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Biomedical subjects

L Bakos

Publications and source records attributed to L Bakos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Systemic lupus erythematosus and pregnancy (effect of pre-conception hematologic disorders on fetal outcome)].

The aim of the study was to determine the fetal and neonatal outcomes of pregnancies conceived during the inactive phase of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Fetal and neonatal outcomes in 75 pregnancies of 33 patients with SLE were analyzed. In 19 patients (57.6%) the SLE also had hematological autoimmune presentations prior to gestation, such as anemia, thrombopenia, garnulocytopenia, and antiphospholipid antibody and/or lupus anticoagulant (APA). Out of 75 pregnancies, 19 elective terminations were carried out because the disease was active or for non-medical reasons. The adverse fetal outcomes of those 56 pregnancies which occurred during the inactive phase were compared with those of the control patients. In SLE, the rates of spontaneous abortions (46.4%) and newborns with low (< 2500 gr) birthweight (36.7%) were found to increase roughly three times that of the controls and the perinatal fetal loss (16.7%) also increased significantly as compared with the control group (28.5 per thousand). APA noted at any time before pregnancy increased the low birthweight rate (75%) six fold and the perinatal loss (33.3%) more than ten fold but did not affect the rate of spontaneous abortions. Any kind of hemocytopenias without APA, noted before pregnancy did not worsen the fetal outcome in SLE. Neonatal lupus was diagnosed in 2 out of the 30 newborns. Our results suggest that among the hematologic manifestations of SLE presenting before pregnancy, APA can predict the high risks of low birthweight and perinatal fetal loss as opposed to hemocytopenias.

Abortion, Induced

Tramadol hydrochloride: analgesic efficacy compared with codeine, aspirin with codeine, and placebo after dental extraction.

Tramadol hydrochloride is a novel, centrally acting analgesic with two complementary mechanisms of action: opioid and aminergic. Relative to codeine, tramadol has similar analgesic properties but may have fewer constipating, euphoric, and respiratory depressant effects. A two-center randomized double-blind controlled clinical trial was performed to assess the analgesic efficacy and reported side effects of tramadol 100 mg, tramadol 50 mg, codeine 60 mg, aspirin (ASA) 650 mg with codeine 60 mg, and placebo. Using a third molar extraction pain model, 200 healthy subjects were enrolled in a 6-hour evaluation after a single dose of drug. Of the 200 patients enrolled, seven provided incomplete efficacy data or discontinued prematurely and one was lost to follow-up. Using standard measures of analgesia, including total pain relief score (TOTPAR), maximum pain relief score (MaxPAR), sum of pain intensity difference scores (SPID), peak pain intensity difference (Peak PID), remedication, and global evaluations, all active treatments were found to be numerically superior to placebo. ASA/codeine was found to be statistically superior to placebo for all measures of efficacy. Tramadol 100 mg was statistically superior to placebo for TOTPAR, SPID, and time of remedication, whereas tramadol 50 mg was statistically superior to placebo onlyfor remedication time. Codeine was not found to be statistically superior to placebo for any efficacy measure. A greater TOTPAR response compared with all other active measures was seen for ASA/codeine during the first 3 hours of study. The 6-hour TOTPAR scores for the tramadol groups and ASA/ codeine group were not significantly different. Gastrointestinal side effects (nausea, dysphagia, vomiting) were reported more frequently with tramadol 100 mg, ASA/ codeine, and codeine 60 mg than with placebo.

Adolescent

Open clinical study of the efficacy and safety of terbinafine cream 1% in children with tinea corporis and tinea cruris.

