Biomedical subjects

B el-Ad

Publications and source records attributed to B el-Ad.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Mechanical ventilation in stroke patients--is it worthwhile?

We assessed the therapeutic efficacy and outcome of mechanical ventilation (MV) in patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF) following ischemic stroke (IS) or intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), retrospectively graded by patients with IS (n = 881) and ICH (n = 108) admitted to our service during 11 years, according to the severity of their clinical state and to whether we employed MV. Outcome was recorded in terms of survival and duration of MV and compared with patients with neuromuscular (NM) diseases. We found a very high in-hospital mortality in stroke patients who were treated with ventilation (90.5% for IS and 87.5% for ICH) compared with NM patients (29%). We conclude that MV in stroke patients with ARF is not life-saving, and its use should be considered only after considering other potentially important factors.

Aged↗

PubMed1994

Should sleep EEG record always be performed after sleep deprivation?

Sleep deprivation (SD) is a known activator of epileptiform EEG activity in patients with epilepsy. In the workup of these patients, EEG recordings are performed following SD both in the awake state and during sleep. The latter significantly increases the duration and the cost of the examination; the specific yield of sleep tracing in single-session wake-sleep record after SD has not been evaluated in adult patients. Our study tried to answer this question, analyzing consecutive recordings of 76 adult patients who had an epileptiform abnormality in the SD record. Thirty-five of the patients were treated with antiepileptic drugs at the time of the study. After SD of 24-26 h, 1000-1500 mg of chloral hydrate were administered; an 18-channel standard awake EEG was performed, followed by 30 min sleep recording. Epileptiform activity was recorded in the wake part only in 7 (9%, 3 focal, 4 generalized); in 39 (51%) the activity was seen in both awake and sleep parts (21 focal, 5 focal with secondary generalization and 13 generalized); and in 30 (40%) it was found in the sleep part only (23 focal, 1 focal with secondary generalization and 6 generalized). Whenever epileptiform activity was apparent in both parts of the recording, its configuration and localization were identical in the sleep and the wake EEGs. This phenomenon was observed in both treated and untreated patients. In combined wake-sleep recording following SD in adults, sleep tracing may reveal epileptiform activity not demonstrated during the preceding wake EEG. However, if epileptiform activity appears already in the wake recording, subsequent sleep tracing may be redundant.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Correlation between cutaneous reaction in vaccinees immunized against smallpox and antibody titer determined by plaque neutralization test and ELISA.

The correlation between skin reaction, exhibited by vaccinees immunized against smallpox, and antibody titer determined by plaque neutralization and ELISA, was evaluated. Twenty eight out of 35 young adults (vaccinated at infancy and at the age of 8 years), who were injected with vaccinia virus, displayed a major skin reaction a week later. An increase of four-folds and more, in antibody titer against vaccinia virus, is generally considered positive immunization take-up against smallpox. According to this criterion, only 17 of the vaccinees were found positive by plaque neutralization, while 25 by the indirect micro-ELISA. Thus, there were eight vaccinees who were considered immunized by the ELISA, (seven of them also according to the skin reaction), but not by the plaque neutralization test.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

The persistence of neutralizing antibodies after revaccination against smallpox.

Persistence of neutralizing antibodies after revaccination against smallpox was studied. Single serum samples from 140 revaccinated donors were tested for neutralizing antibodies using the plaque reduction assay. The donors, aged 21-49 years at sampling, had been vaccinated in infancy and revaccinated at 8 and 18 years; they formed seven groups of 20 men each, revaccinated about 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years before sampling. The differences in mean titer among groups were insignificant (P greater than .01). The titer significantly decreased during the first 3 years after the revaccination but remained stable for at least 30 years thereafter (geometric mean titer, 10.5; 95% confidence interval, 6.8-16.4). The results suggest that there is probably no need for routine revaccinations beyond the primary and two revaccinations; nevertheless, persons at high risk should be revaccinated regardless of their vaccination status.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Periodic febrile confusion as a presentation of complex partial status epilepticus.

A 75-year-old woman was evaluated for recurrent episodes of fever she experienced periodically every 4-5 weeks over the last 12 months, lasting 2-3 days each. The fever was associated with continuous complex partial seizures, paralleled the seizure activity and returned to normal after the seizures had ceased. The ictal EEG recordings showed rhythmic bitemporal 3-4 Hz activity; the interictal recordings showed a spike and wave discharge over the right fronto-temporal region. Carbamazepine effectively controlled both the seizures and the fever; the latter was presumed to be an inherent manifestation of the seizure activity.

Aged↗