Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J L Alonso.
A most unusual case of fatal acute hepatic failure as clinical presentation of liver metastases from breast cancer is described. The patient had a four-year history of indolent breast neoplasm and no previously known liver disease.
To assess the radiological features of hereditary articular chondrocalcinosis, we performed a blind comparative study between 21 randomly selected patients with hereditary disease and 21 cases of sporadic pseudogout matched for age and sex. Each individual had AP projections of the hands, pelvis and knees. The films were evaluated for the presence of articular chondrocalcinosis and for the severity of the associated degenerative arthropathy. A grade of 0 to 3+ was assigned to each of the 4 variables of osteoarthritis: joint space narrowing, sclerosis, osteophytosis and subchondral cysts. The mean number of joints with chondrocalcinosis and its distribution was similar in both groups. In addition, no differences were found in the overall severity of the associated degenerative arthropathy. In both groups the disease was characterized by oligoarticular calcification and a mild degenerative arthropathy. These data along with data from other reported pedigrees, show that the radiological appearance in the hereditary type is frequently indistinguishable from that commonly observed in sporadic articular chondrocalcinosis.
Neoplastic patients receiving intensive chemotherapy often need total parenteral nutrition (TPN), with lipid emulsions based on long-chain triglycerides (LCT) or medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). Potential benefits of MCT include easier metabolism and limited storage. Our present investigation was performed to define if there is any real clinical advantage of any of these lipid emulsions in this group of patients. Fifty-one patients receiving the LCT emulsion and sixty of them receiving the MCT-LCT one were evaluated retrospectively. TPN with 40% of non-protein kilocalories as fat was administered during a mean time of 11.5 days. No differences in total cholesterol, albumin, prealbumin, transferrin, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and transaminases were found between both groups, neither in nitrogen balances. In conclusion, in a group of neoplastic patients receiving intensive chemotherapy, we did not found any advantage of TPN with LCT or MCT-LCT either in nutritional laboratory parameters or in liver function.