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Biomedical subjects

D Niculescu

Publications and source records attributed to D Niculescu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Ultrastructural changes in cartilage after intra-articular administration of osmium tetroxide and the sodium salts of fish oil fatty acids (Varicocid).

A clinical and experimental study was carried out on knee joints of rabbits and in humans. In one knee joint of each rabbit 0.3 ml 1% osmic acid or 0.3 ml 5% Varicocid was injected, the remaining uninjected joints serving as controls. The animals were killed after 1 and 24 hours, 15, 45 and 90 days. Study with the electron microscope after osmic acid injection revealed necrosis of the chondrocytes in the superficial layer and upper middle zone. The articulations injected with Varicocid exhibited only slight lesions of the chondrocytes in the upper layer, consisting of dilated rough endoplasmatic reticulum, mitochondria lacking matrix and christae; the electron density of the layer seemed to be diminished. Biopsy of the non-weight-bearing cartilage of the lateral femoral condyle was performed in 4 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and arthritis of the knee in the onset stage. Two of these patients received one intra-articular injection of 10 ml 1% osmic acid, 5 ml 2% xylocaine and 50 mg hydrocortisone and the other 2 patients 6 ml 5% Varicocid. Biopsy of the cartilage in the areas adjacent to the site of the first biopsies 1 and 3 1/2 months after treatment with osmic acid and 2 and 3 1/2 months after treatment with Varicocid showed in the first two cases necrosis of the chondrocytes in the superficial layer and upper middle zone of the articular cartilage and depletion of the mucopolysaccharides in the ground substance, revealed by PAS and alcian blue staining. No lesion of the knee joint cartilage was observed in the other two cases. In view of the results obtained, chemical synovectomy with Varicocid can be considered as having received further support.

Animals

[Unusual localizations of hydatid cysts].

In a total of 448 hydatic cysts that have been treated in the I-st Surgery Clinic of Jassy between 1947 and 1977 rare localizations were noted in 61 cases. Of these 47 were primary echinococcoses and 14 were secondary. The clinical and therapeutic aspects are discussed for each particular localization: the splenic localization was encountered in 16 cases, the peritoneal one in 10 cases, the diaphragmatic in 6 cases. There were also 2 renal localizations, 3 retro-peritoneal ones, 3 ovarian and salpyngean localizations, 3 thyroid, 7 endo-thoracic but extra-pulmonary, 5 muscular and 6 subcutaneous localizations. Radical surgery had immediate and late results that were quite satisfactory. No deaths or recidives were noted.

Abdominal Muscles

[Cholecystosis, the diagnostic and treatment problems].

In the interval 1981-1989 at the Ist Clinic of Surgery of Iaşi 230 cases of chronic cholecystitis were admitted and operated upon (cholesterolosis--24 cases, dysmorphosis--84 cases, dysplasia--22 cases). Most cases had a morphologic--dysmetabolic substrate--strawberry gallbladder, alone or associated with other lesions (lithiasis, cirrhosis, pancreatitis), rare cases being also found (porcelain gallbladder--1 case, calcium bile--2 cases, gallbladder diverticulosis--3 cases, longitudinal complete obstruction of cystic duct by gallstone--2 cases). This condition is more frequent in women in the 3rd dad 4th decade, the symptoms being discrete, uncharacteristic, but persistent. The diagnosis is based on duodenal catheterization, cholecysto-cholangiography and ultrasonography, the intraoperative and histo-pathologic confirmations being required. The increasing frequency of chronic cholecystitis makes necessary a more minute diagnosis and exigent surgical indication, pledges for long-term favourable results.

Adult

[Differentiated thyroid cancer].

In the interval 1979-1988, out of 1070 operated goiters 77 malignant thyroid tumors were recorded, 60 of them being differentiated: papillary--32 (53.4%), vesicular--12 (20%), mixed forms--16 (26.7%). The differentiated thyroid carcinomas had peculiar clinical biological and prognostic features and were framed: stage I--60%, stage II--23.4% and state III-IV--16.6%. Only 15 cases presented lymph node metastases. In 16 cases the thyroid tumor was associated with another thyropathy: Hashimoto's thyroiditis--5 cases, Basedow's disease--1 case. The surgical intervention was performed in two times: first total lobectomy or total lobo-isthmectomy [correction of lobioistectomy] with contralateral subtotal exeresis, then total thyroidectomy. It is insisted upon a careful surveillance of postoperative evolution (clinical, biological, scintigraphy) in order to detect the recurrence and apply a proper treatment.

Adult

Specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens in pulmonary tuberculosis patients sera. Note I.

206 sera collected from different groups of subjects were analyzed by immunoenzymatic methods regarding the content of Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens. The results underlined that two assays offered improved serologic diagnosis of tuberculosis over a single antibody test. BCG vaccination interferes with serologic tests for tuberculosis when polyspecific antibodies or mixture of common and specific antigens are used as immunologic reagents. A mycobacterial antigens circadian variation in correlation with vesperal fever in tuberculous patients was not revealed. The mycobacterial antigens seem to become undetectable, in sera, after 6 months of efficient treatment.

Adult

Specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens in patient sera with pulmonary tuberculous and nontuberculous diseases. Note II.

