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C Maass

Publications and source records attributed to C Maass.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Coronary artery stenting in cardiac allograft vascular disease.

Cardiac allograft vascular disease is characterized by diffuse and multifocal heterogeneous myointimal hyperplasia with or without vascular remodeling. Catheter-based interventions are indicated in selected patients. This study documents our experience with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and coronary stents (n = 48) in a group of 27 patients 5.7 +/- 2.9 years after heart transplantation. Early and intermediate results were controlled by angiography and intravascular ultrasound. Conventional percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty resulted in a mild and mostly inadequate gain in luminal dimensions (lumen area: 3.17 +/- 0.92 mm2 to 3.70 +/- 1.21 mm2; minimal lumen diameter: 1.84 +/- 0.23 mm to 2.04 +/- 0.36 mm). Coronary stenting led to a further improvement of luminal gain (lumen area: 3.70 +/- 1.21 mm2 to 5.86 +/- 1.76 mm2; minimal lumen diameter: 2.04 +/- 0.36 mm to 2.53 +/- 0.38 mm). These results were stabilized by application of aspirin and ticlopidine only. There were no stent thromboses or bleeding complications, and early hospital discharge of the patients was possible. At follow-up (mean follow-up period 7.72 +/- 5.45 months (range 0.50 to 23.13 months) all patients were clinically event free. In six of 24 stented vessels (25%) in 16 patients, significant restenosis (>50%) was found by intravascular ultrasound (n = 20) or by angiography (n = 4) 6 months after stent placement. We conclude that in eligible cardiac allograft vascular disease lesions primary stenting may be the method of choice. However, further evaluation of the modalities of stent application and different stent designs with respect to long-term survival is necessary.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Not Available].

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Education↗
PubMed1994

When to treat varicocele?

In order to find criteria that might prognosticate the outcome of varicocele treatment, we studied 48 patients with unilateral or bilateral varicocele. Examinations prior to therapy included GnRH test and determination of alpha-glucosidase in addition to normal sperm analysis. The morphological analysis was performed according to the Düsseldorf classification. Thirty-five of the 48 patients underwent varicocele sclerosing, 13 patients received no therapy. Ten normozoospermic donors served as control. At 6-7 months after sclerosing, the aforementioned parameters were checked in all patients. Almost all of the untreated patients had pathological GnRH tests initially and on control, and sperm parameters had deteriorated. In the treated group, 75% had pathological GnRH tests initially. Of these, 70% improved, particularly sperm morphology with reduction of hyperelongated forms, and 30% had GnRH tests returned to normal. However, improved sperm parameters were also observed in 75% of patients who had normal GnRH tests initially. The improvement of sperm parameters was not associated with significant changes in alpha-glucosidase (normal initial values). According to these results, the GnRH test does not seem to be an important prognostic parameter for the outcome of varicocele therapy. However, patients with pathological values should be treated. Determination of alpha-glucosidase as an epididymal marker is no decisive criterion either. The most significant improvement was observed in patients with increased occurrence of hyperelongated spermatozoa.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1992

Tetrazolium [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] reduction by mycoplasmas.

We investigated 22 mycoplasma and acholeplasma species for their ability to reduce tetrazolium salts by using the MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay. The test results were evaluated visually, as well as spectrophotometrically, by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay reader. Our results were very similar to the results obtained when the tetrazolium salt reduction assay described by Aluotto et al. was used. However, the MTT reduction assay appeared to be better because it is faster, more objective and sensitive, easier to evaluate, and less expensive; in addition, it allows quantitative determinations. By using regression analysis a linear correlation between formazan production and the number of colony-forming units was demonstrated for all of the species investigated, indicating that the MTT assay can also be used for growth, toxicity, or chemosensitivity tests for the mycoplasma species that are capable of reducing tetrazolium salts.

Acholeplasma↗