PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

J Hofbauer

Publications and source records attributed to J Hofbauer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Primary small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Report of a case with immunohistochemical analyses.

A case of primary small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is reported. The light-microscopic diagnosis was supported by immunoreactivity for HISL-19 (marker for peptide-hormone-producing cells) and for neuron-specific enolase (NSE), demonstrating the neuroendocrine differentiation of this rare bladder tumor. Serum NSE, which was significantly elevated, can be a marker for disease extent and response to therapy.

Antibodies, Monoclonal

Management of ureteric calculi (minimally invasive therapy of ureteric stones).

As documented with results obtained in 1685 patients the treatment of ureteric stones is today based on ESWL in situ and ureteroscopy with semirigid, ultrathin ureteroscopes and laser lithotripsy. All stones in the upper third of the ureter and larger stones in the distal third of the ureter are preferably treated with ESWL in situ whereas smaller stones in the distal ureter are better treated endoscopically. Midureteric stones remain the domain of primary ureteroscopy; with moderate obstruction in the asymptomatic patient it may also be acceptable to wait for the stone to pass into the distal ureter spontaneously to be treated by ESWL in situ there. Manipulating stones back into the kidney and treating them by ESWL there (pushback/ESWL) offers no advantage over ESWL in situ, as the results are similar, yet morbidity is higher. Blind instrumentation and open surgery have lost all justification.

Endoscopy

Trace elements and urinary stone formation: new aspects of the pathological mechanism of urinary stone formation.

The urinary stone, serum and 24-hour urine concentrations of 14 trace elements were determined in urinary stone patients by inductively coupled plasma atomic-emission spectroscopy. The data obtained for 25 active stone patients and 32 whose last stone episode had occurred at least 12 months previously were compared with those of 25 healthy individuals. Urinary nickel, manganese and lithium excretion, and serum nickel, manganese and cadmium concentrations were statistically significantly lower for active stone patients compared to those with previous stone episodes and healthy individuals. No difference in the concentrations of trace elements could be found, however, for patients with previous stone episodes and healthy individuals. Nickel, manganese, lithium and cadmium could be of significance in the pathological mechanism of stone formation, not from mineralogical or crystallographic viewpoints but for the smooth flow of enzymatic reactions in biological systems.

Adult

Malignant hemangiopericytoma of the pelvis. Report of a case with urological implications and immunohistochemical analysis.

A case of a malignant hemangiopericytoma located in the pelvic fossa of a 50-year old man is reported. The tumor displaced the urinary bladder and caused bilateral hydronephrosis. Light microscopic diagnosis was followed by immunohistochemistry. After surgery the patient was successfully treated by chemotherapy and irradiation. This paper reviews clinicopathological features in respect of prognosis and a possible treatment.

Abdominal Pain

Value of routine citrate analysis and calcium/citrate ratio in calcium urolithiasis.

24-hour urinary citrate excretion was measured in 176 calcium oxalate stone formers and 100 normal controls. A statistically significant difference (p less than 0.03) could be found between the two groups. When stone formers were divided into a group of 69 patients with recurrent calcium urolithiasis (RCU) and a group of 106 patients with a single stone episode, the latter did not differ from the control group, while in RCU a significantly lower citrate excretion compared with controls (p less than 0.005) could be found. Thus, patients with RCU could benefit from alkali citrate prophylaxis. A female-male difference in citrate excretion could not be found in either the control group or stone formers. Recurrent stone formers presented a significantly higher calcium/citrate ratio compared with controls, which would indicate an increased risk for stone formation. The value of routine citrate analysis is limited, however, by the great, variability of citrate levels in stone formers and controls.

Adult

Multiple limit cycles for predator-prey models.

We construct a Gause-type predator-prey model with concave prey isocline and (at least) two limit cycles. This serves as a counter-example to the global stability criterion of Hsu [Math. Biosci. 39:1-10 (1978)].

Animals

[The significance of citrate excretion and calcium/citrate quotients in urine in patients with calcium calculi].

In 111 patient suffering from calcium oxalate lithiasis more than 168 citrate and calcium analyses have been performed in 24 hour urine. In 69 patients with a single stone episode no significant difference of citrate concentration was found in comparison with 63 healthy volunteers. However, in 42 recurrent stone formers was the citrate concentration significantly diminished (p less than 0.005). The calcium/citrate ratio was in recurrent stone formers markedly higher (5.19 +/- 8.6) than in patients with a single stone episode (3.34 +/- 4.9). However, because great deviation of citrate values the calcium/citrate ratio may not be suitable for evaluation of stone formation risk.

