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Biomedical subjects

E Ungureanu

Publications and source records attributed to E Ungureanu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Quantifying image quality at breast periphery vs mammary gland in mammography using wavelet analysis.

Use of high contrast film-screen systems in mammography, in combination with the fact that exposure parameters are selected to ensure good visualization of the mammary gland, results in overexposure of the film area corresponding to the breast periphery, therefore decreasing image quality. The aim of this work was to provide a quantitative evaluation of image quality at the breast periphery compared with the mammary gland. To deal with the difficulties in quantification of image quality introduced by low contrast encountered at the breast periphery, wavelet analysis has been used for derivation of a contrast indicator (CI) and a noise indicator (NI), taking into account local grey level variations. Gradient magnitude coefficients corresponding to region of interest (ROI) grey level values are the basis of CI definition. Mammary gland and breast periphery were sampled by equally spaced ROIs, the quantity of which was determined by a heuristic method. For NI definition, the power values of gradient magnitude coefficients corresponding to the ROI were utilized. Image quality at the breast periphery compared with the mammary gland was evaluated using 150 craniocaudal images from the Digital Database for Screening Mammography. Measurements were carried out using a tool developed in our department. A 50% contrast decrease at the breast periphery was observed, while noise decreased by approximately 2%.

Breast Diseases↗
PubMed1992

Chronobiology of pituitary-thyroid functions.

One hundred ninety four children, 11 +/- 1.5 years of age and 166 elderly men and women, 77 +/- 8 years of age were studied over one or (in the case of some of the elderly subjects) over several (up to 4) 24-hours spans. All subjects were diurnally active and rested at night and followed their regular three meal pattern. The subjects were studied in subgroups of 20-25 during all four seasons of the year. During each study, blood was collected at 4 hour intervals over one 24-hour span (6 samples). Circadian and circannual variations were found and described by cosinor analysis in the children as well as in the elderly subjects. The children with endemic goiter (134) as compared to those without endemic goiter (60) showed a slight circadian phase advance in plasma total and free T3, a lower circadian amplitude of total T4 concentrations and the absence of a detectable circadian rhythm in free T4. The children with goiter showed a phase delay in serum TBG. There was no difference between the children with and without goiter in the circadian MESOR of any thyroid parameter or of TSH. The children with endemic goiter in the region of Dimboviţa, Romania, are in clinical and biochemically euthyroid condition with some slight poral abnormalities of thyroid function. Seasonal variations in children and elderly patients showed the highest values of TSH during summer and fall, while the highest values in the plasma concentrations of thyroid hormones were found during the cold season of the years. Thyroglobulin in the children showed a circadian rhythm but no seasonal variation.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Circannual variations in blood pressure, urinary catecholamine excretion, plasma aldosterone, and serum sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium in children 11 +/- 1.5 years of age.

A total of 194 clinically healthy children 11 +/- 1.5 years of age were studied during different seasons. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were determined by auscultatory endpoints, and blood and urine were collected at 4-hr intervals over a 24-hr span. Urinary norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine were determined by HPLC, plasma aldosterone by RIA, serum sodium and potassium by ion-specific electrode, and calcium and magnesium by colorimetry. The circadian means showed statistically significant circannual variations in all variables except epinephrine. The highest circadian means of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and of urinary norepinephrine occurred during winter; the highest values of plasma aldosterone, serum potassium, and urinary dopamine were found in fall, those of serum calcium and magnesium during the summer, and that of serum sodium in spring. Circannual rhythms characterize functions related to blood pressure regulation in children. The circannual elevation of blood pressure (within the usual range) and of norepinephrine were both found to occur in winter. This time relation may have a functional significance, although a causal relationship is not proven by the temporal coincidence of two rhythms.

Aldosterone↗
PubMed1987

Chronobiology of catecholamine excretion in different age groups.

