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Biomedical subjects

J García

Publications and source records attributed to J García.

At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources

Home total parenteral nutrition in a "no-bowel" patient in Spain.

OBJECTIVE: To report a case of a patient with no functional bowel who was receiving home total parenteral nutrition in a country that has had a few professional experiences in this area of therapy. CASE SUMMARY: A woman with a history of scattered colonic polyposis developed a mesenteric tumor that caused intestinal obstruction. Tumor withdrawal required the excision of 1.5 m of jejunum-ileum. Postoperative complications required further surgical intervention and subtotal intestinal resection. Duodenocolic anastomosis was not possible and a high output and permanent fistula remained. DISCUSSION: The complications of home parenteral nutrition addressed in the literature are reviewed. The problems encountered in our patient have been resolved. CONCLUSIONS: After three years of postoperative survival, we believe the quality of life of our patient has increased and the parenteral nutrition team members are much better prepared to manage patients with similar problems.

Adult↗

[Hemostasis screening in the emergency laboratory].

PURPOSE: While automation of laboratories is of great value for analysts, as it makes technical work easier, and for clinicians, as the results are available in a shorter time, the requests increase strikingly bringing about higher costs. The emergency laboratory is an example of what happens in the general laboratory. In order to make an estimate of this subject, the haemostasis screening was chosen since it is a recently automated technique in that laboratory, attention being paid to the aim and indication of the screening and its economical burden. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A study of the haemostasis screening performed during July 1990 was carried out of considering the 24 hours per day work. The requests were classified, in accordance with their indication, as diagnostic, pre-surgical, therapeutic or unknown; the justification and purpose of those requests was also examined. RESULTS: The total number of studies performed in that month was 1,273, with a daily mean of 41, as opposed to 2,095 performed in the haemostasis laboratory in the same period. According to the American Medical Association criteria only 48% of the requests could be warranted, and abnormal findings appeared in only 10% of them. CONCLUSIONS: The cost per isolated parameter is low, but it increases greatly when compared with the benefit that it reports to the patient because, as those biological tests indirectly measure the concentration of clotting factors, they are subjected to error when performed by non-specialized personnel; on the other hand, the most valuable information for detecting haemorrhagic troubles comes from the patient's history. The economical burden in the month studied amounted to 985,879 PTA; one year later, the same laboratory, in the same month, had a 50% increase of studies.

Blood Coagulation Disorders↗

Testicular granulosa cell tumor of the adult type.

A testicular granulosa cell tumor of the adult type was studied in a 61-year-old man with a history of diabetes and urinary bladder carcinoma. The tumor was composed of three areas, each with a distinctive histologic pattern: solid, cystic, and cordlike. Most of the tumor cells in the three patterns had a round to ovoid euchromatic nucleus with one or two large nucleoli and scanty cytoplasmic organelles, mainly mitochondria and rough endoplasmic reticulum. These cells showed slight immunopositivity for vimentin and no immunostaining for cytokeratins. Occasionally, elongated nuclei displaying membrane infoldings were observed. Pleomorphic nuclei were rare. The number of mitotic figures was low. Differential aspects of testicular and ovarian granulosa cell tumors are discussed.

Granulosa Cell Tumor↗

Autologous hemopoietic reconstitution after fetal liver infusion in patients with bone marrow failure: consequence or coincidence?

In the past 4 years we have treated four patients with a total of 19 fetal liver infusions (FLI). Two cases of refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-t) were conditioned with cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation (1400 cGy) and were treated with FLI. In spite of such intensive conditioning, one patient recovered autologous hemopoiesis 3 weeks later, remaining in remission 4 years after this procedure. The second patient died with aplastic marrow on day 154, and the third suffered from severe aplastic anemia refractory to several types of conventional treatment. After FLI and without previous conditioning therapy a partial fetal engraftment was documented. This was transient and followed by autologous hemopoietic recovery and cure of the disease. The fourth patient had bone marrow failure in the setting of a severe pneumonia following autologous bone marrow transplantation. Ten days after FLI the hematological parameters dramatically improved and the pneumonia resolved. Autologous reconstitution of hemopoiesis was demonstrated. These experiences suggest that FLI might stimulate autologous hemopoiesis. This therapeutic approach may be useful to treat bone marrow failure when there is no response to first-line therapy. In hematologic malignancies with an indication for stem cell transplantation, other sources such as allogeneic or autologous bone marrow seem preferable to fetal liver cells.

Adolescent↗

[A preliminary report on penile cancer in the Instituto Oncológico Nacional from 1982 to 1990].

