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Biomedical subjects

E Kramer

Publications and source records attributed to E Kramer.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Pressure sore management: efficacy of a moisture reactive occlusive dressing.

Twenty-five pressure sores occurring in a total of 21 patients were evaluated for their response to an adhesive hydrocolloid occlusive dressing (HCD). All ulcers had been treated previously. Response to the occlusive dressing was compared with previous clinical response. Due to the discharge or transfer of patients, evaluation of HCD therapy was usually made after a relatively short period of treatment, average treatment length being 27 +/- 3 days. Fourteen of the 25 decubitus ulcers (56%) demonstrated marked improvement or complete healing with HCD therapy. In contrast, only two of the 25 ulcers (8%) had demonstrated marked improvement under previous treatment. Of 16 ulcers which had failed to improve previously, seven (44%) had either healed or showed marked improvement with the use of the occlusive dressing. For ulcers which had healed, average healing time with HCD was 37 +/- 7 days.

Adolescent

Dissociation of analgesic and hyperphagic responses following 2-deoxy-D-glucose.

Injection of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) elicits both analgesic and hyperphagic responses in rats. While pituitary dysfunction, decreased dopamine availability, or neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment decreases 2DG hyperphagia, they increase 2DG analgesia. In contrast, 2-DG analgesia alone is decreased by repeated 2-DG injections, while 2-DG hyperphagia alone is decreased following naloxone pretreatment. The present four experiments examined further mechanisms subserving these two induced responses. In the first experiment, rats were deprived of food for 6 h following 2-DG (600 mg/kg). While 2-DG hyperphagia persisted in the absence of glucoprivation, 2-DG analgesia failed to occur after this delay. In the second experiment, acute exposure to inescapable foot shock (4 mA, 0.5 s/5 s for 1 h) preceded administration of 2-DG (600 mg/kg). While 2-DG hyperphagia was eliminated by this procedure, 2-DG analgesia was significantly potentiated. In the third experiment, repeated morphine (10 mg/kg) injections over 14 days eliminated 2-DG analgesia on the fifteenth day, but failed to affect 2-DG hyperphagia. In the fourth experiment, lesions placed in either the lateral hypothalamus or zona incerta decreased 2-DG hyperphagia, but failed to affect 2-DG analgesia. These results are discussed in terms of common and dissociative mechanisms mediating both responses.

Analgesics

Steroid hormone secretion from a virilizing lipoid cell tumor of the ovary.

The authors report the case of a 23-year-old woman with a virilizing lipoid cell tumor of the ovary. The patient developed precocious puberty at age 4 and from age 5 to 10 years was treated weekly with intramuscular medroxyprogesterone acetate. She began to menstruate spontaneously at age 13, but developed hirsutism, acne, and irregular menses at age 15 followed by secondary amenorrhea at age 20. Steroid analyses demonstrated elevated peripheral plasma levels of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone, progesterone, desoxycorticosterone, estrone, and estradiol. Catheterization of the adrenal and ovarian veins revealed increased secretion of testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, androstenedione, 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone, progesterone, desoxycortcosterone, and corticosterone, 11-desoxycortisol, cortisol, estrone, and estradiol from the right ovarian vein. At surgery a right ovarian lipoid cell tumor was removed. Incubation studies with the tumor tissue confirmed the presence of gonadal and adrenocortical steroids. The tissue also contained high-affinity human chorionic gonadotropin-luteinizing hormone binding sites with normal binding affinity.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones

Resistance of red blood cell membrane to oxygen uptake.

The apparent association velocity constant (k'c) was determined before and after disruption of the red blood cell membrane in one of several ways: 1) radiation of the cells using a 137Cs source did not significantly alter k'c (95 +/- 39.3 and 118 +/- 35.5 mM-1.s-1), 2) incubation of the cells with sialidase produced no change in k'c (112 +/- 42.6 and 123 +/- 46.8 mM-1.s-1), 3) using papain for the incubation similarly produced no significant alteration in k'c (94 +/- 21.2 and 113 +/- 51.8 mM-1.s-1), 4) a radiomimetic agent p-chloromercuribenzene sulfonate likewise produced no significant alteration in k'c (128 +/- 16.3 and 122 +/- 3.5 mM-1.s-1), and 5) employing phospholipase C to disrupt the membrane k'c did not significantly change (115 +/- 15.3 and 112 +/- 8.7 mM-1.s-1). We conclude that either O2 traverses the membrane in a manner uninfluenced by the manipulations here employed, or that the membrane offers no significant resistance to the speed of O2 uptake.

Erythrocyte Membrane

Aspiration curettage for asymptomatic patients receiving estrogen.

Recent epidemiologic data suggest that patients treated with exogenous estrogens have an increased risk of developing endometrial carcinoma and support the concept that patients taking estrogens must be monitored with special vigor. The hypothesis that endometrial aspiration curettage might be an appropriate modality to accomplish adequate surveillance was tested from January 1, 1976, to January 1, 1977, on a group of 208 consecutive patients undergoing hormonal replacement therapy. Although no patient in the test group experienced abnormal or unusual bleeding, focal adenomatous hyperplasia or a more severe lesion was found in 16.0% of the specimens. Among these were 4 cases of endometrial adenocarcinoma and 2 of atypical adenomatous hyperplasia. This study demonstrated that routine endometrial aspiration curettage of patients receiving exogenous hormone replacement therapy can not only help diagnose very early lesions which are amenable to definitive and completely corrective treatment, but also can uncover significant endometrial pathology before it becomes symptomatic. It further suggests the possibility that the incidence of such pathology among this category of patients might be higher than previously suspected.

Adenocarcinoma