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Biomedical subjects

H Otten

Publications and source records attributed to H Otten.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Asbestos consumption, asbestos exposure and asbestos-related occupational diseases in Germany.

Like in most industrial countries, asbestos is a leading cause of occupational diseases, especially malignant diseases, in Germany. Following the increased consumption of asbestos after World War I, the recognition of asbestos related diseases developed. At the end of the 1930s, Germany was the first country to accept lung cancer in combination with asbestosis as an occupational disease and to initiate the endeavor for reduction of asbestos dust exposure. Nevertheless after World War II the usage of asbestos increased dramatically. The ban of asbestos first came into force in 1993. Until this time several hundreds of thousands of workers had inhaled asbestos and the number of asbestos related diseases increased. In this review the history and current status on asbestos consumption, asbestos exposure and asbestos related occupational diseases in Germany is presented.

Asbestos↗
PubMed2005

[Ratio of confirmed versus suspected occupational diseases as a parameter of quality].

PURPOSE: To evaluate the notifications of suspected causes of occupational diseases (NSC) under quality assurance aspects. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed the NSC assessed by the institutions for statutory accident insurance and prevention (Berufsgenossenschaft) between 1998 and 2002. RESULTS: Physicians were most frequently represented among the 357,050 notifications (60.2 %). The number of notifications dropped continually between 1998 and 2002. The number and quality of the notifications (NSC) depend on the knowledge of the occupational diseases as well as on the knowledge of the insured persons and on their respective occupational histories. The NSC are issued via the statutory social insurance bodies who are in contact with the patients, and the NSC also depend on the present scientific knowledge of the types of relevant diseases. Usually, the physicians were most frequently the notifiers of occupational diseases, with one exception, namely, incapacitating diseases due to damage to vertebral discs of the lumbar spine caused by many years of lifting of carrying heavy loads or of many years of work in an extremely bent position, in which cases the statutory insurance bodies themselves issued the notifications. Altogether 123,262 notifications were confirmed. The average quota of confirmations was > 40 % with physicians issuing the notifications, > 30 % with statutory pension insurance bodies and only approx. 12 % with notifying statutory sickness insurance bodies. The lowest quota of confirmations - namely, only 3 % - concerned the incapacitating vertebral disc disease of the lumbar spine mentioned above. Non-confirmed notifications of suspected occupational diseases involved an estimated cost of at least 58 million Euro. DISCUSSION: On-target improvement of the quality of notification of suspected occupational diseases is possible by exploring several avenues, including on-target assessment of evaluation criteria reporting by the statutory accident insurance bodies concerned and by regular advice rendered to the statutory social insurance bodies by occupational therapists.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2004

[Evaluation of the quality of spirometries by a scoring system].

BACKGROUND: The measurement of quality will gain in importance in the future. Suitable instruments for the measurement of the quality of lung function tests have not yet been developed. In order to evaluate the quality of lung function measurements, a score is introduced, based on current guideline recommendations for lung function test. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Records of spirometries were selected at random and evaluated retrospectively. The evaluation criteria were deduced from guideline recommendations. The evaluation criteria were used to calculate a score in order to compare the quality of single records. The individual time course of lung function parameters in a group of former uranium ore miners was used to validate the score. RESULTS: 417 spirometry records from 93 physicians of different specialisation were evaluated. From 111 documented calibrations only 10 were accomplished on the same day on which the measurement was made. 147 lung function curves were classified as "good". Only in 25 records the execution of three or more measuring manoeuvres had been documented. The mean score over all physicians was 0.58, which corresponds to a middle quality level. CONCLUSIONS: The study generates and validates for the first time a score with which the quality of spirometries can be evaluated. The scoring system retrospectively analyses lung function records and it can therefore be used in the framework of quality management. The application of the score showed an inconsistent application of guideline recommendations. In agreement with studies from other countries a lack of quality was also found in Germany.

Humans↗
PubMed2004

[New documentation sheet for medical examination due to exposures to dust].

With beginning of the year 2004 a new documentation sheet for occupational preventive medical examinations according to exposures to mineral dust (quartz, asbestos, ceramic fibres) will replace the existing sheet. The new investigation sheet is presented in this publication and changes are described.

Asbestos↗
PubMed2003

[Validity of smoking histories].

Validity of smoking histories was investigated retrospectively in 185 cases of lung cancer, which are compensated as occupational diseases. We used the files inquiry of the occupational disease declarative statement, primary physicians information, information from the post-exposure medical surveillance examinations, and the files of the former company physicians as data sources. From these, the smoking status was determined and compared with single data sources. Self-reported information during post-exposure medical surveillance examinations tallied well (deviation: 6.5%), whilst physicians' information was lacking in 34.6% in (former) smokers. We propose improved sensitisation of physicians to the problem of nicotine dependence.

