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Biomedical subjects

J B Krahling

Publications and source records attributed to J B Krahling.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Successful treatment of adults with severe Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

OBJECTIVE: To describe our experience with the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a rescue therapy in adult patients with severe cardiopulmonary failure from Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. DESIGN: Case series. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS: Patients with confirmed Hantavirus infection, who developed severe cardiopulmonary failure in which conventional therapy was assessed as being unsuccessful. INTERVENTIONS: Records of previous patients treated for Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome were reviewed and findings consistent with 100% mortality were found. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Findings associated with a 100% mortality rate were a) cardiac index of <2.5 L/min/m2; b) serum lactate concentration of >4.0 mmol/L (normal range 0.0 to 2.2); c) pulseless electrical activity or ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia; and d) refractory shock despite fluid resuscitation, and vasoactive medications. From 1994 to 1996, seven patients were admitted with confirmed Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and severe cardiopulmonary failure. Three of the seven patients had at least two of the four criteria for a 100% mortality rate listed above, and appeared to be failing optimal conventional therapy. These three patients received support with venoarterial ECMO. The first patient was placed on ECMO during cardiac arrest and died. The next two patients who received ECMO for Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome survived after relatively short, uncomplicated ECMO runs, and were discharged without complications. CONCLUSIONS: ECMO successfully provided cardiopulmonary support in two patients with severe Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome who survived with a good outcome. Our experience suggests that ECMO is a beneficial therapy for patients critically ill with Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

Acute Disease↗

Postnatal development of peroxisomal and mitochondrial enzymes in rat liver.

Subcellular organellles from livers of rats three days prenatal to 50 weeks postnatal were separated on sucrose gradients. The peroxisomes had a constant density of 1.243 g/ml throughout the life of the animal. The density of the mitochondria changed from about 1.236 g/ml at birth to a constant value of 1.200 g/ml after two weeks. The peroxisomal and mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation and the peroxisomal and supernatant activities of catalase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were measured at each age, as well as the peroxisomal core enzyme, urate oxidase, and the mitochondrial matrix enzyme, glutamate dehydrogenase. All of these activities were very low or undetectable before birth. Mitochondrial glutamate dehydrogenase and peroxisomal urate oxidase reached maximal activities per g of liver at two and five weeks of age, respectively. Fatty acid beta-oxidation in both peroxisomes and mitochondria and peroxisomal glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase exhibited maximum activities per g of liver between one and two weeks of age before weaning and then decreased to steady state levels in the adult. Peroxisomal beta-oxidation accounted for at least 10% of the total beta-oxidation activity in the young rat liver, but became 30% of the total in the liver of the adult female and 20% in the adult male due to a decrease in mitochondrial beta-oxidation after two weeks of age. The greatest change in beta-oxidation was in the mitochondrial fraction rather than in the peroxisomes. At two weeks of age, four times as much beta-oxidation activity was in the mitochondria as in the peroxisomal fraction. Peroxisomal glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase activity accounted for 5% to 7% of the total activity in animals younger than one week, but only 1% to 2% in animals older than one week. Up to three weeks of age, 85% to 90% of the liver catalase was recovered in the peroxisomes. The activity of peroxisomal catalase per g of rat liver remained constant after three weeks of age, but the total activity of catalase further increased 2.5- to 3-fold, and all of the increased activity was in the supernatant fraction.

Age Factors↗