PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

D Engel

Publications and source records attributed to D Engel.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

[Late results following palliative vascular embolization in inoperable kidney tumors. (Preliminary report)].

During 18 months in 15 patients with inoperable renal tumours palliative therapeutic vascular embolisations were carried out with the help of an own catheter technique. In contrast to preoperative embolisation (16 patients) in the inoperable cases a non-absorpable polyvinyl alcohol foam substance ("Ivalon") was used, which leads to a secure permanent vascular occlusion. The haematuria occurring in all patients which many times threateningly increased was removed in all cases. There did not appear any essential complications. However, on account of the formation of a symptomatology of renal infarction a clinical after-treatment is necessary. In 12 patients regulary clinical and paraclinical control examinations during an observation period of on an average 11 months were carried out (minimum 6 months, maximum 18 months). 11 of these patients were still alive at the end of the report and had a tolerable or even improved general condition. In angiographical after-controls of 4 patients, and in one case by autopsy, permanent vascular occlusions with formation of necroses of a large area and partly considerable restriction of the tumour kidneys were found. In these cases the therapeutic embolisation led to a provable damage of the tumorous process. An influence of metastases distant from the primary tumour was not observed.

Embolization, Therapeutic↗
PubMed1977

The conceptual structure of aphasic and schizophrenic patients in a nonverbal sorting task.

Hierarchical and overlapping cluster methods were applied to the sortings of aphasic, nonaphasic brain-damaged, schizophrenic, and normal subjects presented with 30 pictures of animals. The hierarchical structure solutions were most diffuse for the groups of the schizophrenics and the fluent aphasics'. The structure for the nonfluent aphasics showed more clarity, but was also deviant from the structures of the normals and the brain-damaged without aphasia. Fluent aphasics but not nonfluent aphasics tended to sort pictures which they could not name into smaller groups. For the nonfluent aphasics, there was a significant correlation between the commonality of the sortings and the severity of aphasic disturbances as measured by the Token Test. The relationship between conceptual disorganization and language impairment seems to be functionally different for fluent and nonfluent aphasics.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Intra-arterial basie dye studies of the blood-CSF and blood-brain barriers.

1. The permeability of the blood-CSF barrier was tested by injecting highly diffusible basic dyes into the common carotid artery and aspiration of the cisterna magna during or shortly after the injection. None of the dyes appeared in the CSF. 2. The appearance of similarly administered basic dyes were observed in the exposed cerebral cortex. Some of the basic dyes appeared in the cortex immediately after a few drops of dye were injected. This contradicts the assumption that staining of the brain by basic dyes is a post-vital process. 3. The difference between the permeability of the blood-CSF barrier and the blood-brain barrier proves the fundamentally different characters of the two barriers.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Validity of the Sklar Aphasia Scale.

A German version of the Sklar Aphasia Scale (SAS) was administered to groups of fluent aphasics, nonfluent aphasics, and three control groups (brain-damaged patients without aphasia, schizophrenics, and normal subjects). The SAS discriminated fluent and nonfluent aphasics from schizophrenic brain-damaged, and normal control subjects with a high level of confidence; 91.8% of the aphasic and 81.5% of the brain-damaged patients without aphasia were correctly classified. However, the SAS did not discriminate between fluent and nonfluent aphasics. A factor analysis, which also included the subtests of the Token Test and eight other variables, showed the SAS and the Token Test to load mainly on the same general factor, which represents the severity of language disorders or the impairment of those left-hemisphere functions that might be basic to language. Subtests II and IV of the SAS also had loadings on a memory factor, but none of the subtests had variance on the third factor which represented the sensory-motor or fluency/nonfluencey dimension.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1977

Mitogenic activity of Actinomyces viscosus. I. Effects on murine B and T lymphocytes, and partial characterization.

