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Biomedical subjects

J P Harnisch

Publications and source records attributed to J P Harnisch.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

[Results of cyclo-cryocoagulation of the ciliary body with probe temperatures of -70 degrees C and -82 degrees C in glaucoma].

Cryocoagulation of the ciliary body has few applications. Cryotherapy in our study was standardized: 8 applications, 4 mm posterior to the limbus, 55 s, 2.5-mm-diameter cryoprobe. The aim of this research was to optimize the method by comparing the side effects of the treatment and the results of 128 operations as seen at follow-up examinations. When an applicator at -70 degrees C had been used, 54% of 52 eyes showed an IOP < 21 mmHg 12 months after operation. In all cases and adjuvant therapy was necessary. The IOP in 73% of these eyes rose to 30 mmHg for short periods. It was necessary to reoperate in 39% of the whole group. When a cryoprobe at -82 degrees C had been used IOP was found to have normalized in 89% of 76 eyes. In this group 34% of cases needed no other therapy. The IOP in the treated eyes showed peaks up to 30 mmHg in 34%. We performed revision operations in 7.9%. It was only possible to normalize the IOP of hemorrhagic glaucoma and glaucoma connected with PEX by using -82 degrees C applicator. Examinations over 30 months after treatment show nearly the same results. Side effects of cryocoagulation of ciliary body were observed. Postoperative IOP peaks exceeding 55 mmHg were recorded in 10% of cases. These can be avoided by osmotic therapy. The anterior chamber was inflamed with exudation of fibrin in about 4% of patients treated with a -70 degrees C probe and 16% treated with one at -82 degrees C.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Diphtheria among alcoholic urban adults. A decade of experience in Seattle.

Three outbreaks of Corynebacterium diphtheriae infection occurred in Seattle's Skid Road from 1972 through 1982. The first involved a single toxigenic, intermedius biotype clone, whereas the second and third outbreaks involved nontoxigenic mitis and gravis strains. Of 1100 total infections, 947 (86%) were cutaneous. The incidence was highest in winter and spring. In Skid Road, the estimated attack rate during 17 months in 1974 to 1975 was 5% for whites and 27% for native Americans. Streptococcus pyogenes was isolated from 73% of diphtheritic and 41% of nondiphtheritic skin lesions (P less than 0.001). Skin infection and environmental contamination by C. diphtheriae were correlated. Complications occurred in 21% of symptomatic nasopharyngeal and 3% of cutaneous toxigenic intermedius infections (P less than 0.001), and were significantly correlated with ages 60 years or more. Preferential use of erythromycin for diphtheria and pyodermas preceded plasmid-mediated resistance to erythromycin in C. diphtheriae. Diphtheria outbreaks in urban alcoholic persons are associated with poor hygiene, crowding, season, contaminated fomites, underlying skin disease, hyperendemic streptococcal pyoderma, and introduction of new strains from exogenous reservoirs.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

[PGE1 in senile macular degeneration. A pilot study].

To determine whether PGE1 can improve retinal function a pilot study was carried out with seven patients (five women and two men) aged between 70 and 76 years who were suffering from a dry senile macular degeneration. The intravenous infusions of two ampoules of Prostavasion (PGE1) were given twice a day (infusion time: 2 hours per infusion) over three to five weeks (average four weeks). Retinal function was determined before and after treatment and finally again three months later one the basis of five criteria (subjective visual capacity, visual acuity, foveal threshold, static perimetry). The study showed that the subjective visual capacity had increased in six of the seven patients, the sensitivity of the foveal threshold in five, the average retinal sensitivity in two, and the average macular sensitivity in one. These results show that PGE1 probably has a therapeutic effect in the treatment of dry macular degeneration and that controlled studies make sense.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

The molecular epidemiology of three biotypes of Corynebacterium diphtheriae in the Seattle outbreak, 1972-1982.

Between 1972 and 1982 Seattle experienced a diphtheria outbreak involving 1,100 cases, primarily adults with cutaneous lesions. Biotyping revealed three consecutive overlapping outbreaks including 433 toxinogenic intermedius cases. Isolates from each quarter year were examined for DNA restriction fragment patterns and hybridization patterns with three DNA probes. All intermedius outbreak isolates appeared identical in all analyses and most stock cultures had the outbreak DNA fragment pattern, but DNA probes detected six patterns within 11 intermedius stock cultures. The mitis outbreak was heterogeneous, involving at least five restriction fragment patterns. In contrast, DNA restriction fragment analyses indicated that 22 of 25 gravis outbreak isolates belonged to a single strain, whereas there were seven strains within eight gravis stock cultures. DNA probe analyses of gravis outbreak isolates detected seven different patterns, five involving copy numbers of the toxB fragment and attB sites that presumably reflected lysogenic events that occurred during the outbreak.

