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Biomedical subjects

E Rodríguez

Publications and source records attributed to E Rodríguez.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

[Vancomycin and teicoplanin use as antibiotic prophylaxis in cardiac surgery: pharmacoeconomic study].

BACKGROUND: To assess the economical impact of vancomycin use versus teicoplanin use as antibiotic prophylaxis for patients undergoing cardiac surgery for valve replacement (VR) and coronary artery by-pass (CABS) procedures. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is an ancillary cost minimization analysis of a double blinded, parallel groups, randomised clinical trial (RCT), with the main objective of comparing the safety and efficacy of these antibiotics. 500 patients were included in the study; 267 in the CABS group and 233 in the VR group. The CABS patients received 1 g vancomicin or 400 mg teicoplanin, plus 150 mg netilmicin. The VR group received a second dose of each drug after extracorporeal circulation. In order to calculate the costs we considered the direct cost of the drug, the i.v. mix and the administration costs, together with personnel and structure costs. We considered two different situations: the administration of drugs within the surgical room theatre and in the medical ward. RESULTS: The demographic data of both groups were comparable. The frequency of severe adverse drug reactions (ADR) were similar (0.4%) in both groups, as well as the post-operative infection rates (8.6%). Differences were seen in the frequencies of low severity ADRs: 20.4% in the vancomycin group and 1.6% in the teicoplanin group. When the antibiotics were administered in the surgical room, among CABS patients the costs were 8,265 pts. for the teicoplanin group and 12,005 pts. for the vancomycin group; while among VR patients, costs were respectively 11,661 pts. and 14,528 pts. Administration costs of teicoplanin and vancomycin within a medical ward setting, however, the costs were 6,740 pts. and 2,809 pts. for CABS patients, and 5,308 pts. and 10,140 pts. for VR patients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The costs of antibiotic prophylaxis among cardiac surgery patients heavily depends on the setting and circumstances of drug administration. The minimization cost analysis indicates that teicoplanin is the most cost-effective option if the drug is administered within the surgical area, while vancomycin is the less costly option when administered within the medical ward. However, if the second option is to be chosen, it is necessary to assure the right plasmatic drug levels of the antibiotic at the beginning of the surgical procedure.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

[The "quality of life" concept in medical students and postgraduate residents in a university hospital].

We investigated the quality of life's concept and its uses by both residents and interns as well as last year medical students in the University Hospital in Caracas (HUC). A random sample by strata, without replacement of 123 persons, completed a self administered questionnaire which included a set of closed questions and one of open questions related to the quality of life's concept. The mean age was 29 years for both sexes (3.55 standard deviation or SD). There was not a statistically significant difference between males and females. More than 50% read about quality of life in either newspapers, journals and fiction literature. There was no difference among the groups (p = 0.25). Only 68% had heard in a different sort of academical institution the term "quality of life" such as in the school of medicine, highschool or in some discussion groups with no differences among the groups (p = 0.15). However, there was no agreement as from whom and where they learned about quality of life (p < 0.001). Although everybody considered that the quality of life was an important element in medical actions such as diagnostic or therapeutics, its importance was reduced for diagnosis compared to treatment (p < 0.0001). All the elements that were considered as part of the concept were also considered as important, regardless of the group and was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The open question analysis showed that the non-medical definitions represent 85.15% of the group, 50% out of them included terms of potentiality or condition. Among the elements included in the definition was the social in 27.65%, psychological in 23.53% and, the economical in 12.35% of the questionnaires. The great majority of the "quality of life" definitions did not include a clearly defined subject and in many cases it was exclusively related to ill persons. Finally, there is an informal and not well oriented form of learning about "quality of life" in residents, interns and last year medical students with a lack of a good applicability in the medical practice. Therefore, there is a need for a formal training on quality of life along the medical studies and its uses in the medical practice in general and with special emphasis on diagnosis and therapeutics.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Dapsone prevents morphological lesions and lipid peroxidation induced by quinolinic acid in rat corpus striatum.