Urine was collected at 4-hr intervals over a 24-hr span in 87 boys and 106 girls 11 +/- 1.5 years of age and over one or several 24-hr spans in 62 elderly men and in 85 elderly women 77 +/- 8 years of age. Epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine were determined by HPLC. The data were analyzed by cosinor and by one-, two-, and three-way ANOVA. Children and elderly subjects showed circadian rhythms of urine volume and of the excretion of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine. While the urine volume was higher in the elderly subjects than in the children, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine excretion in the girls and epinephrine in the boys showed a statistically significantly higher mesor than in the elderly subjects of the same sex. There was a sex difference, with lower values in all variables in the girls and women compared to their male counterparts; the circadian amplitudes of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine in the girls and of epinephrine in the boys were higher than the circadian amplitudes in the elderly subjects. The circadian timing in urinary excretion between the elderly subjects and the children was different, with a consistent phase delay; the acrophase of the circadian rhythm in the elderly subjects moved in the night hours. In contrast, there was no age difference in the acrophase of norepinephrine and epinephrine excretion or in dopamine in the females. In the males, the circadian rhythm in dopamine excretion in the elderly subjects did not quite reach statistical significance at the P less than 0.05 level. Circannual variations with high values in winter and low values in spring and summer were found in norepinephrine excretion in boys, girls, and elderly women, but not in elderly men. In neither age group was there a statistically significant seasonal variation in epinephrine. Only in girls was a statistically significant circannual rhythm in dopamine excretion found, with highest dopamine values in the fall and lowest values in winter and spring.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1987

Endocrine factors of blood pressure regulation in different age groups.

Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured and blood and urine were collected at 4-hr intervals over a 24-hr span in 194 diurnally active children 11 +/- 1.5 years of age and in 278 elderly subjects 77 +/- 8 years of age. Plasma aldosterone and cortisol were determined by radioimmunoassay, serum calcium and magnesium on a Dupont ACA, and urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine by high-pressure liquid chromatography. In the children, there was a slight but statistically significant positive correlation between the circadian means in systolic blood pressure and norepinephrine excretion and serum calcium, and between diastolic blood pressure and norepinephrine excretion and serum calcium and magnesium. In the elderly subjects, there was a positive correlation between the circadian mean in diastolic blood pressure and aldosterone. In contrast to the findings in the children, however, the elderly subjects showed a negative correlation between the circadian means in norepinephrine excretion and in systolic and diastolic blood pressures. These investigations indicate differences in the regulation of the blood pressure within the "usual range" between children and elderly subjects. This has to be kept in mind in the study of essential hypertension, a syndrome that may be caused by different mechanisms in different age groups.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

Prepatent periods of a tropical strain of Plasmodium vivax after inoculations of tenfold dilutions of sporozoites.

Eleven patients requiring malaria therapy were inoculated intradermally with graded doses of sporozoites of the Chesson strain of Plasmodium vivax. Estimated doses of 10 sporozoites were given to four patients, of 100 to three patients, of 1,000 to two patients, and of 10,000 to two patients. Parasitaemia was detected in all patients 12 to 17 days after inoculation; fever began on the 14th to 19th days. The results of the trials are compared with earlier work on a temperate strain of P. vivax in which patients given small doses of sporozoites exhibited long prepatent periods of 257 days or more. It is concluded that the differences in the two strains can be explained by the assumption that, in varying proportions, all strains of P. vivax produce two types of sporozoites, one eliciting short prepatent periods (Type I), and the other lying dormant or developing slowly to give rise to long prepatent periods (Type II). The latter type greatly predominates in temperate strains, but not in tropical strains; at high dilutions, therefore, pure suspensions of Type II sporozoites of temperate strains can be prepared. It is thought that relapses of P. vivax are in reality a dalyed parasitaemia arising from Type II sporozoites.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Chronic reactive inflammations in the etiopathogenesis of malignant hematologic proliferations].