Bacterial Typing Techniques↗
PubMed1987

Treatment of chronic erythema nodosum leprosum with cyclosporine A produces clinical and immunohistologic remission.

We have treated three leprosy patients suffering from chronic, steroid-dependent erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) with cyclosporine A (CsA). Excellent results were obtained in two patients. Extra-cutaneous manifestations of the reactional state were completely suppressed, and the development of new skin lesions was sharply curtailed. Immunohistologic abnormalities characteristic of active ENL were corrected. Lymphocyte subpopulations and anti-mycobacterial antibody levels in peripheral blood were unaffected. The third patient showed only a partial response to CsA, but satisfactory blood levels were never obtained in this individual because of dose-related gastrointestinal toxicity. The effectiveness of CsA in the treatment of ENL is consistent with the hypothesis that aberrant activation of a subset of T-helper cells is involved in the pathogenesis of this reaction. CsA may have a role in the treatment of chronic ENL that has failed to respond to conventional therapeutic modalities.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Antibodies to phenolic glycolipid-I during long-term therapy: serial measurements in individual patients.

Levels of IgM antibody to phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) were measured in serum specimens collected over the initial 5 or more years of therapy from 11 leprosy patients. All three patients with paucibacillary disease had undetectable levels of antibody throughout their treatment. The eight patients with multibacillary disease had initially elevated levels which fell quite rapidly with treatment, reaching levels of 10% to 30% of their initial pre-treatment level after 5 years of therapy. The single patient with prolonged therapeutic noncompliance had an increase in antibody level, although clinical or bacteriologic relapse was not documented. These results in individual patients demonstrate that IgM antibody to PGL-I declines rapidly and consistently with treatment in multibacillary patients.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗
PubMed1987

The limited spectrum of antinuclear antibodies in leprosy.

Sera from 46 consecutive patients with leprosy were collected and tested against an extensive panel of defined nuclear antigens. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were present in 16% of patients, but the titer was uniformly low and there was no consistent fluorescence pattern. None of the ANA positive sera contained antibodies which reacted with native DNA, or which were directed against histones, centromeres, SSB, Sm, or ribonucleoprotein. These more specific autoantibody assays thus retained their clinical utility in the differential diagnosis of rheumatologic complaints in patients with leprosy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

[Fibronectins: a possible treatment of therapy-resistant corneal ulcers].

Fibronectin was isolated from a patient's plasma by affinity chromatography using gelatin-agarose. Biochemical and immunological tests proved the homogeneity of the fibronectin fraction. A therapy-resistant corneal ulcer following keratitis neuroparalytica was successfully treated with the isolated fibronectin. The ulcer healed within 26 days of fibronectin treatment (1 drop 6 X daily) and eight months have now passed without it recurring.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

[Atraumatic needles for cataract surgery].

The author reports on his experience with spatula needles and cutting needles with micropoint in cataract surgery. Configuration and edge treatment of the different needles were demonstrated by scanning electron microscope. The characteristics of the tested needles seem to depend mainly upon their profile. In cataract surgery the spatula needles proved to be superior to the needles with cutting micropoint due to their ski-shaped design.

Cataract Extraction↗
PubMed1984

Zoster in the elderly: clinical, immunologic and therapeutic considerations.

Herpes zoster is common in the elderly. Persons over the age of 50 years have an attack rate double that of patients less than 50 years old. In the very aged, this rate nearly doubles again. The loss of cell-mediated immunity for the VZ virus appears to be the primary factor in the disruption of the dynamic containment process responsible for VZ virus latency within the sensory ganglion. Humoral immunity may play a role in the maintenance of latency, but the degree is unproven, except in the case of dissemination where loss of detectable antibodies seems to correlate with extradermatomal dissemination. Severe forms of the disease and its complications, e.g., postherpetic neuralgia, are likely among the elderly. Direct immunofluorescent staining or cytologic examination is useful for early diagnosis, and serologic changes can document the confusing clinical entity of zoster sine herpete.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