Increasing doses of dapsone were tested on rats administered intrastriatally with quinolinic acid in order to evaluate a possible protective action of this drug on the striatal lesions produced after the excessive activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. Morphological lesions were evaluated 7 days after the intrastriatal injection of quinolinate (240 nmol/microl) by light microscopy, and the ratio of neuronal damage per field was also estimated as a quantitative index of the striatal toxicity. Quinolinate alone produced extensive necrosis and loss of striatal neurons. No protective effects on the striatal tissue from quinolinate-treated rats were observed at lower doses of dapsone (6.25 and 9.375 mg/kg). However, at higher doses (12.5 and 25 mg/kg), dapsone prevented significantly the striatum from quinolinate toxicity. Dapsone alone had no effect on the striatal tissue from control rats. A single dose of dapsone (12.5 mg/kg) was tested also on the index of lipid peroxidation 2 h after the striatal injection of quinolinate, resulting in a significant protection (78% vs. QUIN). Findings of this study, in accordance with our previous reports, demonstrate the ability of dapsone to prevent the neuronal damage associated with the excitatory action of quinolinate via overactivation of NMDA receptors, and provide evidences to support the hypothesis that this drug is acting against the pattern of toxicity elicited by agonists of glutamate receptors.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

[Thyroid disorders associated with interferon treatment in patients with chronic viral hepatitis or multiple sclerosis].

BACKGROUND: Alpha and beta interferon (IFN-alpha and beta) treatment is associated with the synthesis of thyroid autoantibodies and the development of autoimmune thyroid diseases. METHODS AND RESULTS: We have retrospectively evaluated their effect in patients with chronic viral hepatitis (CH) (n = 118) and multiple esclerosis (ME) (n = 10). Thyroid dysfunction has been detected in 7.4% of patients, and seroconversion in 4.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-treatment antithyroid antibodies do not predispose to altered thyroid function, after IFN therapy; their presence should not contraindicate IFN treatment.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1999

Translation to Spanish, reproducibility, and cross-cultural adaptation of the Miller-Rahe Recent Life Change Questionnaire in Venezuela.

OBJECTIVE: To translate into Spanish a version of the Miller-Rahe Recent Life Change Questionnaire and to adapt it to Venezuelan cultural values. METHODS: The Spanish version and cross-cultural adaptation of the Miller-Rahe Recent Life Change Questionnaire was done following recently proposed guidelines to preserve semantic, idiomatic, and conceptual equivalence in translations of health assessment instruments. We performed one or more translations into the new language, as well as back-translation, test-retest reliability, and weighting score for the translated instrument. RESULTS: A Spanish version of the Recent Life Change Questionnaire was obtained. Validity of translations was demonstrated with a significant agreement for the nonliteral translations (kappa value = 0.97, P < 0.05). The conceptual equivalence was demonstrated by significant agreement in the back-translations (kappa value = 0.84, P < 0.05). The translated instrument met acceptable levels of reliability, as assessed by Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (> 0.60 for all categories of the questionnaire). The cross-cultural adaptation of the translated instrument required addition and exclusion of items as well as changes of the ranking and scaling of life units in the original questionnaire. CONCLUSION: A valid and reliable Spanish version of the Miller-Rahe Recent Life Change Questionnaire was produced and adapted to Venezuelan cultural values.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Industrial dye decolorization by laccases from ligninolytic fungi.

White-rot fungi were studied for the decolorization of 23 industrial dyes. Laccase, manganese peroxidase, lignin peroxidase, and aryl alcohol oxidase activities were determined in crude extracts from solid-state cultures of 16 different fungal strains grown on whole oats. All Pleurotus ostreatus strains exhibited high laccase and manganese peroxidase activity, but highest laccase volumetric activity was found in Trametes hispida. Solid-state culture on whole oats showed higher laccase and manganese peroxidase activities compared with growth in a complex liquid medium. Only laccase activity correlated with the decolorization activity of the crude extracts. Two laccase isoenzymes from Trametes hispida were purified, and their decolorization activity was characterized.

Alcohol Oxidoreductases↗
PubMed1999

Cloning and characterization of Rab and Ran/TC4 cDNA clones in Trichinella spp.

