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H Behr

Publications and source records attributed to H Behr.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

In situ decontamination of medical wastes using oxidative agents: a 16-month study in a polyvalent intensive care unit.

Over a 16-month period from September 1997 to December 1998, a prospective study was made of an on-site treatment of medical wastes in a 10-bed intensive care unit. First, the wastes were ground and then, a high concentration of ozone in air was repeatedly injected into the ground wastes. The study analysed the practical application of the system and its microbiological efficiency. Inactivation experiments were made with reference strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus hirae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Bacillus subtilis var niger, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. Two thousand eight hundred treatment cycles, i.e. 84,000 grindings and 140,000 ozone injections gave a treatment capacity of 50 kg of waste per day with a good staff acceptability. All kinds of medical devices used in an intensive care unit were treated. In untreated ground wastes, the median bacterial load was 105.86 (range 10(2.35)-10(8.05)) cfu/g. After ozone treatment, bacteria and fungi were reduced by a factor of 10(5). Aero-contamination of the ward was unchanged. Computer control allowed all events to be tracked. On-site medical waste treatment appears to be an efficient alternative to the usual centralized collection and treatment.

Decontamination↗
PubMed1998

Alcohol use and pregnancy: improving identification.

OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of a four-item prenatal-alcohol-use, self-administered screening questionnaire that asks about tolerance to alcohol, being annoyed by other's comments about drinking, attempts to cut down, and having a drink first thing in the morning ("eye-opener") (T-ACE) in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample. METHODS: Two hundred fifty T-ACE-positive and 100 T-ACE-negative women completed a comprehensive assessment of their alcohol use after initiating prenatal care at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. This comprehensive assessment, which included the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test as comparisons to the T-ACE, generated three criterion standards: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Ed., Revised (DSM-III-R), lifetime alcohol diagnoses, risk drinking (regularly having more than one fluid ounce of alcohol per drinking day before pregnancy), and current drinking. RESULTS: T-ACE-positive pregnant women were more likely than T-ACE-negative women to satisfy DSM-III-R criteria for lifetime alcohol diagnoses (40% versus 14%, P < .001) and risk drinking (39% versus 8%, P < .001) and to have current alcohol consumption (43% versus 13%, P < .001). In contrast, obstetric staff members documented only 33 (9%) women as using alcohol at any time, even though nearly all subjects (96%) were asked about drinking upon initiation of prenatal care. CONCLUSION: The T-ACE was the most sensitive screen for lifetime alcohol diagnoses, risk drinking, and current alcohol consumption. It outperformed obstetric staff assessment of any alcohol use by pregnant women enrolled in the study.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Women and alcohol abuse in primary care. Identification and intervention.

Female problem drinkers are less likely than men to be identified in the primary care setting. The authors studied 24 adult women attending a general, internal medicine clinic to assess the efficiency of self-reports of alcohol consumption when compared with physician identification and other measures and the impact of a brief intervention on alcohol consumption. Despite the high rate of lifetime (79%) and current (67%) alcohol diagnoses, no patient was in alcohol treatment. Physician identification of alcohol problems was least sensitive but most specific, when compared with other measures. Brief intervention, as offered in this study, did not appear to modify alcohol consumption.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

The origin of the antiseptic-resistance gene ebr in Staphylococcus aureus.

The antiseptic-resistance gene ebr was detected not only in resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus but also in sensitive strains of S. aureus, in coagulase-negative staphylococcal strains and in enterococcal strains by means of the polymerase chain reaction. The nucleotide sequence of the amplified DNA fragment of the ebr gene from a sensitive strain and that of the previously reported ebr gene were identical. It seems likely that antiseptic-resistant cells result from an increase in the copy number of a gene whose normal function is to remove toxic substances from normal sensitive cells of staphylococci and enterococci.

Anti-Infective Agents, Local↗
PubMed1994

[The federal emission control law/monitoring practice of applications by health offices].

In accordance with a directive of the office of the Regional Government in Darmstadt, magistrates and county boards are to be involved in approval proceedings under the Pollution Control Act. In these proceedings, the health offices review and comment on the individual projects. In many cases the scope of the health office review overlaps with that of other public authorities, since a precise definition of the public health tasks has been lacking to date. In consultation with concerned parties and the approval authority, the Task Force of Hessian Health Offices (Arbeitsgemeinschaft hessischer Gesundheitsämter) has addressed this issue in principle, and has discussed and established testing criteria. In this article, we use two examples of health office reviews to present our results. We hope that the article will stimulate an exchange of experience with other health offices.

Environmental Pollution↗
PubMed1994

[Relationship between the level of minimal inhibitory concentrations of five antiseptics and the presence of qacA gene in Staphylococcus aureus].

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was used to detect the qacA gene which encodes antiseptic resistance in 186 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. The results were compared with those obtained by MIC determination of 4 antiseptics (benzalkonium chloride, hexamidine, chlorhexidine, acriflavine) and for ethidium bromide. The qacA gene was not detected among the 32 susceptible S. aureus strains, but was found in the 70 (85%) of the 82 S. aureus strains resistant to all 5 antiseptics. The gene was also detected in 70 (45%) of the 154 remaining strains that were resistant to at least one antiseptic.

Acriflavine↗
PubMed1989

Classification of gliomas and medulloblastomas using the new TNM system for cerebral tumors.

In 1987 the UICC presented a proposal for TNM classification of brain tumors. This proposal is assessed in a retrospective study on 316 glioma and medulloblastoma patients treated in the Neurosurgical Clinic of the University Münster. It is evident that the T categories do not produce the correct sequence of prognostic differentiation required. The features of tumor spread used for classification are not of equal significance for the various types of tumors. In our opinion it is not possible to adequately describe the greatly varying development characteristics of all brain tumors using one system of classification.

Brain Neoplasms↗
PubMed1978

Evaluation of S. aureus serotyping method.

This study describes the reproducibility of antigen detection in staphylococci, and the discriminating capacity of the serotyping method. The reproducibility of the antigen detection in staphylococci has been studied by multiple determination of the antigenic formula of 700 wild strains. The discriminating capacity of the serotyping method has been estimated on 415 strains selected to exclude strains from the same origin. Good reproducibility (over 80%) is obtained for the detection of 12 antigens; improvement of the method for the others is under way. The method is highly discriminative; only 1.4% of strains are not typable. 90.8% of strains can be classified in one of the 6 groups identified by a major antigen; groups A, D and E are the most important under our ecological conditions.

Agglutination Tests↗