Germany↗
PubMed1997

Absence of odour learning in the stemborer parasitoid Cotesia flavipes

Parasitic wasps are commonly found to learn olfactory and visual cues that are associated with successful host location. For many parasitoids the cues that are associated with hosts vary in space and time, and are therefore unpredictable. An ability to learn allows the wasp to concentrate on those cues that will lead it to new hosts most effectively in a particular area. In contrast, parasitoids that forage in a predictable homogeneous environment and/or make only a few foraging decisions do not need to learn and should rely on innate responses to specific cues. The role of learning in host foraging was studied in Cotesia flavipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a parasitoid of stemborer larvae with an ecology where learning is expected to be of low adaptive value. There was no evidence that C. flavipes uses odour learning in host-micro-habitat location. There was no significant effect of the development and emergence environment on the response level or preference towards the odour of infested plants. Neither was there evidence that experience with a particular plant-host complex during foraging influences subsequent foraging decisions in C. flavipes females. The absence of learning in C. flavipeswhich seems an exception among the parasitoids studied, is discussed in relation to its ecology.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1989

Traveling waves of in vitro evolving RNA.

Populations of short self-replicating RNA variants have been confined to one side of a reaction-diffusion traveling wave front propagating along thin capillary tubes containing the Q beta viral enzyme. The propagation speed is accurately measurable with a magnitude of about 1 micron/sec, and the wave persists for hundreds of generations (of duration less than 1 min). Evolution of RNA occurs in the wavefront, as established by front velocity changes and gel electrophoresis of samples drawn from along the capillary. The high population numbers (approximately equal to 10(11], their well-characterized biochemistry, their short generation time, and the constant conditions make the system ideal for evolution experiments. Growth is monitored continuously by excitation of an added RNA-sensitive fluorescent dye, ethidium bromide. An analytic expression for the front velocity is derived for the multicomponent kinetic scheme that reduces, for a high RNA-enzyme binding constant, to the Fisher form v = 2 square root of kappa D, where D is the diffusion constant of the complex and kappa is the low-concentration overall replication rate coefficient. The latter is confirmed as the selective value-determining parameter by numerical solution of a two-species system.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed1987

Psychophysiologic aspects in essential hypertension.

Epidemiologic and experimental studies disclosed that the sympathetic nervous system might play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension. Although systolic pressure exhibits a weak endogenous rhythm, diurnal fluctuations of arterial pressure are provoked primarily by physical or emotional stress factors. The magnitude of the cardiovascular response, however, varies widely from individual to individual. Subjects at high risk of future hypertension,--such as those with a positive history of familial hypertension, high resting heart rate, or transient increase in arterial hypertension--revealed blood pressure hyperresponsiveness to stress stimuli mediated by an overreactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. Furthermore, cardiovascular reactivity to mental arithmetic tasks and to traffic noise put a patient at high risk of developing arterial hypertension. In women, exaggerated cardiovascular response to stress stimuli appeared to be mitigated by estrogens, whereas oral contraceptives overrode this 'protective' effect of estrogens. At a certain point, repeated episodes of high stress blood pressure could produce structural vascular changes finally inducing sustained hypertension.

Arousal↗
PubMed1987

Disparate effects of initial antihypertensive therapy on well-being.

We investigated the effects of baseline antihypertensive therapy on well-being in a randomized single-blind study in patients with recently diagnosed essential hypertension (WHO stage I). Sixty middle-aged men were treated either with a beta-blocker (oxprenolol) or a calcium-entry blocker (nitrendipine). Well-being was assessed by questionnaires on mood and anxiety. Both regimens were equally effective at lowering blood pressure. Differences in mood were found between patients on the beta-blocker and those on the calcium-entry blocker in the first week of therapy. Responders and non-responders to calcium-entry blocker did not differ in mood and anxiety. Non-responders to beta-blocker had a less balanced mood after the onset of therapy than patients effectively treated with this regimen over 9 months. These results suggest that the impact of therapy on well-being should be carefully assessed during antihypertensive therapy, and might be considered a major determinant of patients' compliance.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Family history of hypertension and cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress--effects of stimulus intensity and environment.

Normotensives with hypertensive parents have been reported to exhibit enhanced cardiovascular reactions to mental stress. We have examined the question of why this result was not confirmed in all studies. In addition we have investigated whether appropriate tests can be performed under clinical rather than laboratory conditions. Healthy male subjects were examined. In experiment I, under laboratory conditions, a standard stress test was intensified (n = 30). In experiment II the same test was used in a simplified version which did not require special equipment (n = 19). Blood pressure, heart rate and stroke volume (by impedance cardiography) were measured. In contrast to the results with the standard test, subjects with at least one hypertensive parent exhibited enhanced responses of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate. We conclude that cardiovascular hyper-reactivity in subjects with hypertensive parents is only apparent using sufficiently intense stimuli. Although less pronounced, these differences can also be observed under clinical conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Virus infection islet cell antibodies and islet cell function in type I diabetes mellitus.

