process. Autoreactivity is based on antigenic cross-reactivity between epitopes common to borrelia and human host, especially situated on so called "heat shock proteins".

Animals

[Epidemiologic characteristics and serologic findings in erythema migrans].

Our three-year research covered 417 patients with erythema migrans, of both sexes and all age groups. Among them 87.3% had a history of tick bite. Average attachment of tick to a patients skin was two days. Diameter of erythematous lesions was 1-50 cm (with an average of 15.1 cm). Magnitude of the lesion does not correlate with the further development of the Lyme disease. IFA test detected antibodies against Borreliae burgdorferi in 27.0% of our patients.

Adult

[Rheumatic manifestations in Lyme borreliosis: personal experience in patients with oligoarthritis of "unknown" origin].

Lyme borreliosis is an infectious illness caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted by tick vectors. A prospective study was performed from January 1990, to investigate whether Lyme arthritis might have been undetected among patients with (unclassified arthritis) oligoarthritis of "unknown" aetiology. 210 patients were tested for antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi: 82 patients with oligoarthritis of "unknown" aetiology; 52 patients with Reiter's syndrome; 20 patients with seronegative, B-27 positive oligoarthritis and 56 controls. Serological testing for Borrelia burgdorferi was performed by indirect immunofluorescence assay. The occurrence of positive antibodies (1:80) in 11 (13.4%) patients with arthritis of "unknown" aetiology was significantly different from the combined control group (1.6%) (p < 0.05). Four out of 11 patients remembered a tick bite, two out of 11 patients developed erythema migrans after 3 to 10 days. Six weeks later 2 patients developed oligoarthritis and one patient after a month. In the remaining 8 patients arthritis was the first sign of the disease. Knees were most commonly affected (90%). Radiographic abnormalities (osteoporosis, soft tissue swelling) were noted in 3 patients. The synovial fluid findings were typical for inflammatory arthritides in 6 patients. The diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis was made according to following data: origin from an area endemic for Lyme borreliosis, tick bite, erythema migrans, significant levels of the antibodies to the Borrelia burgdorferi and oligoarthritis. It can be concluded that arthritis may be the main manifestation of Borrelia burgdorferi infection.

Adult

[Lyme borreliosis in Belgrade].

In the period 1990-1992 in Belgrade area a diagnosis of Lyme disease was registered in 487 patients. There were 195 men and 292 women. The disease was registered in all ages groups, median age 38 y. The tick bite has been confirmed in 379 (77.8%) patients. Erythema migrans was the first sign of illness in 387 (84.6%) patients. The disease resoted in neurologic symptoms in 1.8%, joint manifestation in 4.8% and cardiac involvement in 0.9%. Antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi have been detected by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy in 23.4%. Lyme disease has been registered in all districts of Belgrade. Acarological investigations have detected an infection by Borrelia burgdorferi in 29.0% of investigated ticks.

Adolescent

[Modern immunologic tests in the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis].

In this work we described the results that were obtained using various immunodiagnostic assays for the detection of lyme borreliosis. Sera of the patients that were in acute or chronical phase of the disease were analysed in indirect immunofluorescent, immunoenzyme and immunoblot assays which were prepared and carried out in our laboratory. As a control for the validity of these investigations, we used sera of the healthy people, as well as of the patients suffering of lues or rheumatoid illnesses. Results that we obtained pointed out the factors responsible for the nonspecific reactions in indirect immunofluorescent and immunoenzyme test. The advantage of the immunoblot analysis in detecting lyme borreliosis is described in this work.

Humans

[Ecology of Borrelia burgdorferi].

Much still remains to be understood about ecology of Borrelia burgdorferi which is transmitted by a number of ticks belonging primarily to the Ixodes complex, known to feed on different animal hosts and humans. This article pretends to be a review of previous knowledge of Borrelia burgdorferi ecology. Special emphasis is placed on the preliminary results of an investigation conducted in Yugoslavia on the risk of developing lyme borreliosis after a tick bite (Ixodes ricinus). Lyme borreliosis was studied prospectively in 147 persons with tick fastened on them. Dark-field microscopic examination of tick mitgut revealed that 11 (7.9%) od 147 Ixodes ricinus were infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme borreliosis was demonstrated in only one (0.6%) of all persons bitten by ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. In conclusion, these preliminary data indicate that in Yugoslavia lyme borreliosis infrequently occurred after a tick bite.

Animals

[Vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi].

During the period 1990-1992-5,915 ticks were collected and identified in the area of Belgrade. Identification has shown that 99.8% were Ixodes ricinus and 0.2% Dermacentor marginatus. Infection with Borrelia burgdorferi was found in 27.0% to 31.7%. Females were more often infected than males and nymphs more often than larvae. Tick infection was at lowest degree in parks, little bit higher in woods and highest in mixed park-wood areas. Out of 28 locations, six can not be defined as foci of Lyme borreliosis, two are defined as potential foci and 20 as active foci of Lyme borreliosis. In a three year period we have isolated Borrelia burgdorferi in five occasions; in one occasion from ticks collected in Barajevo and in four occasions from ticks collected in Kosutnjak.

Animals

[The first isolation of Borrelia burgdorferi in Apodemus flavicollis in Yugoslavia].

