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Biomedical subjects

E Anzola

Publications and source records attributed to E Anzola.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Delta virus infection and severe hepatitis. An epidemic in the Yucpa Indians of Venezuela.

Over a 3-year period, 149 Yucpa Indians in Venezuela developed hepatitis; 34 persons died and at least 22 developed chronic hepatitis. Children and young adults were primarily affected, especially males. Serologic testing showed that hepatitis B virus infection was highly endemic in this population, but also that 65% of patients had hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) during or after illness. Most patients had evidence of delta-agent superinfection; 86% of HBsAg-positive patients had delta antibody, and delta antigen was found in specimens taken during autopsies on 7 of 9 patients. Serologic data suggested that most infections were due to delta superinfection of hepatitis B carriers, and that more than 60% of these infections progressed to chronic disease. Delta agent infection, and particularly delta superinfection of hepatitis B carriers, appears to be an ominous occurrence that may develop in populations among whom hepatitis B virus infection is endemic, and who have no other risk factor for delta infection.

Adolescent↗

Hyper/hypo-osmotic peritoneal dialysis.

This report concerns the augmentation of peritoneal dialysis using alternating hyper/hypoosmotic peritoneal dialysates, and covers a detailed examination of the longest lived, anephric goat to be maintained using this delivery system. Experimental results show that with this technique: 1) urea clearance can be increased some 200% over control values, 2) the convective transport of urea is unimportant and the increased urea clearance is due primarily to increased peritoneal permeability, 3) net ultrafiltration and electrolyte balance can be easily controlled by variation of total electrolyte and glucose about an appropriate mean. A detailed autopsy failed to demonstrate any gross or microscopic pathology.

Abdomen↗

Histologic studies of severe delta agent infection in Venezuelan Indians.

To supplement a detailed epidemiologic study of an outbreak of viral hepatitis in Venezuelan Indians in isolated valleys, apparently resulting from delta agent infection, 10 autopsy specimens were studied histologically and immunocytochemically, and five biopsy specimens were examined. The patients were children and young adults and predominantly males. A sequence of hepatitis from focal necrosis with conspicuous small-droplet steatosis, through massive necrosis, prolonged postnecrotic collapse to early cirrhosis with massive collapse was postulated. The histologic changes tentatively suggest a cytopathic effect of the delta agent without significant indication of lymphocytotoxicity, at least in the parenchyma. Delta agent was demonstrated in hepatocyte nuclei in moderate amounts in the focal-necrotic stage and in isolated cells in the massive-necrotic stage, but in large amounts during the transition to cirrhosis. Whether these patients, in whom neither HBcAg nor HBsAg were demonstrable in the liver, suffered exclusively from superinfection of hepatitis B virus carriers and/or coinfection of hepatitis B virus with the delta agent remains to be resolved. Delta infection may occur in isolated settings with no relation to Italian origin, drug addiction, or polytransfusion. The infection is far more widely spread than previously assumed.

Adolescent↗