The cloning and characterization of seven Rab and three Ran/TC4 partial cDNA sequences in both cystic (Trichinella spiralis and T. britovi) and noncystic species (T. pseudospiralis) are reported. These molecules were cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends via polymerase chain reaction (RACE-PCR), using cDNA from the aforementioned Trichinella spp. coupled to the AP1 adaptor. As primers, AP1 and 5B (derived from the WDTAGQE sequence of region 2 specific for Rab and Ran proteins) sequences were included in the PCR. The cloned cDNAs were sequenced and characterized by both Southern-blot and Northern-blot analysis. Trichinella spp. Rab- and Ran-like molecules showed divergences in both the nucleotide and the deduced amino acid sequences as compared with the corresponding homologues previously described in other organisms. In addition, differences were observed among the Trichinella species, mainly between the cystic and the noncystic species, in both DNA restriction-enzyme polymorphism and expression of the six GTPases isolated.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

Adenovirus cellular receptor site recirculation of HeLa cells upon receptor-mediated endocytosis is not low pH-dependent.

HeLa cells were depleted of 75% of the available adenovirus type 2 specific cellular receptor sites (CRSs) by controlled attachment of viruses at a high multiplicity of infection. Upon removal of unattached viruses and further incubation, the cells were able to recycle the CRSs to 75% of the level of uninfected control cells within 5 h. The rate of virus receptor recycling was approx. 1 CRS x min-1 x cell-1. The existence of receptor recycling further strengthens the involvement of a total process of receptor-mediated endocytosis in adenovirus internalization. The recirculation process was neither affected by the lysosomotropic agents ammonium chloride and amantadine-HCl, nor by the ionophore monensin or the multifunctional weak-base amine chloroquine.

Adenoviruses, Human↗
PubMed1999

Synthesis of a eukaryotic virus protein in a prokaryotic viral-cell system: production of the adenovirus type 2 fiber shaft fragment by a tightly regulated T7POL-M13 expression system.

The use of recombinant technology for the production of proteins of interest in biotechnology and medicine has grown immensely during the last decade. A major problem often encountered is the degradation of the recombinant product by host cell proteases. We developed a novel system based on the cloning and expression of an inducible phage T7 RNA polymerase into the main intergenic region of the phage M13-KO7. After infection of permissive bacterial strains with the engineered phage, the polymerase gene is transcribed, subsequently translated and gene fragments cloned under T7 promoter sequences are then transcribed. For the evaluation of this system, the gene encoding the shaft fragment of the adenovirus type 2 fiber was cloned into a pET 3a-based expression vector. Expression was demonstrated in a BL21(DE3) strain (containing one copy of the T7 RNA polymerase gene) and also in several F pili-containing bacterial strains only after infection with the proper bacteriophage. Several important parameters for heterologous gene expression in Escherichia coli were investigated. Different bacterial strains were evaluated for the production of the recombinant protein, following: the expression levels, the growth rates and the stability of the plasmid vector at different time intervals after induction. It was observed that the expression levels as well as division rates and plasmid stability differed between the different bacterial strains. The best expression levels were obtained when using the E. coli Top IOF' strain. Degradation was only observed in BL21(DE3) cells after 6 h of induction, whereas none of the F'-containing cells were shown to degrade the recombinant protein during the time of expression. This system, based on the T7 pol-M13 bacteriophage, was shown to be very tightly regulated for most of the bacterial strains evaluated with no expression before induction of the T7 RNA polymerase.

Adenoviruses, Human↗
PubMed1999

Differential effect of estradiol on antibody secretion of murine hybridomas.

The need for increased antibody production by hybridomas has been approached by the addition to cell cultures of different growth factors; in vitro addition of estradiol-17beta (E2) to human blood lymphocytes increases the accumulation of plasma-blasts and Ig-secreting cells. Four different murine-murine hybridomas secreting different monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were treated with E2. Specific antibody concentration was measured by enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA) in culture supernatants whereas expression of E2-receptor in the hybridoma cells was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). When E2 was added as a growth supplement to alpha-estrogen receptor positive murine-murine hybridomas it enhanced MAb secretion by as much as 255%, in a dose-dependant manner. This effect lasted for as long as the alpha-estrogen receptor was detected in the hybridoma cells, was inhibited by tamoxifen and was not observed in alpha-estrogen receptor negative hybridomas. The synthetic estrogen analogue diethylstilbestrol had no effect. Estradiol-17beta should be added to the list of hybridoma-inducing growth factors.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

The Spanish health care system: lessons for newly industrialized countries.

