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Biomedical subjects

J Puig

Publications and source records attributed to J Puig.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

[Basic concepts on the assessment of arterial baroreceptor sensitivity with non invasive methods. Estimate of the spontaneous gain of the arterial baroreceptor].

Arterial baroreceptors are sensitive to variation in both blood and pulse pressure. When there is an increase in those pressures, the baroreceptors increase the rhythm in which electric impulses are discharged. The impulses are transmitted by the receptors to the nervous centres of the brainstem. Once processed, these signals turn into sympathetic and vagal impulses. The vagal efferents control heart rate and the sympathetic efferents control heart rate, myocardial contractility and peripheral resistance. If there is an increase in blood pressure, then there will be a reflex decrease in the sympathetic activity and an increase in the parasympathetic one. The cardiac cronotropic response to blood pressure variation is very fast-with a delay of one or two beats. The amplitude of the response is a sigmoidal function. The greatest inclination of the response curve, that is to say, the area of greatest variation of the RR interval per unit of pressure, characterises the gain of the baroreceptors. The traditional method for obtaining the gain of the baroreceptor is a pharmacological one. Generally, the patient is given phenilephrine intravenously, in bolus and then the correlation between heart rate and the increase in intra-arterial blood pressure (reflex bradycardia) is calculated. Lately, it has been used the calculation of the spontaneous gain of the baroreceptor starting from a study carried out on the normal fluctuations in blood pressure and in the pulse interval both in time and frequency domain. The first case deals with the calculation of the gain of the function of transfer between the variations both in blood pressure and the RR intervals in the LF and the HF bands. The second case deals with the analysis of the occurrence of sequences of three beats with successive increases or decreases in blood pressure and in the RR interval. The gain is obtained from the linear regression of all the sequences. The application of these techniques to the recordings of blood pressure obtained by non-invasive methods (Finapress) makes possible that this procedure be followed under real conditions since it requires no previous stimulation of the cardiovascular system, which would probably interfere with the mechanisms to be evaluated, and requires no equipment in the condition which is normally required by experimental methodology.

Blood Pressure↗
PubMed1996

[Isolated right ventricular myxoma: report of a clinical case].

A clinical case of a 14 years old white female with asthenia and easy fatigue of two months duration is presented. The two-dimensional echocardiography study has identified a tumorous and homogeneous mass filling completely the right ventricle. During the cardiac surgery and with the help of extemporaneous biopsy the real nature of the tumor was confirmed-cardiac myxoma. In this report the authors discuss the incidence of cardiac tumors and particularly cardiac myxomas and point out the rarity of isolated myxomas in the right ventricle.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Synthetic phosphopeptide from rhodopsin sequence induces retinal arrestin binding to photoactivated unphosphorylated rhodopsin.

A synthetic heptaphosphopeptide comprising the fully phosphorylated carboxyl terminal phosphorylation region of bovine rhodopsin, residues 330-348, was found to induce a conformational change in bovine arrestin. This caused an alteration of the pattern of limited proteolysis of arrestin similar to that induced by binding phosphorylated rhodopsin or heparin. Unlike heparin, the phosphopeptide also induced light-activated binding of arrestin to both unphosphorylated rhodopsin in disk membranes as well as to endoproteinase Asp-N-treated rhodopsin (des 330-348). These findings suggest that one function of phosphorylation of rhodopsin is to activate arrestin which can then bind to other regions of the surface of the photoactivated rhodopsin.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1995

Acute intrinsic renal failure and blood coagulation disorders after a snakebite in a dog.

Acute intrinsic renal failure was diagnosed in a two-year-old, male, German shepherd dog following a Vipera aspis bite. Clinical signs included depression, hypersalivation, vomiting, tachypnoea, abdominal pain, splenomegaly, oliguria with haematuria and haemolysed serum. Leucocytosis with a shift to the left, thrombocytopenia, prolonged coagulation times (activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time and thrombin time), hypofibrinogenaemia, azotaemia and hyposthenuria were the most prominent laboratory abnormalities. Histopathological evaluation of the kidneys showed a discrete glomerular hypercellularity, mesangial lysis and renal tubules filled with many hyaline casts and some necrotic cells.