Calcium

Expression of the C3d/EBV receptor and of other cell membrane surface markers is altered upon HIV-1 infection of myeloid, T, and B cells.

Human cell lines (the T-cell lines H9, Jurkat, and HUT102, the myeloid lines U937 and HL60, and the Raji B cell line) were infected with HIV-1. HIV-1 antigen could be detected by immunofluorescence analysis in more than 50% of T cells and myeloid cells 15 days after infection. Infection of Raji cells took more than 2-3 months. Studies of cell surface marker expression revealed remarkable changes after HIV-1 infection of Raji cells: expression of CR2 (C3d/EBV receptor, CD19, CD20, CD22, CD23, CD10, and surface IgM) were highly reduced, in the case of CR2 and membrane-IgM from 100 to 0%, whereas levels of CD37 and CD38 remained unaltered by HIV-1 infection. U937 cells showed a reduction of CD4 expression from 14 to 5% after HIV-1 infection; the CR3 expression slightly increased from 25 to 30%. In contrast, HLA-DR was only expressed (21%) after HIV-1 infection but not in uninfected U937 cells. Expression of HLA-DR could be detected also in HL60 cells (33%) after HIV-1 infection. In H9 cells, CD4 was reduced from 60 to 30% after HIV-1 infection, whereas HLA-DR and CD25/IL-2 receptor expression increased from 16 to 90% and from 0 to 50%, respectively. CD4 was reduced from 70 to 0% from Jurkat cells after HIV-1 infection, whereas expression of CR2 was only slightly diminished from 8 to 4%. Expression of CR1 and HLA-DR was slightly increased in these cells (1 to 3%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Antigens, Differentiation, B-Lymphocyte

[The value of physical therapy in genuine female stress incontinence].

In a prospective randomized study the efficiacy of physical therapy in female stress incontinence could be verified. The greatest success rate was achieved by medical gymnastics, whereas the perineal electrical stimulation should be used as supporting measure like a biofeedback mechanism because of its low effective intensity. Despite of the good therapeutic success (51.5%) with lasting effects no objective criteria to the use of physical therapy in female stress incontinence were found.

Adult

E. coli antibodies do not cause false-positivity in recombinant anti-HIV assays.

129 sera with known antibody titres against E. coli 026 and E. coli 055 strains were tested with the Abbot second generation anti-HTLV III recombinant screening assay. No difference in the O.D. values was found between sera with high, normal and low anti-E. coli titres. In addition, no false-positive reactions were observed with the anti-HIV negative sera containing E. coli antibodies in high titres in a Western blot assay in which recombinant env antigen was applied. These results suggest that E. coli assays in which E. coli-produced recombinant antigens are used.

Antibodies, Bacterial

Retroviral infections (HIV-1, HIV-2, and HTLV-I) in rural northwestern Tanzania. Clinical findings, epidemiology, and association with infections common in Africa.

During a three-week period in March/April 1987, the authors examined 253 consecutive patients referred to a rural hospital in northwestern Tanzania. Sera were tested for antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2), and human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I), as well as for various parasites, hepatitis B virus, and Treponema pallidum. Neopterin (urinary and serum) was chosen as the immunologic parameter. In eight of the 253 patients (3.2%), a clinical diagnosis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was established. Three of the AIDS patients had HIV-1 antibodies, two had HIV-1 antigen, one had both HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies, and in one patient, only HIV-2 antibodies were found. The total HIV-1 and HIV-2 seroprevalence (antibodies plus antigen) was 4.3%; HTLV-I seroprevalence was 9.9%. No correlation could be found between HIV (or HTLV-I) seropositivity and raised levels of antibody to the above pathogens. There was, however, a significantly positive correlation between HIV seropositivity and history of gonorrhea, whereas a history of operations, injections, vaccinations, blood transfusions, or scarification did not influence the level of HIV seropositivity. The most frequently noted epidemiologic association with HIV seropositivity was traveling to or coming from Uganda or Rwanda. Two thirds of the studied Tanzanians had elevated neopterin levels, and all seven HIV-seropositive patients with clinical signs of AIDS had extremely high serum and urinary neopterin levels compared with HIV-seropositive patients without signs of AIDS. Increased neopterin levels reflect a stimulation of the T-cell/macrophage system.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Effect of D-penicillamine on the expression and propagation of the human immunodeficiency virus by H9 T-lymphoblastoid cells.

