Biomedical subjects

B Thomann

Publications and source records attributed to B Thomann.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Observation and judgment in psychology: assessing agreement among markings of behavioral events.

In a sequence from a videotaped dialogue between two persons (e.g., psychotherapist and patient), observers are given the task of searching for, marking, and commenting on conspicuous events. The observers receive no information on where to look for conspicuous events and no information on what events are worth marking. Moreover, nothing is known about the observers' marking preferences. Marking is therefore very spontaneous and subjective. This marking freedom leads to the problem that a superimposition of all observers' markings yields complicated configurations of mutually overlapping intervals. To address this difficulty, a new definition of the concept of marking agreement is proposed that is based upon relational considerations. According to this definition, a set of agreeing marking subsets of various sizes can be found in marking configurations. A significance concept is proposed to allow comparison of different configurations, and standardization on the basis of random configurations is performed using Monte Carlo simulations.

Behavioral Sciences↗

PubMed2000

[Allergy to house dust mites].

The prevalence of atopic disease in Switzerland is 15-20%. About 30% of these patients have perennial symptoms and a substantial proportion are allergic to house-dust mite proteins. If absolute air humidity is lower than 7.0 g water per kg air, house-dust mites will not proliferate. This is why the occurrence of house-dust mites varies between different regions. About half of the patients with allergy to house-dust mites complain of rhinitis, a quarter of asthma and a quarter of asthma and rhinitis. The diagnosis is usually by history, skin prick tests and if necessary provocation. Therapy includes allergen avoidance (reduction of air humidity in dwellings by ventilation, encasing of mattresses and bedding), medication (mainly topical corticosteroids) and specific immunotherapy.

Animals↗

PubMed2000

[Tibial torsion deformities].

Tibial torsion defects are usually not clinically evident and, hence, are often overlooked. Clinical examination and CT scan have proved to be the best ways of measuring static tibial torsion, whereas dynamic measurements are usually performed in the clinic and the "gait laboratory." Only few studies have determined there to be a connection between a torsion defect in the lower leg and expected pathological conditions of the knee and ankle joints. However, patellofemoral instability, Osgood-Schlatter disease, osteochondrosis dissecans are increasingly being found in cases of increased external tibial torsion and arthrosis in reduced torsion. Although spontaneous correction may occur in certain cases, in others the only way to correct the condition is by employing physiologic torsion. Conservative treatment methods such as bandages or orthosis have been shown to not have any effect on torsion; thus, surgical treatment is the only successful way to correct a pathologic angle of rotation of the tibia. For this, supramalleolar osteotomy with fixation using Kirscher wires and plaster or an external fixator are the most common treatments.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Transient pure red cell aplasia caused by antilymphoblast globulin after cadaveric renal transplantation.

Transient pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) in three consecutive patients receiving ATG for management of kidney graft rejection prompted a systematic study of the effects on erythropoiesis of the ATG preparation used at our institution. We found that 90% of patients treated with rabbit anti-T lymphoblast globulin developed reticulocytopenia (less than 17,000 reticulocytes/mm3), with complete disappearance of reticulocytes in 65% of patients and increased requirement for red cell transfusion. PRCA, with selective aplasia of erythroblasts was confirmed by bone marrow aspiration in 4 patients volunteering for aspiration, and by the kinetic of the disappearance of blood reticulocytes in relation to the beginning of ATG treatment. The nadir of thrombocytes and lymphocytes, blood cells directly destroyed by ATG in circulation, followed the start of ATG treatment within 1 to 4 days. In contrast the nadir of reticulocyte counts occurred later, between day 7 and 13 after ATG was begun, reflecting the fact that toxicity was directed against red cell precursors rather than mature circulating cells. In agreement with these clinical findings ALG was found to be cytotoxic in vitro for erythroid precursors. Analogously to autoimmune PRCA caused by autoantibodies to erythroblasts, this type of PRCA could be viewed as "heteroimmune disease."

Adolescent↗