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Biomedical subjects

F Fischer

Publications and source records attributed to F Fischer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Right-sided cardiac thromboembolism and its successful treatment with streptokinase: case report.

A sixty-eight-year-old woman with a clinical diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and large right-heart embolus on echocardiography is presented. Because of the critical clinical condition of the patient and the inability to perform surgical intervention, thrombolytic treatment (streptokinase) was administered. The patient's condition improved, the right-heart embolus disappeared, and on the perfusion lung scan there was only one small perfusion defect in the right lung. The authors consider thrombolysis to be appropriate treatment for right-heart thromboembolism whenever surgical embolectomy is not possible.

Female

[A clarification system for completing suicidal thoughts].

To improve the prediction of suicidal risk one has to understand the suicidal thoughts in individuals. We formalized these ideas and integrated them into an understanding system. In such a system the ideas concerning suicide cooperate in such a way so that the suicidal attempt appears to be the optimal solution for this patient. We discuss the question whether such an idiographic understanding system may help to understand other patients too.

Expert Systems

[N-acetylneuraminic acid (sialic acid) as a tumor marker in head and neck cancers].

N-acetyl-neuraminic-acid (sialic acid) is a natural component of the cell surface. Cancer cells show a higher concentration of sialic acid in the cell membrane, and the serum also shows an elevated level of sialic acid. The concentration of sialic acid was measured in the serum of 76 new tumour patients and 113 previously treated patients who were clinically free of recurrence. The primary tumour was classified as T1-T4 according to the UICC classification. A further group consisted of patients with recurrent tumours. The values were compared with the sialic acid concentration in the sera of 63 healthy probands. Patients with manifest tumours showed an increased level of sialic acid that correlated with the extent of the tumour. The sialic acid level in 71% of patients with a recurrence lay above the upper limit of normal (82 mg/dl) recorded in the sera of healthy probands. The measurement of the serum sialic acid is a useful parameter for early detection of recurrence.

Biomarkers, Tumor

Staurosporine stimulates expression of the urokinase-type (u-PA) plasminogen activator in LLC-PK1 cells.

In LLC-PK1 porcine epithelial cells, the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) mRNA and protein can be induced either by stimulation of the protein kinase C (PKC) pathway using a tumor promoter (PMA) or by stimulation of the protein kinase A (PKA) pathway with calcitonin (SCT). By contrast, addition of 10(-7) M staurosporine, an inhibitor of PKC, to LLC-PK1 cells also stimulated urokinase production. In contrast to the in vitro situation (where staurosporine inhibited PKC activity), in the cell-culture system the microbial agent caused an early translocation of PKC and inhibited PKA. Addition of staurosporine together with PMA or with SCT further increased urokinase mRNA and protein synthesis. Maximal stimulation was obtained when all 3 agents were added together. We thus assume that in LLC-PK1 cells the PKA and PKC signal-transferring pathways can function independently.

Alkaloids

Experimental autonomic neuropathy in the choroid of streptozotocin-diabetic rats. Electron microscopic observations.

The authors used transmission electron microscopy to examine the autonomic nerve plexus of the choroid, in Wistar albino rats with long-term streptozotocin diabetes. Axonal alterations included massive glycogen deposits, honeycomb arrangement of synaptic vesicles, and an accumulation of dense, lamellated, tubulovesicular and multivesicular bodies within the transmitter segments. The alterations affected not only the neuroeffector areas of arterial and venous vessels, but also the close contacts between transmitter segments and melanocytes. Morphometric analysis lead the authors to conclude that the axonal alterations do not simply represent accentuation of age-related phenomena. Instead, they should be considered as manifestations of diabetic autonomic neuropathy.

Animals

[The lingual thyroid, an unexpected and rare intubation difficulty].

A patient scheduled for a gynecological operation could be intubated only after various repeated attempts. The cause of the airway obstruction was an ectopic thyroid at the right base of the tongue, which made visualization of the glottis impossible. Management and prevention of the unexpected difficult intubation are discussed.