The effect of D-penicillamine on the replication of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in H9 T-lymphoblastoid cells was evaluated. HIV-infected and uninfected H9 cells were incubated for a period of 6 weeks with various concentrations of D-penicillamine. During the first 8 days, D-penicillamine (at concentrations of 0-150 micrograms/ml) did not influence growth and viability of H9/H9-IIIB cells. However, long term cultures and higher doses of the drug caused a decay in cell number and viability of the cultured cells. Up to the 8th day of culture, D-penicillamine did not exert an inhibiting effect on the number of HIV-infected cells but did suppress HIV-antigen production by up to 29%. After 6 weeks, in addition to a decrease of the relative viral antigen concentration from 390-500 ng/ml in the medium control to 210-320 ng/ml in cultures containing 150 micrograms D-penicillamine/ml, D-penicillamine also reduced the percentage of HIV-positive cells. Thus our results demonstrate an antiviral effect of D-penicillamine in H9 cultures.

Cells, Cultured

Impact of allopurinol treatment on the prevention of hyperuricosuric calcium oxalate lithiasis.

The beneficial effect of allopurinol treatment in metaphylaxis of hyperuricosuric calcium oxalate lithiasis has been analyzed in a retrospective study covering 10 years. 83 patients with hyperuricosuric calcium oxalate lithiasis (48 recurrent stone formers, 35 patients with a single stone episode) were treated with 300 mg allopurinol for 33.1 +/- 11.5 months. Subsequently, each patient was controlled for 43.9 +/- 27 months without therapy. The overall relapse rate was 28.9% but there is no statistically significant difference between treatment with and without allopurinol (Mann-Whitney: p = 0.16). The only striking difference was the fact that, with one exception, stone relapses occurred only in the group of recurrent stone formers, whereas the group with single stone formation seemed to be at a clearly decreased risk for stone recurrence during follow-up. This would suggest that factors other than those investigated in this study are responsible for the phenomenon of recurrent stone formation.

Allopurinol

Coexistence for systems governed by difference equations of Lotka-Volterra type.

The question of the long term survival of species in models governed by Lotka-Volterra difference equations is considered. The criterion used is the biologically realistic one of permanence, that is populations with all initial values positive must eventually all become greater than some fixed positive number. We show that in spite of the complex dynamics associated even with the simplest of such systems, it is possible to obtain readily applicable criteria for permanence in a wide range of cases.

Animals

The "battle of the sexes": a genetic model with limit cycle behavior.

A two-locus genetic model, based on Dawkins "sex war" game, with the fitness of the genotypes at each locus depending on the gene frequencies at the other, is shown to give rise to a stable limit cycle. The mathematical analysis involves averaging techniques and elliptic integrals.

Animals

Neopterin as tumour marker serum and urinary neopterin concentrations in malignant diseases.

Serum and urinary neopterin concentrations were measured in 142 patients suffering from various malignant diseases. Increased serum and urinary neopterin levels were found in 48% and 55% of patients respectively. Neopterin showed sufficient sensitivity in the detection of haematological disorders and hypernephroma, whereas the sensitivity of neopterin was rather poor in patients with other solid tumours. Comparison of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) concentrations and serum or urinary neopterin levels in testicular cancer patients showed that determination of neopterin provides no further information in the management of these patients. In testicular cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, a significant increase in serum (p less than 0.005) and urinary (p less than 0.0005) neopterin concentrations was measured after chemotherapy, reflecting the release of neopterin from macrophages during the damage by cytotoxic drugs. In the adjuvant testicular tumour patients, known to be tumour free, 1 out of 16 patients showed elevated serum and 3 out of 15 patients showed false positive urinary neopterin levels. False positive serum (24%) and urinary (37%) neopterin values were also obtained in 28 patients with various nonmalignant diseases, but no evidence for an inflammatory process. In 23 patients with inflammatory diseases pathological serum and urinary neopterin levels were measured in 55% and 59% respectively. When a RIA was compared with a HPLC method, higher urinary neopterin values were obtained with the RIA, indicating that non-oxidized pterines are also determined by the RIA method. In conclusion, neopterin might be a helpful biological marker in monitoring patients with malignant haematological disorders and renal cell carcinoma, but provides no additional information in other solid tumours studied.

Adolescent