Cancer of the penis is not to common disease and its incidence varies between 0.5 and 5%. In Panama, 70 cases were registered from 1982 to 1990 and it is considered an important social problem in the rural population. Phimosis and poor hygiene are important factors in its etiology. Of 70 cases seen at the National Institute of Oncology from 1982 to 1990, 51 cases were analyzed comparing two approaches in regard to lymph node metastasis: (1) an expectant approach in those without clinically suspected lymph node metastasis, and (2) lymph node biopsy using the Cabañas technique in those clinically suspected followed by lymphadenectomy if the biopsy was positive. The high percentage biopsies (Cabañas technique) as well as the significant morbidity (31.6%) in these patients, compared with no morbidity and the high accuracy of the expectant approach (90%) lead the authors to recommend the Cabañas biopsy technique only for patients of low educational level and difficult follow-up as outpatients. Others patients should be followed clinically for signs of tumor activity.

Age Factors↗

[An obstruction of a valve prosthesis implanted in the tricuspid position].

Dysfunction of a prosthesis implanted in tricuspid position is a severe complication that may develop with minimal symptoms. A patient who presented clinical manifestations of heart failure for two weeks due to obstruction of a mechanical prosthesis in tricuspid position is described. Fibrinolytic treatment was given unsuccessfully, therefore prosthetic replacement was performed. In the removed prosthesis, a fibrotic pannus which developed in the strut and disc was seen. We review the clinical manifestations, the diagnosis and treatment of the dysfunction of a prosthesis implanted in tricuspid position.

Aortic Valve↗

Immunoglobulins from animal models of motor neuron disease and from human amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients passively transfer physiological abnormalities to the neuromuscular junction.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating human disease of upper and lower motoneurons of unknown etiology. In support of the potential role of autoimmunity in ALS, two immune-mediated animal models of motoneuron disease have been developed that resemble ALS with respect to the loss of motoneurons, the presence of IgG within motoneurons and at the neuromuscular junction, and with respect to altered physiology of the motor nerve terminal. To provide direct evidence for the primary role of humoral immunity, passive transfer with immunoglobulins from the two animal models and human ALS was carried out. Mice injected with serum or immunoglobulins from the animal disease models and human ALS but not controls demonstrated IgG in motoneurons and at the neuromuscular junction. The mice also demonstrated an increase in miniature end-plate potential (mepp) frequency, with normal amplitude and time course and normal resting membrane potential, indicating an increased resting quantal release of acetylcholine from the nerve terminal. The ability to transfer motoneuron dysfunction with serum immunoglobulins provides evidence for autoimmune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of both the animal models and human ALS.

Adult↗

Effect of the calcium buffer EGTA on the "hump" component of charge movement in skeletal muscle.

Three manifestations of excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling were measured in cut skeletal muscle fibers of the frog, voltage clamped in a double Vaseline gap: intramembrane charge movements, myoplasmic Ca2+ transients, and changes in optical transparency. Pulsing patterns in the presence of high [EGTA] intracellularly, shown by García et al. (1989. J. Gen. Physiol. 94:973-986) to deplete Ca2+ in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, were found to change the above manifestations. With an intracellular solution containing 15 mM EGTA and 0 Ca, 10-15 pulses (100 ms) to -20 mV at a frequency of 2 min-1 reduced the "hump" component of charge movement current. This effect was reversible by 5 min of rest. The same effect was obtained in 62.5 mM EGTA and 0 Ca by pulsing at 0.2 min-1. This effect was reversible by adding calcium to the EGTA solution, for a nominal [Ca2+]i of 200 nM, and was prevented by adding calcium to the EGTA solution before pulsing. The suppression of the hump was accompanied by elimination of the optical manifestations of E-C coupling. The current suppressed was found by subtraction and had the following properties: delayed onset, a peak at a variable interval (10-20 ms) into the pulse, a negative phase (inward current) after the peak, and a variable OFF transient that could be multi-phasic and carried less charge than the ON transient. In the previous paper (Csernoch et al., 1991. J. Gen. Physiol. 97:845-884) it was shown that several interventions suppress a similar component of charge movement current, identified with the "hump" or Q gamma current (I gamma). Based on the similarity to that component, the charge movement suppressed by the depletion protocols can also be identified with I gamma. The fact that I gamma is suppressed by Ca2+ depletion and the kinetic properties of the charge suppressed is inconsistent with the existence of separate sets of voltage sensors underlying the two components of charge movement, Q beta and Q gamma. This is explicable if Q gamma is a consequence of calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum.

Animals↗