This article summarizes the organization, financing, and delivery of health care services in Spain, and discusses the elements that made it possible to maintain high levels of health among the population, while spending comparatively fewer resources on the health care system than most industrialized countries. The case of Spain is of particular interest for newly industrialized countries, because of the fast evolution that it has undergone in recent years. Considered, by United Nations' economic standards, a developing country until 1964, Spain became in a few years the fastest growing economy in the world after Japan. By the early 1970s the infant mortality rate was already lower than in Britain or the United States.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1999

The structural gene for microcin H47 encodes a peptide precursor with antibiotic activity.

Microcin H47 is a bactericidal antibiotic produced by a naturally occurring Escherichia coli strain isolated in Uruguay. The microcin genetic system is located in the chromosome and extends over a 10-kb DNA segment containing the genes required for microcin synthesis, secretion, and immunity. The smallest microcin synthesis gene, mchB, was sequenced and shown to encode a highly hydrophobic peptide. An mchB-phoA gene fusion, which directed the synthesis of a hybrid bifunctional protein with both PhoA and microcin H47-like activities, was isolated. The results presented herein lead us to propose that microcin H47 is indeed a ribosomally synthesized peptide antibiotic and that its peptide precursor already has antibiotic activity of the same specificity as that of mature microcin.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

In vitro infection of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells by GB virus C/Hepatitis G virus.

GB virus C (GBV-C), also known as hepatitis G virus, is a recently discovered flavivirus-like RNA agent with unclear pathogenic implications. To investigate whether human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are susceptible to in vitro GBV-C infection, we have incubated PBMC from four healthy blood donors with a human GBV-C RNA-positive serum. By means of (i) strand-specific reverse transcription-PCR, cloning, and sequencing; (ii) sucrose ultracentrifugation and RNase sensitivity assays; (iii) fluorescent in situ hybridization; and (iv) Western blot analysis, it has been demonstrated that GBV-C is able to infect in vitro cells and replicate for as long as 30 days under the conditions developed in our cell culture system. The concentration of GBV-C RNA increased during the second and third weeks of culture. The titers of the genomic strand were 10 times higher than the titers of the antigenomic strand. In addition, the same predominant GBV-C sequence was found in all PBMC cultures and in the in vivo-GBV-C-infected PBMC isolated from the donor of the inoculum. GBV-C-specific fluorescent in situ hybridization signals were confined to the cytoplasm of cells at different times during the culture period. Finally, evidence obtained by sucrose ultracentrifugation, RNase sensitivity assays, and Western blot analysis of the culture supernatants suggests that viral particles are released from in vitro-GBV-C-infected PBMC. In conclusion, our study has demonstrated, for the first time, GBV-C replication in human lymphoid cells under experimental in vitro infection conditions.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1999

[Partial Currarino syndrome in a non-pediatric patient. A rare cause of bacterial meningitis].

Enterogenic meningitis is an infrequent cause of central nervous system infection. Among these causes the Currarino syndrome may be found presenting sacral agenesis, presacral mass and anorectal stenosis. This syndrome normally causes enterogenic meningitis in the early years of life. The case reported corresponds to a 24-year-old male presenting polymicrobial meningitis with fecal flora germs (anerobic enterococci, Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli). These clinical findings led to radiologic lumbar study with the diagnosis of Currarino syndrome. The existence of neuroenteric fistulas justifies the development of fecal flora meningitis. The nosology of the syndrome as well as the therapeutic strategy are reviewed.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

[Warthin's tumor in the neck].

Papillar lymphomatous cystoadenoma on the neck as first stage of development. Other lesions of this nature in atypical areas as larynx, minor salivary glands or oropharynx has been described, but is not frequent on heterotopic location so peculiar. In that case the real diagnostic problem was the differential with neck masses. Description of the case and review of the literature.

Adenolymphoma↗