Acute Kidney Injury↗
PubMed1995

Protection by almagate of ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damage in rats.

The study was designed to analyse the protective effects of almagate on a model of gastric injury, ethanol-induced mucosal damage, in which acid plays little, if any, role. Pretreatment with almagate dose-dependently reduced the level of gastric damage induced by oral administration of 1 mL 100% ethanol. Administration of 12 mumol kg-1 alamagate 30 min before ethanol significantly reduced the area of mucosal damage by 65 +/- 10%, and the maximum level of inhibition (74 +/- 11%) was obtained with 150 mumol kg-1 almagate. Administration of higher doses of almagate (200-250 mumol kg-1) did not result in any further increase in the level of protection against ethanol-induced gastric damage. Administration of 1 mL 100% ethanol induces substantial damage to the gastric mucosa, with nearly 40% of the length of the section evaluated exhibiting deep necrotic and haemorrhagic damage. Pretreatment with almagate caused a significant diminution in all parameters of histological damage, whereas damage to the epithelial cell layer was only significantly reduced by pretreatment with the highest doses evaluated (25, 50 and 150 mumol kg-1). Administration of aluminium hydroxide did not modify ethanol-induced mucosal damage, even at doses containing concentrations of aluminium higher than those present in gastroprotective doses of almagate. Pretreatment with sucralfate, another aluminium containing compound, at doses of 250 mumol kg-1 protected the mucosa, although lower doses did not. The present study has shown that almagate prevents ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damage.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1995

Fatty metamorphosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: detection with chemical shift gradient-echo MR imaging.

PURPOSE: To assess the value of chemical shift gradient-echo (GRE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with the fast low-angle shot (FLASH) technique to detect fatty metamorphosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-three cirrhotic patients with 69 HCCs underwent MR imaging at 1.0 T with chemical shift GRE technique. Both opposed-phase and in-phase FLASH imaging with breath holding was performed, and the percentage variation in signal intensity of the nodules between the two images was calculated. RESULTS: Chemical shift GRE imaging depicted fat in 10 HCCs (14%). In these cases, the percentage variation in signal intensity increased notably and was 88.6%-369.3% (mean, 174.7%), which indicated fatty content (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 100% when compared with fine-needle aspiration cytology). In the remaining 59 nodules, the percentage of signal intensity variation ranged from 12.7% to -19.1% (mean, -4.0%). CONCLUSION: Chemical shift GRE MR imaging can be used to detect fatty metamorphosis in HCC.

Biopsy, Needle↗
PubMed1995

[The spectral analysis of heart rate variability. A comparative study between nonparametric and parametric spectral analysis in short series].

OBJECTIVE: to compare parametric (AR) and non parametric (FFT) spectral analysis results obtained in 512 beats series. INTERVENTIONS: 104 healthy subjects with normal physical examination and electrocardiogram were studied. The Ecg was recorded at rest, with controlled breathing at 15 cycles/min., and sampled at 300 Hz. The spectral VLF, LF and HF were calculated with FFT algorithm. For the same series, an auto-regressive analysis (AR) with optimized choice of the order of the model (AIC criterion) have been computed, VLF, LF and HF components were identified by AR spectral decomposition. RESULTS: In both groups, athletes and sedentary, there were no statistically differences between VLF, LF, HF and LF/HF spectral indices computed by the two methods. CONCLUSION: the results suggest that with controlled breathing it does not seems to exist any advantage in the use of AR spectral analysis to compute spectral components of heart rate variability, which is much more laborious that fixed bands non parametric FFT analysis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Phonomechanocardiographic parameters in patients with atrial septal defect.