The detection of islet cell antibodies has led to an increasing interest in autoimmune mechanisms in Type I diabetes mellitus. Other phenomena, such as insulitis in juvenile diabetics and in experimental animals, cellular immune reactions and concommitant antibodies against other endocrine organs, antinuclear antibodies and circulating immune complexes have supported such speculations. HLA-association and viral-infections could be predisposing and inducing factors. However, with one exception, the occurrence of ICA in a group of mumps infected children did not result in the development of diabetes mellitus over 3-4 years, nor could it be correlated with HLA-pattern. The islet cell antibodies block glucose stimulated insulin secretion in vitro without complement, while Type I diabetic sera with complement are beta cell cytotoxic irrespective of their ICA concentration. It is still not clear whether these mechanisms play any role in vivo. Therapeutic intervention before the clinical manifestation of the disease is as yet not possible due to the lack of markers indicating a subclinical autoimmune process.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Diazepam absorption: effects of age, sex, and Billroth gastrectomy.

The kinetics of diazepam absorption were assessed in 37 healthy volunteers, aged 19--79 years, who ingested a single 5-mg tablet in the fasting state. Diazepam plasma concentrations were measured by gas chromatography in multiple samples drawn over the next 72 hr. After a lag time averaging 12 min elapsed between tablet ingestion and the start of absorption, first-order absorption proceeded with a mean half-life of 19 min (range: 0--96 min), with peak plasma concentrations reached 0.9 hr after dosage (range: 0.25--2.5 hr). Age and sex did not influence absorption kinetics. Peak plasma concentrations averaged 157 ng/ml, and tended to be higher in women than in men because of lower body weights in women. Peak levels also declined with age, probably due to increased volume of distribution of diazepam in the elderly. Absolute systemic availability of oral diazepam was evaluated in seven of the subjects who received intravenous diazepam on another occasion. Based on areas under the oral versus intravenous plasma concentration curve, bioavailability of diazepam averaged 97%. Six male patients, at least 2 years after undergoing Billroth gastrectomy, also participated in the diazepam absorption study. Absorption kinetic parameters were nearly identical to those in six healthy age-matched male volunteers without gastrointestinal disease. Thus absorption of oral diazepam in the fasting state is rapid and nearly complete, and is minimally influenced by age, sex, or Billroth gastrectomy.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1981

Disposition of oxazepam in relation to age, sex, and cigarette smoking.

The kinetics of single 30-mg oral doses of oxazepam were determined in 22 male and nine female volunteers aged 20-86 years. Oxazepam plasma concentrations were measured in multiple plasma samples drawn during 36 h after each dose. Mean kinetic variables in males and females, respectively, were: elimination half-life, 7.5 and 8.5 h; volume of distribution, 0.96 and 1.17 l/kg; clearance, 1.48 and 1.70 ml/min/kg. Sex differences were not significant, nor were any of the kinetic variables significantly related to age. However, oxazepam clearance increased significantly with heavier cigarette smoking (r = 0.48, p less than 0.01). Mean clearance in smokers (1.98 ml/min/kg) was significantly higher than in nonsmokers (1.23 ml/min/kg, p less than 0.01). Thus, smoking is a more important determinant of oxazepam clearance than age or sex.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

[An experimental study on erythromycin in combination with beta-lactam and aminoglycoside antibiotics (author's transl)].

Combinations of erythromycin with penicillins (ampicillin, azlocillin, carbenicillin and mezlocillin) and with aminoglycosides (amikacin, gentamicin and sisomicin) were tested for their efficacy against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus using the checkerboard technique. No antagonistic effect could be ascertained. Synergistic effects (inhibition with 25% of the effective antibiotic concentration after mono-application) were seen only in rare instances using the penicillin/erythromycin combinations. In over 30% of the tests the aminoglycoside/erythromycin combinations were synergistically effective against E. coli.

Aminoglycosides↗
PubMed1979

[Quantitative gated nuclear cardiography for noninvasive evaluation of left ventricular function].

In 43 patients with angiographically proven coronary heart disease and in 24 patients without heart disease, gated blood pool scintigraphy was done under resting conditions with 15 mCi 99mTcHSA in LAO projection. Scintigraphic data were collected in list mode by means of a gamma camera connected to a computer system (Siemens 330). A cumulative scintigram sequence with a time resolution of 100 frames/s was constructed using several hundred heart cycles of equal duration. After background correction volume curves of the left ventricle were obtained and the following parameters were calculated: EF, dV/dt max,dV/dt min. In all patients with coronary heart disease, these parameters were reduced depending on the severity of the stenotic lesion. The changes of dV/dt min and to a greater extend of dV/dt max were more pronounced than those of the EF. These results are in keeping with invasively obtained data which show that a decrease of myocardial compliance is one of the earliest manifestations of CHD. Quantitative gated nuclear cardiography allows, therefore, noninvasive evaluation of left ventricular function even under resting conditions.

Coronary Disease↗