Small rodent species, as well as their ectoparasitic fauna, and the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi in their blood and internal organs (liver and spleen) was investigated, at two locations (Kosutnjak, Lipovicka suma) in Belgrade. Animals were caught between September 15-17, 1992. On location Kosutnjak two Apodemus flavicollis were trapped and Borrelia burgdorferi was isolated from the spleen of one of them. On location Lipovicka suma 13 rodents were trapped as follows: 10 Apodemus flavicollis, 2 Apodemus agrarius and one Mus musculus. In these the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi was not determined. Ectoparasits Ixodes ricinus, Nesopyllus fasciatus and Haemogamasus spp. have been found. The location Kosutnjak can be considered as an active focus of lyme borreliosis.

Animals

Effect of progesterone and pregnancy on the replication of herpes simplex virus type 2 in vivo.

This project involved an investigation into the effect of pregnancy and progesterone on genital Herpes simplex virus (HSV) Type 2 infection in mice, with the aim of establishing whether elevated progesterone level, due either to pregnancy or parenteral administration, makes the vaginal HSV infection all the heavier. The investigation was carried out on three groups of mice, representing three test situations in connection with vaginal HSV infection: the first group consisted of non-pregnant experimental animals administered progesterone in the duration of 6 days and intravaginally infected with the virus on the 7th day; the other group consisted of pregnant mice infected on the 7th day of pregnancy in the same manner as the first group. Investigation in the scope of groups involved the monitoring of mortality in the duration of 20 days, and the rate thus registered was compared with that of the control-group mice which were neither pregnant nor administered progesterone, and which were infected in the same manner as those from the control group. The results of experiments carried out on pregnant and progesterone-administered mice clearly show that experimental animals from these two groups are more susceptible to vaginal HSV Type 2 infection than those from the control group, which means that pregnancy and progesterone have produced the same effect on the in vivo replication of Herpes simplex virus Type 2.

Animals

[Ixodes ricinus proven as a vector of Lyme borreliosis in Yugoslavia].

263 fasting female Ixodes ricinus were examined for Borrelia burgorferi, the vector of Lyme borreliosis. Female ticks were collected by flagella in the biotopes (Belgrade and Osijek) in which ticks bite patients with Lyme borreliosis. Borrelia burgorferi was proved in 58 (22%) of 263 female ticks in the native preparations of the intestinal contents by darkfield microscopy. In macerates of two groups of 5 female ticks each, Borrelia burgorferi was isolated by cultivation in the modified Kelly nutrient media for borrelia. The supposition that Ixodes ricinus is the vector of Lyme borreliosis in Yugoslavia is confirmed.

Animals

[Reaction of the injured organism to infection].

Authors have examined degree of the immune response to experimentally inoculated agent in the early (6 hours) and late (7 days) phase of the organism response to thermal injury in BALB/c rats divided into two experimental groups and three control groups (only infected, only burnt and intact). Brucella abortus bovis of VA-19 species known as a good immune response stimulator in the host was i.p. inoculated in LD 50 (1 x 10(7) bact/ml). as the infective agent. Thermal injury-scalding was induced after the Art-hurson's method. Obtained results after observed brucella multiplication and spreading in blood, spleen, liver and lymph nodes as well as after determination of the phagocyte activation degree measured by the lumisol-dependent-chemiluminescence technique have pointed out that the general response to also confirm reliability of serologic diagnosis of toxoplasmosis by IgM antibody detecting in disease outbreaks. Acute acquired toxoplasmosis could not be reliably diagnosed on the basis of IgG-ELISA and IgG-IIF test findings. Enzyme immunoassays-ELISA are significantly more sensitive and more specific than IIF ones.

Animals

[Lyme disease in Yugoslavia].

Presented are results of the last five-year period study of the lyme disease in Yugoslavia. On the basis of published papers and professional communications over 2500 cases of lyme disease.were detected in our country within this period. Presented are common epidemiologic and clinical features of the disease and particularly cases diagnosed in Belgrade. Since 1987 a group of various specialists has been working on the research project in collaboration with many centres in the country. Indirect immunofluorescence test as the diagnostic laboratory technique has been introduced in the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade in 1987. First species of Borrelia burgdorferi from ticks Ixodes ricinus have been isolated and cultivated in May and June 1990. Current problems concerning research work, medical and epidemiological aspects of the lyme disease are presented.

Adolescent

[Clinical characteristics of Lyme disease].

Clinical characteristics of Lyme disease were analysed in 22 patients. Erythema migrans was found in 20 (91%), arthralgia in 18 (81%), neuralgia in 8 (36%), encephalitis in 3 (13%), carditis in 2 (9%) and arthritis in 2 (9%) patients. The positive antibody titer was found in 14 (63%) patients. Favourable effects of antibiotic therapy was achieved in all patients. Erythema migrans has been manifested up to 12 days after tick sting and arthralgia, arthritis, neuralgia, hepatitis and chronic dermatitis within a year. Carditis and encephalitis have been developing from a month to ten years after tick sting. Lyme borreliosis is commonly manifested as a systemic disease. Together with the skin, most commonly have been involved ankle joints, heart and nervous system. The time from tick sting to the onset of first signs of the diseases varies by the involved organs.

Adult