The purpose of the present study was to noninvasively evaluate left (LV) systolic and diastolic function in patients with atrial septal defect (ASD) using the phonomechanocardiogram. We studied 40 patients with atrial septal defect, 16 males and 24 females, ages ranging from 6 to 56 years (mean 21.1 years), consecutively observed before surgery in our institution, during a four year period. We measured the systolic time intervals (Q-A2c, Q-S1, ICT, PEP, LVETc, PEP/LVET), the Apex Cardiographic (ACG) diastolic parameters A2-Oc and A/H and the hemodynamic variables Qp/Qs, Pulmonary Vascular Resistance (PVR) and Left Ventricular End Diastolic Pressure (LVEDP). We compared the data with 74 normal individuals using the Student t-test and linear regression analysis. We found significant Q-S1 lengthening (81.2 +/- 16.4 ms, p < 0.001); PEP, ICT and A2-Oc were significantly reduced (101.2 +/- 21.7 ms, p < 0.001, 20.0 +/- 5.3 ms, p < 0.05 and 117.1 +/- 26.3 ms, p < 0.001, respectively) and A/H was significantly increased (17.4 +/- 12.1%, p < 0.005). Except for the case of Q-S1, where there was a weak positive linear correlation with Qp/Qs (r = 0.37), we found no correlation between the other parameters and Qp/Qs or PVR. Sixty-seven percent of the patients had Q-S1 prolongation and a Q-S1 > 76.2 ms identified left-right shunts > 2 with a positive predictive value of 82%; 62% of the patients had a reduced A2-Oc and a A2-Oc < 110 ms identified shunts > 2 with a positive predictive value of 90%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Alcohol-induced bone disease in the absence of severe chronic liver damage.

To define and identify metabolic bone disease and mineral alterations induced by chronic heavy alcoholism in patients without severe liver damage, we studied a prospective series of unselected patients admitted to a 300-bed general hospital in Barcelona (Spain). A total of 26 chronic heavy drinkers of more than 150 g/day for at least 3 years were included. A general analytic and hormonal study, including liver biopsy in cases with any abnormality in liver function tests, and plasma and urine biochemistry with calcium regulating hormones and osteocalcin levels were determined. A transiliac bone biopsy after double-tetracycline labeling, with histomorphometric study of undecalcified bone, was performed. Statistical analysis was adjusted by age and sex by means of logistic regression. A total of 26 (20 men and 6 women) chronic alcohol abusers were studied. After adjustment for age and sex, alcoholic patients showed slight but significantly increased concentrations of plasma calcium (9.56 +/- 0.56; OR = 17.93; 95% CI 3.17-101.48) and decreased cPTH (0.36 +/- 0.11; OR = 0.097; 95% CI 0.018-0.528) compared with controls. Osteocalcin values were low (1.49 +/- 0.89, normal range 1.8-6.6). There was a significant decrease in bone volume, BV/TV (12.56 +/- 5.29; OR = 0.06; 95% CI 0.01-0.34), with increased resorption surfaces, ES/BS (4.28 +/- 2.43; OR = 9.86; 95% CI 2.16-45.07), and increased osteoclast number, N.Oc/TA (0.21 +/- 0.37; OR = 6.41; 95% CI 1.27-32.25).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Heart rate variability in 24-hour Holter recordings. Comparative study between short- and long-term time- and frequency-domain analyses.

Mean hourly parameters obtained from all beats (long series) were compared with those obtained from a sample of 512 beats extracted each hour (short series) in nine presumably normal subjects. For both the short and long series, the spectral components, very low frequency, (VLF), low frequency (LF), and high frequency (HF), and time-domain indices (such as the Ewing statistic [PNN50] and RR standard deviation [SD-RR]), have been estimated. The spectral components LF and HF, estimated from the short and long series, were not significantly different, whereas significant differences were found between VLF, SD--RR, and PNN50. In both the short and long series, a strong correlation was found between LF and SD-RR and between HF and PNN50. The results suggest that, over a period of 24 hours, hourly LF and HF spectral components can be obtained using a single series of 512 beats every hour, with a great advantage over the evaluation of the mean hourly parameters. This method would be particularly useful in the study of circadian heart rate spectral analysis in Holter recordings with multiple artifacts or ectopic beats, and in general, when analysis of the entire 24-hour series is not feasible.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[The ambulatory recording of the long-term electrocardiogram].

