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Biomedical subjects

J A Schaffner

Publications and source records attributed to J A Schaffner.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

The treatment of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding is becoming more dependent upon early diagnosis. For the majority of patients whose bleeding has stopped when they come to the physician's attention, treatment for peptic disorders remains the mainstay of therapy. For patients who present to the physician actively bleeding, early intervention with endoscopic therapeutic techniques probably will be the most beneficial. Currently available pharmacotherapeutic agents are of limited value in this situation. Further studies to prove and confirm the efficacy of the various techniques need to be carried out.

Acute Disease

Tuberculous esophagitis with erosion into aortic aneurysm.

An 87-year-old woman with a known atherosclerotic thoracic aneurysm died suddenly from a massive esophageal hemorrhage. Prior to death, tuberculous esophagitis was diagnosed by biopsy. At autopsy, a fistulous tract was found extending from the esophagus to the aortic aneurysm; this fistula proved to be the site of fatal hemorrhage. The tract was surrounded by a granulomatous inflammatory reaction, in which acid-fast bacilli were found. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of tuberculous esophagitis extending to an aortic aneurysm resulting in hemorrhage and death.

Aged

Increased thymic hormone responsive suppressor T lymphocyte function in chronic active hepatitis.

Mitogen-induced suppressor T lymphocyte function was evaluated in patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH). The in vitro effect of the biological response modifier, thymosin fraction 5, on the suppressive activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) was also assessed. Suppressor cell activity was significantly decreased in patients with CAH when compared to controls (P less than 0.001). In the absence of the inducing mitogen, thymosin-treated PBM from both patients and controls promoted enhancement of tritiated thymidine uptake by cocultured allogeneic lymphocytes. When thymosin-treated mononuclear cells were mitogen-activated; patients, but not the controls, showed a marked increase in suppressor activity (P less than 0.001). These results indicate that the polypeptides contained in thymosin fraction 5 can promote a helper effect in patients and controls. Furthermore, PBM from patients with CAH contain a subset of lymphocytes that can express a suppressive function following thymosin treatment. We conclude that thymosin fraction 5 can promote an in vitro restoration of suppressor T cell function in patients with CAH.

Adolescent