Antibodies to mycobacterial arabinomannan in leprosy: correlation with reactional states and variation during treatment.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure antibody to mycobacterial arabinomannan in serial serum specimens obtained over the initial 12-31 months of therapy from nine patients with leprosy. The antibody level in pretreatment sera was directly proportional to the quantity of Mycobacterium leprae present in each patient as assessed by six-site scrapings (r = 0.75). The three patients with the lowest antibody levels (OD 0.1-0.3) had uncomplicated courses and their levels declined slowly with treatment. Three patients with intermediate antibody levels (OD 0.7-1.1) each experienced a reversal reaction during therapy; serial antibody titers in all three followed a triphasic pattern over the course of the reaction. The two patients who developed erythema nodosum leprosum during therapy had extremely high levels of antibody initially (OD greater than 1.5), which fell slowly with time and which were unaffected by the reactional state. The pretreatment antibody level to arabinomannan reflects the amount of M. leprae present and may have predictive value for the development of reactional states.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1981

Effects of freezing on the corneal stroma of the rabbit after keratophakia.

In three rabbits a keratophakia as described by Barraquer (1972) was performed on both eyes, in one rabbit it was performed on one eye. In the right eye no cryoprotective agent was used, in the left eye the cryoprotective agent KM 26 was applied. Twelve hours after the operation, the majority of keratocytes in the tissue lens were destroyed. The nuclear chromatin was clumped, the cell membrane was destroyed and cytoplasm showed vacuolar alteration; cell organelles were no longer recognizable. After 24 h hardly any keratocytes were found. All corneae operated on with and without a cryoprotective agent, showed the same morphology. The cell debris was removed by macrophages, which could be found earlier in corneae operated on without cryoprotection. Three weeks after keratophakia no increase in the number of the residual keratocytes had occurred.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Identification of a basement membrane proteoglycan in exfoliation material.

We have used the indirect immunperoxidase technique to examine the exfoliation syndrome and can demonstrate that the fibrils so typically found in this disease certainly contain basement membrane proteoglycans. This finding is interesting for two reasons: 1. For the first time, an electron-microscopical technique is described that is able to identify one protein component of the exfoliation material. 2. The fact that the basement membrane proteoglycans are present in the exfoliation material supports the hypothesis that this disease is caused by a disturbance in the biosynthesis of the basement membrane.

Antigen-Antibody Reactions↗
PubMed1981

[Chlamydial disease of the eye: a report on 27 cases. Clinical picture, differential diagnosis, treatment (author's transl)].

During the past five years a presumptive diagnosis of ocular chlamydial disease has been made in 90 patients consulting the outpatient department of Freiburg University Eye Clinic. The diagnosis was confirmed by different methods (giemsa stains, chlamydia cultures and serology, electron microscopy and histology) in 27 cases. The clinical spectrum included inclusion blennorrhea in newborns as well as inclusion conjunctivitis, TRIC keratoconjunctivitis and sporadic trachoma in adults. Presumably the incidence of the disease is much higher than indicated by our figures. We suspect a very high number of undiagnosed cases. These patients usually do not receive proper therapy (tetracyclin or erythromycin for at least three weeks) and their disease may run a protracted course with the risk of permanent eye damage.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Immunoelectronmicroscopical investigations on isolated collagen fibrils.

Isolated collagen fibrils treated with type-specific antibodies can be stained using a peroxidase-antibody complex. The staining pattern of the fibrils with this peroxidase-antibody complex is demonstrated and compared with the normal negative staining pattern of the fibrils. The possible binding sites of the anticollagen antibodies on the fibrils is also discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Etiology, manifestations and therapy of acute epididymitis: prospective study of 50 cases.

There were 50 patients with acute epididymitis who were evaluated prospectively by history, examination and microbiologic studies, including cultures for aerobes, anaerobes, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis and Ureaplasma urealyticum. Escherichia coli was the predominant pathogen isolated from the urine of men more than 35 years old, while Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae were the predominant pathogens isolated from the urethra of men less than 35 years old. The etiologic role of Escherichia coli and Chlamydia trachomatis was confirmed by isolation from epididymal aspirates from a high proportion of men with positive urine or urethral cultures for these agents. Chlamydia trachomatis epididymitis accounted for two-thirds of idiopathic epididymitis in young men and often was associated with oligospermia. Of 9 female sexual partners of men with Chlamydia trachomatis infection 6 had antibody to Chlamydia trachomatis, of whom 2 had positive cervical cultures for this organism and 2 others had non-gonococcal pelvic inflammatory disease. Antibiotic therapy with tetracycline was effective for the treatment of men with Chlamydia trachomatis epididymitis and should be offered to the female sex partners.

Adolescent↗