Adult

An improved preservation technique for cells of hemopoietic origin.

A new technique for the cryopreservation of cell lines of hemopoietic origin is described. It uses a combination of 10% polyvinylpyrrolidone or hydroxyethylstarch with 15% glycerol, a slow stepwise addition of the cryoprotectants before freezing, cooling at 4 degrees C/min, rapid rewarming, and a slow step-wise dilution after thawing. This technique has given improved recovery rates with a number of basophil/mast cell lines, as well as a wide range of hemopoietic cells including hybridomas.

Animals

Growth-factor-independent proliferation in vitro and tumorigenicity in vivo are associated in basophil/mast-cell lines and their somatic hybrids.

According to a current model, leukemic cells arise from normal hemopoietic progenitors as a result of two phenotypic changes: (1) a shift from a high to a low probability of completing differentiation, and (2) the loss of requirement for physiological growth regulators, such as multilineage hemopoietic growth factor (MHGF). In agreement with this model, we have recently reported that the spontaneous, in vitro, malignant transformation of a factor-dependent basophil/mast-cell line was coincidental with the appearance of MHGF-independent proliferation in vitro. We have now fused the MHGF-independent cells with their nontransformed counterparts. In the present study, 29 out of 32 hybrid clones analyzed exhibited an association between, on the one hand, the absence of MHGF requirement in vitro and high tumorigenicity in vivo and, on the other hand, MHGF-dependent proliferation in vitro and a reduced capacity to make tumors in vivo. These data support the idea that the tumorigenic behavior of the transformed cells in vivo and their lack of requirement for MHGF in vitro are directly related.

Animals

Chemolithoautotrophic metabolism of anaerobic extremely thermophilic archaebacteria.

Several types of extremely thermophilic archaebacteria have recently been isolated from solfataric water holes, hot springs and hot sea floors. It has been shown that some of them can live using sulphur respiration of reduced carbon substrates as a source of energy, a type of metabolism previously described for the eubacterium Desulfuromonas. We report here that several extremely thermophilic archaebacteria can live with carbon dioxide as their sole carbon source, obtaining energy from the oxidation of hydrogen by sulphur, producing hydrogen sulphide. They are thus capable of a new type of anaerobic, purely chemolithoautotrophic metabolism, a possible primaeval mode of life.

Anaerobiosis

Morphometric analysis of basal laminae in rats with long-term streptozotocin diabetes L. II. Retinal capillaries.

Twelve months after onset of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats, the basal lamina width of peripheral retinal capillaries, as measured with two different morphometric methods, is increased only in the basal lamina regions adjacent to perivascular glial cells. In the region between endothelial cells and pericytes no increase of thickness was observed. These facts support the suggestion of a predominantly glial (neuroectodermal) contribution to basal lamina thickening of retinal capillaries in diabetes mellitus. No correlation exists between the degree of basal lamina thickening at the different anatomic sites. Furthermore, no clear-cut correlation was found between basal lamina thickening and severity of the metabolic disease.

Animals

[Proliferating retinopathy in diabetes mellitus. Clinical and autopsy results].

UNLABELLED: Clinical and autoptic investigations of thirty patients suffering from diabetes mellitus and retinopathia proliferans result in these findings: Of the various manifestations of angiopathy only retinopathy (leading symptom), nephropathy, and arterial hypertension are present in all cases, all other forms receeding into the background numerically, though not in potency. 20 cases of nephropathy ended in uremia (cause of death), 10 cases in azotemia. In 14 out of 20 cases of uremia specific glomerulosclerosis (M. Kimmelstiel-Wilson) was stated autoptically, in the remaining 6 cases a different form of nephropathy was found (pyelonephritis, arteriosclerosis renum, chronic glomerulonephritis). In the 10 patients suffering from azotemia, direct causes of death were various general diseases, such as coronary sclerosis, encephalomalacia, pyogenic infections, and acute tuberculosis. CONCLUSION: Diabetes mellitus in connection with retinopathia proliferans turns out to be the most serious form of the general diabetic disease.

Adolescent