"Two-assay" tests (TAT), immunoenzymatic determination of both specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens in sera of tuberculous and non-tuberculous subjects, was undertaken in our territorial conditions, where BCG vaccination is systematically applied and the prevalence of tuberculous infection is relatively high. The sensitivity of the method, calculated on 42 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and on 39 patients with post-tuberculosis syndromes is high, i.e. 0.952. The specificity of the method separately calculated for 44 young subjects (under 21 years old), for 78 healthy adults and for 201 lung diseased patients, bacteriologically not ascertained as tuberculosis at the moment of sera prelevation, varied between 0.830 and 0.489. "TAT", performed with crude immunologic reagents, produces false-positive reactions in early BCG vaccinated subjects. Method specificity low values in pulmonary non-tuberculous patients group may be partially explained by the difficulty in establishing the real relationships, in time, between host and mycobacteria, by the bacteriological method imperfections or sample prelevating methods. Our results certainly underestimate the diagnosis value of "TAT".

Adult

[Clinical and therapeutic aspects of some rare forms of pancreatic tumors].

A total of 198 tumours of the pancreas have been hospitalized between 1972 and 1987 in the 1st Surgical Clinic from Jassy. Only 10 of these tumours were benign, and these included: 2 gastrinomas, 2 insulinomas, 2 cystadenomas, one fibrolipoma, 1 lymphangioma, one hydatic cyst and a Wermer's syndrome. The particularities are analysed, of these 10 cases of benign tumours of the pancreas, and it is stressed that most of the clinical and therapeutic problems are determined by tumours of the endocrine pancreas, and especially those which are hormonally active. Thus the symptomatology of these last tumours which is difficult to evaluate, especially at the onset of the symptoms will determine a considerable delay in the surgical diagnosis, many of the patients being hospitalized in other departments before reaching the surgeon. Present possibilities for diagnosis and treatment have kept pace with progresses achieved in the field of investigations, which provide useful data from the morphological and functional viewpoints. All the 10 cases mentioned above have benefited from the surgical treatment, that was adapted according to particularities of each patient. The authors stress the importance of the extemporaneous morpho-histologic examination (with serial slides) and when the tumours are difficult to identify by direct macroscopic examination they recommend intraoperative echography and direct hormonal dosages on samples obtained from the portal circulation before and during surgery.

Adult

[The surgery of intestinal obstruction in the elderly].

Out of 301 intestinal obstructions treated at the 1st Surgical Clinic of Iaşi in the interval 1970-1987, 58 patients aged between 70 and 90 years (mean age 75 years) were recorded. Anatomo-clinically these 58 cases presented: strangulated hernia (19 cases), strangulated eventration (2 cases), strangulations on cords (4 cases), small intestine volvulus (8 cases), sigmoid colon volvulus (6 cases), volvulus of cecum (1 case), intestinal investigation (1 case), colorectal neoplasm (15 cases), peritoneal carcinomatosis (2 cases). The clinical and therapeutical aspects of these particular forms of obstruction in the elderly are discussed and the severity of their prognosis, given the terrain and late admission of such patients which sometimes make impossible a surgical intervention, is underlined. Ten deaths (17.1%) were recorded, representing a lower percentage as compared to other statistics published in the literature.

Acute Disease

The presence and significance of some anti-enzyme antibodies (anti-plasminogen, anti-trypsin, anti-phospholipase C) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and reactive arthritis (rA).

It is a well known fact that during the course of RA and rA, due to some cellular and molecular mechanisms, a number of proteolytic enzymes and membranal phospholipases are either activated or their concentration rises significantly. With this aim in view in the present work we have aimed to investigate if, in an inflammatory process associated to RA and rA, the human organism produces or not anti-enzyme antibodies. Using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), in the sera of 19 patients of RA and 19 of rA, the presence of the following antibodies has been ascertained: antiplasminogen (antiPAb), antitrypsin (antiTAb) and antiphospholipase C (antiPLCAb). Out of RA cases, 47.3% presented antiPAb, 36.8% antiTAb and 26.3% antiPLCAb. As it was expected, in the rA cases, these antibodies were found in a higher proportion of cases, i.e.: 85.7%, 71.4% and 57.1% respectively. When following the same cases before and during or after the treatment with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents (NSAIAs), the antibodies levels were significantly decreased especially in the RA cases. The results obtained indicated a significant rise of seric concentration of antiPAb, antiTAb and antiPLCAb, as well in RA as in rA. While the rise of antiPLCAb in RA and especially in rA could be explained due to microbial infections, the rise of the antiproteolytic enzymes antibody levels as well as the decrease of the antibody titres during or after NSAIAs treatment could be explained, in our opinion, on the basis of some autoimmune processes.

Antibody Specificity

[Perforated gastric ulcer].

Out of 603 patients with perforated ulcer, 40 clinical cases with type I perforated gastric ulcers (this particular anatomo-clinical form being distinguished from the perforated duodenal ulcer) were selected. The perforated gastric ulcer type I, less common, is usually found in the patients over 45 years, with old, callous ulcers; in general, when the perforations are large, a malignancy is suspected, the removal of the lesion and the systemic control of the resected specimen being required. The primary radical surgical treatment is performed only in the patients in good general state, the excision of the ulcer followed by suture being reserved to the cases at high risk, with increased mortality (10%).

Adult

[Problems of therapeutic management of cancer of the superior pole of the stomach].

This cancer is rare (17-30%) and has the worst prognosis. In the interval 1970-1987 to the I-st Surgical Clinic of Iaşi were admitted and treated 648 patients with gastric cancers of which 98 (15.2%) with adenocarcinomas of the cardiac end of the stomach. In most patients the diagnosis was late: stage II and III-40 patients; stage IV-58 patients. Given the extension of the tumoral process, the exeresis was possible but in 36 cases (36.7%), as compared to 26-70% mentioned in the literature. The therapeutical management of these cases and the obtained results are presented.

Adenocarcinoma