In the past 5 years, a new approach was developed to evaluate the patient with sporadic symptoms as is the patient with syncope--the long-term ambulatory loop electrocardiogram monitoring. This method allow to assure the heart rate and rhythm at the moment of the symptoms hardly to be able with the other diagnostic tools disposable. The long-term ambulatory loop electrocardiogram monitoring was not to replace the actual tools, but complement them. Newer devices are smaller and too light, and have the ability of registry some minutes before and after the symptom. In the near future, the devices will be able to detected and store arrhythmias and to possess an easy and accessible management. With continued and profitable work that has been done in this area, a large proportion of patients with the diagnosis of "syncope of unknown etiology" can have a diagnostic and specify therapeutic and we will be able to assert with more strictness if the symptoms related by the patient are or not of cardiovascular origin.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗
PubMed1994

Cardiac morbidity in the human immunodeficiency virus infection.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the cardiac involvement in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. DESIGN: Prospective and normal individuals group controlled study. SETTING: The departments of cardiology and infectious diseases of an university hospital. PATIENTS: 137 consecutive HIV infected patients at all stages of the infection and 40 normal noninfected controls. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Clinical and echocardiographic evaluation was performed. Cardiac symptoms were observed in 10 (7.3%) patients, manifested as congestive heart failure. The global HIV infected population had increased left ventricular (LV) dimensions and wall thickness and decreased LV fractional shortening and ejection fraction when compared with the control population. Seven (5.1%) patients had dilated cardiomyopathy, 9 (6.5%) had global LV hypokinesis with or without LV dilatation and 17 (12.4%) had segmental LV wall motion abnormalities. Right ventricular dilatation was present in 23 (16.8%). Mitral or tricuspid regurgitation of a moderate or severe degree was found in 3 (2.2%) patients. No valvular vegetations were found. Fifty nine (43.1%) patients presented a pericardial effusion. An echocardiogram with at least one abnormality was observed in 104 (75.9%) and a severely abnormal echocardiogram in 34 (24.8%). The presence of cardiac symptoms and of abnormal and severely abnormal echocardiograms was more frequent in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome than in asymptomatic HIV infected patients. When comparing HIV-1 with HIV-2 populations the first showed increased LV systolic and diastolic diameters and LV mass index. There was no statistically significant difference between all risk behavior groups regarding the frequency of cardiac symptoms or the echocardiographic abnormalities found. HIV infected patients with CD4+ lymphocytes counts < or = 100/mm3 had more frequent abnormal and severely abnormal echocardiograms than those with CD4+ lymphocytes counts > 100/mm3. CONCLUSIONS: Although cardiac symptoms were rare in our population, subclinical cardiac involvement detected by echocardiography was frequent and could involve any cardiac layer. It was not influenced by the patients' risk behavior. The left ventricular trophic response observed in HIV-2 infection seemed less intense than that in HIV-1 infection. Cardiac involvement was more frequent in the more advanced stages of the infection and in patients with lower CD4+ lymphocyte counts.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Sudden death in athletes].

Identifying all athletes at risk for exercise-related sudden death is difficult because systematic reliable screening is expensive. Nevertheless, if a perfect screening method existed, an appreciable number of athletes at increase risk for sudden death would not be identified. We think that a careful history designed to identify symptomatic athletes and a rigorous family history of congenital heart disease may be the most practical screening method.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

[Syncope: how to deal with it?].

Syncope is a frequent symptom, with an expensive protocol of difficult evaluation in face of its diverse causes. The authors describe the proper use of the tests available, particularly the tilt test, and conclude that nowadays only few syncopal episodes would remain unexplained.

Diagnosis, Differential↗