Actinomyces viscosus homogenate (AVIS) contins substance(s) which cause spleen cells from conventional and germfree mice to undergo increased DNA synthesis. This mitogenic effect is primarily on B cells since spleen cells from nude mice or T-depleted spleen cells from conventional mice respond as strongly as conventional (T + B) spleen cells. Mouse thymocytes do not respond mitogenically to AVIS. It is unlikely that the mitogenic acitivity is due to the presence of LPS, since A. viscosus is Gram-positive and is not known to have an LPS cell wall component. Also, AVIS is not inactivated by polymyxin B, as are some preparations of LPS, and C3H/HeJ mouse splenocytes respond strongly to AVIS but not to LPS. The activity is heat stable, is not lost upon dialysis, and is not affected by lysozyme. Mitogenic activity is partially lost when AVIS is digested with nonspecific bacterial protease or treated with metaperiodate. Sodium hydroxide treatment completely abolishes mitogenic activity. Actinomycotic lesions are characterized by a long-tern inflammatory response involving a dense plasma cell infiltrate. We suggest that B cell mitogens form Actinomyces may play a role in the elicitation of the plasma cell component of these lesions.

Actinomyces↗
PubMed1976

Restricted associations of aphasics and schizophrenics.

Matched groups (N = 25) of fluent and nonfluent aphasics, brain-damaged and normal controls as well as schizophrenics were requested to name (1) as many animals and (2) as many things that are typically yellow as possible within 5 min. The main results of Gloning & Müller (1972) as to smaller numbers of correct responses, higher percentages of repetitions, shorter association clusters, and higher popularity in aphasics could be replicated for animal task. Comparing the data from both tasks for fluent and nonfluent aphasics with the various control groups led to considerable doubts as to what extent these results follow directly from quantitative differences in verbal output or have to be interpreted as qualitative differences in memory storage, retrieval, and self-editing processes.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

A muscular dystrophy-like condition in rabbits.

During the examination of 69 male and 18 female rabbits a hitherto unknown muscular condition was found in one female and 19 male animals, otherwise healthy. The aetiology of the condition is unknown, but is is assumed that it is a sex-linked, hereditary anomaly. The histopathological changes are mostly restricted to the distal end of the quadriceps femoris muscle and resemble muscular dystrophy of man.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Aphasic disorders in matching tasks involving conceptual analysis and covert naming.

Aphasic, non-aphasic brain-damaged, schizophrenic and normal Ss were required to select which of two pictures in each item was indicated by a third picture. The latter was related to the referent not through direct associations but only through a mediator: a homonym -- the name for clue and referent --, a situational association, or a perceptual feature common to both. The availability of these mediators was to be tested. Aphasics were as good as normals when the task could be solved via situational associations (e.g. guitar/violin -- bullfight; mediator: "Spain"). They showed poorer performance than all the control-groups not only when the solution depended on the availability of a word but also when it was necessary to identify analytically a perceptual feature characteristic for clue and referent (e.g. swan/turkey -- snowman; mediator: "white"). This result is seen as possibly corresponding to the specific deficiency of both non-fluent and fluent aphasics in the Token Test which might be characteristic of left hemisphere dysfunctions in the analytical decomposition into separate features of what presents itself perceptually and experientally as a unit or Gestalt.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

In vivo and in vitro studies on possible pathogenic mechanisms of Actinomyces viscosus.

Actinomycotic infections are characterized by long-term inflammatory lesions containing large numbers of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and mononuclear cells. The pathogenic mechanisms involved in these lesions are not understood. Homogenates of Actinomyces viscosus (AVIS) induce an acute inflammatory response with a predominance of PMNs within 6 h after injection into the footpads of nonimmunized mice. These homogenates, when tested in vitro, contain potent chemotactic activity for human PMNs. In vitro chemotactic activity for human monocytes is weak but statistically significant (P less than 0.025). Doses of AVIS, which alone have little chemotactic activity, cause the generation of PMN chemotactic activity in fresh, but not complement-inactivated, serum. The injection of AVIS into the footpads of immunized mice induces an acute inflammatory response followed within 48 h by a mononuclear cell infiltrate, suggesting that factors affecting monocyte accumulation are generated by the immune host in response to challenge with the bacterial antigens. These findings indicate that the pathogenicity of the Actinomyces may result in part from (i) their direct chemotactic effect on PMNs, (ii) their cytotaxigenic effects on serum, and (iii) their ability to stimulate host immune cells to produce and release mediators of inflammation.

Actinomyces↗