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Biomedical subjects

E Wallis

Publications and source records attributed to E Wallis.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

[Differential diagnosis of fever after returning from the tropics].

Fever is the cardinal symptom of many infections in travellers returning from the tropics and is second in place only to infectious diarrhea. Once the obvious causes of fever in an individual patient have been eliminated, it may be very difficult to find the cause of fever. Fevers can be distinguished by their length of duration and divided into acute fevers i.e. up to 3 weeks duration and chronic fevers i.e. more than 3 weeks duration. Whether fever goes along with leucopenia or a normal white blood cell count on the one hand or with leucocytosis on the other hand is of differential diagnostic value. A schedule based on these two parameters will be presented to simplify differential diagnostic considerations. Two rules of thumb will be stressed: (1) Each febrile illness, even febrile diarrhea, jaundice or meningitis, is to be considered a malaria until it is excluded. (2) Patients returning from tropical areas might suffer from banal infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, cholangitis, etc. as well.

Diagnosis, Differential

[Management of patients with traveler's diarrhea].

Traveler's diarrhea starts 5 to 15 days after arrival with 3 or more watery bowel movements daily in 4 to more than 50% of travelers depending on geographical regions. Enterotoxin producing strains of E. coli are isolated in 20 to 50% of patients, followed by shigella, salmonella, campylobacter and vibrio spp. Rarely giardia lamblia, entamoeba histolytica and cryptosporidia are causative organisms. The cornerstone of treatment is oral rehydration. The efficacy of anti-diarrhetics is not convincingly proved and as to loperamid this drug may prolong invasive forms of diarrhea. Antibiotics are indicated if leucocytes or blood are found in stool. Cotrimoxazole and aminopenicillins are loosing efficacy because of growing resistance. The minimal. In a double blind placebo controlled trial with 500 mg ciprofloxacin b.i.d. for 5 days we were able to demonstrate a significant clinical and bacteriologic effect in 132 patients with salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

Selective breeding for increased cholinergic function: increased serotonergic sensitivity.

The effects of the serotonergic antagonist cyproheptadine and the agonist 1(m-chlorophenyl) piperazine (mCPP) on core body temperature, locomotor activity and operant responding for a water reward were determined in two lines of Sprague-Dawley rats selectively bred for differences in sensitivity to the anticholinesterase, diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP). Both cyproheptadine and mCPP induced a dose-dependent hypothermia that was significantly greater in the line of rat more sensitive to DFP (the Flinders Sensitive Line--FSL). On the other hand, the mild stimulant effects of cyproheptadine on operant responding and locomotor activity were similar in the two lines, whereas the marked inhibitory effects of mCPP on these two measures were significantly greater in the FSL rats. This study also confirmed that the FSL rats were significantly more sensitive to the hypothermic effects of oxotremorine, a muscarinic agonist, and showed that pretreatment with cyproheptadine reduced the hypothermic effects of oxotremorine to a similar extent in the two lines. These findings indicate that rats selectively bred for increased cholinergic function (FSL) also differ in their sensitivity to serotonergic agonists and antagonists, thereby extending the evidence for cholinergic-serotonergic interactions in the rat.

Animals