The malignant proliferations are induced by a multitude of etiological factors and possible pathogenic mechanisms. Three new clinical cases and other four previously reported cases of haematological malignant proliferations occurring during the evolution of some chronic reactive inflammatory processes due to various forms of immune deficit are discussed. A review of the literature and of the opinions regarding the pathogenic mechanism responsible for the occurrence and growth of malignant proliferations, especially in the cases with inborn or acquired immunodeficiency, are also included. The authors' pathogenic hypothesis for the cases with various acquired immune deficits and with secondary infectious or allergic reactions is that altered immune responses made possible a lasting antigenic stimulation of certain cell clones of the reactive inflammatory process. By this excessive demand, and instability of the genes has occurred and during their rearrangement a mutation with the depression of an oncogene, responsible for malignant growth, has resulted.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Diagnosis difficulties in multiple myeloma.

Some difficulties in the diagnosis of multiple myeloma are presented. The atypical onset (pseudorheumatismal, anaemic, renal or neurological one) as well as the presence of a biological syndrome during some other diseases which may generate the confusion with the multiple myeloma are discussed with reference to the personal casuistry (30 cases of multiple myeloma in a lapse of 12 years). Some peculiar cases of the two categories of difficulties are presented in detail. A careful clinical and biological examination should be performed in every case, as both situations may involve, affect, the prognosis quo ad vitam of the patient.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Circadian rhythms in urinary trace element and electrolyte excretion in children with and without endemic goiter.

Six boys and six girls 11 +/- 1.5 years of age living in the endemic goiter area of Tîrgovişte, Romania were studied. Three of the children of each sex did have a palpable endemic goiter, three did not. The children followed a diurnal activity pattern synchronized by their school routine and ate their usual three meal diet. Urine was collected at 4-hour intervals over a 24 hour span (six samples). Urinary volume, pH, total (T) solids, protein, glucose, phosphorus, uric acid, urea nitrogen, creatinine, total and nondialyzable (ND) sodium and potassium were determined by conventional methods and the total and nondialyzable (ND) portion of urinary calcium, magnesium, and zinc and the ND portion of aluminum, copper, boron, lead and silicon were determined by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) system.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Polycythaemia rubra vera. Analysis on 20 cases.

The authors presents her experience in polycythaemia rubra vera. A number of 20 cases have been studied, with a peak of polycythaemic values of 20.6/dl for the Hb, a Ht of 80%, an WBC count of 28,000/cmm and a platelet count of 1,400,000/cmm. The following peculiarities of the cases should be underlined: 1. the personal and hereditary collateral antecedents which reveal a significant pathological background; 2. the very slow evolutive potential of the malignant erythroid clone, which permitted a quasi-normal way of life for many years; 3. a careful therapy, differentiated with respect to the evolutive stage of disease, which resulted in a long survival (over 17 years).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The experience of the 3rd Medical Clinic with lymph node pathology].

In the last 8 years, 511 patients (267 men and 244 women) were investigated. It was found that 44 cases (8.6%) were false adenopathies (various types of tumoral masses) but placed in the nodes areas (localized, generalized or deep). There were 467 cases of true lymphadenopathies, 58 new cases yearly (2.32% of all admitted patients and 6.9% of those with blood diseases). Out of these 467 cases, 330 (70.6%) were malignant neoplastic diseases: malignant lymphomas--206 cases (62.4% of all malignancies), leukemias--99 cases (30%), carcinomatous metastases--25 cases (7.6%). Nonmalignant lymphadenopathies were found in 137 cases (29.4%): specific infections (tuberculosis) and nonspecific ones in 87 cases (63.5%), nonimmune diseases (SLE, PAN, sarcoidosis) in 50 cases. Generalized adenopathies were recorded in 47% of the cases, the involvement of a single node group in 21.8% of the cases, other types of distribution being rare. The general symptoms were absent in 20.5% of the cases, being present in the remainder of 79.5%, especially in the malignant lymphomas, leukemias, nonimmune diseases. The main complications occurring against the background of the etiological affections of lymphadenopathies were: infections (respiratory, urinary, tegumental) in 19.7% of the cases and cardiovascular disturbances (myocardiopathies, rythm and conduction disturbances) in 9.6% of the cases.

Adolescent↗