Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Manier.
Several outbreaks of fatal opportunistic infections and tumors have recently been reported among homosexual men in the United States. Almost all patients had evidence of cellular immunodeficiency. We have studied a French homosexual man with fatal central nervous system toxoplasmosis. Morphological features (light and electron microscopy) of toxoplasma encephalitis are described.
We report a case of severe pulmonary embolism in a 37 years old man admitted to the intensive care unit for severe acute respiratory failure. The presenting signs and symptoms were typical for severe pulmonary oedema. Chest radiograph shortly after admission showed local alveolar shadows. In the absence of sepsis, haemodynamic evidence of left ventricular failure on catheterization of the right heart and because of the history of the recent illness, a tentative diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was made. The diagnosis was confirmed by selective pulmonary angiography. The latter demonstrated that pulmonary oedema had been localized only in areas with patent pulmonary arteries and, in addition, confirmed that left ventricular function was normal. Such a pattern of local pulmonary oedema is uncommon in patients and is reminiscent of that observed in animal experiments with severe pulmonary arterial obstruction and overperfusion of unblocked territories. Possible mechanisms of overperfusion oedema are discussed and the hypothesis that humoral factors may increase the permeability of pulmonary microvasculature in cases of severe pulmonary embolism is put forward.
A double blind study of effects of a low dose of almitrine has been performed in patients with severe chronic obstructive lung diseases. Besides hemodynamic and ventilation data, ventilation-perfusion ratio distribution was measured by the inert gas method in order to try to explain the improvement in blood gases caused by this drug. At the dose of 1.5 mg/kg almitrine produces : 1) an increase in ventilation and PaO2, 2) no change in pulmonary vascular resistances compared to a rise on placebo, 3) a drop of 4% in the percentage of cardiac output perfusing low VA/Q lung units with a concomitant increase in lung units with VA/Q ratio between 0.1 and 10, and 4) no significant change in the distribution of ventilation. The change in the distribution of blood flow is one of the causes of the rise in PaO2, but its mechanism is at yet not clear. The present results suggest arterial vasoconstriction in units with very low VA/Q accompanied by diversion of blood flow towards lung units with higher VA/Q ratio.