BACKGROUND: Topical application of antifungal agents is considered the treatment of choice for dermatomycoses. Most of the available drugs are fungistatic, requiring long term treatment to prevent relapses. Terbinafine is a synthetic antifungal agent that, because of its fungicidal action, provides high cure rates and low relapse rates after short periods of treatment. METHODS: Ninety-seven children ages 2 to 15 years with a suspected diagnosis of tinea corporis and/or tinea cruris were enrolled in this open trial. After mycologic assessment to confirm diagnosis (culture and direct microscopy) terbinafine 1% cream was applied once daily during 1 week. Clinical and mycologic assessments were made at the baseline visit and on Days 7, 14 and 21. Efficacy assessment was based on 88 children (9 patients excluded by protocol violation). RESULTS: Therapy was considered effective in 92.0% (81 of 88) of patients (complete clinical and mycologic cure or mycologic cure with minimum signs and symptoms or clinical improvement, > or = 50%). Tolerability was assessed in 97 patients on an intention-to-treat basis. Adverse reactions were itching 3% (3 of 97), itching associated with erythema exacerbation 1% (1 of 97) and contact dermatitis 1% (1 of 97). CONCLUSION: Terbinafine 1% cream appears to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment for tinea corporis and tinea cruris in children.

Administration, Topical

Ultraviolet radiation decreases the granulomatous response to lepromin in humans.

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) modulates cellular immunity in humans and experimental animals and can interfere with immune responses against infectious agents in animal models. We used the lepromin reaction, a cell-mediated immune response to antigens of Mycobacterium leprae, to determine whether UVR affects the cellular immune response to an infectious agent in humans. We selected 29 healthy, lepromin-positive contacts of leprosy patients and determined their minimal erythema dose (MED) of UVR. Immediately afterward, each subject was injected with 0.1 ml of lepromin in two areas of the buttocks: one at the site that had received twice the MED of UVR and the other on the contralateral, unirradiated site. The irradiated site was given twice the MED every 4 d for a total of five treatments. One week after the last irradiation, both lepromin reactions were measured and biopsied. The size of the lepromin-induced granulomas was significantly reduced in the irradiated site, as was the number of lymphocytes. Immunohistochemical analysis showed a depletion in the number of infiltrating cells and a lower percentage of T cells, particularly the CD4+ subpopulation, in granulomas formed in UV-irradiated skin. This study demonstrates that local UV irradiation reduces the granulomatous reaction to lepromin in sensitized individuals. These findings are of clinical relevance because of the fundamental role played by the delayed-type hypersensitivity response in defense against intracellular pathogens and because of potential increases in the amount of UVR in sunlight reaching the earth's surface.

Adolescent

Immunohistochemical study of cutaneous neuritis in positive lepromin reactions.

Sixty skin biopsies taken from positive tuberculoid and borderline-tuberculoid late lepromin reaction were studied using histological techniques. The distribution of mycobacterial antigen and nerves was demonstrated using immunochemical methods. A total of 557 nerve bundles was observed in 51 biopsies; 9 were devoid of nerves in the sections examined; 475 nerve bundles showed some relationship to the inflammatory infiltrate (85%); perineuritis being seen in 144 (30%) and endoneuritis in 5 (0.9%). Mycobacterial antigens inside the granuloma were detected in 59 of the 60 biopsies (98%). Only one specimen, showing a strong tuberculoid reaction, failed to show these antigens. On the contrary, mycobacterial antigen was absent in almost all nerves. Small deposits were detected in the perineurium of one nerve with perineuritis, and inside a Schwann cell of another, the latter belonging to a previously multibacillary patient. The neurotropic tendency of the granuloma does not seem to be stimulated by the presence of mycobacterial antigens inside the nerves, as normally these antigens do not penetrate them. The hypothesis of some antigenic fraction of the neural tissue which cross-reacts with Mycobacterium leprae antigens, thus eliciting a perineural or near-perineural inflammatory reaction is put forward, but needs further investigation.

Antigens, Bacterial

Postpartum hemolytic uremic syndrome following placental abruption.

Hemolytic uremic syndrome associated with pregnancy is a rare condition. Authors report a patient treated with corticosteroids for bronchial asthma who was afflicted by placental abruption at 24 weeks' gestation. The abruption was preceded by developing herpes zoster and by deteriorating respiratory symptoms. The induced labor was followed by anuria, acute renal failure, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia then fever and hypertension. The patient was treated early with plasma infusion, transfusion and hemodialysis. She recovered completely after 7 weeks. This case seems to be unique inasmuch as the hemolytic uremic syndrome was preceded by prodromal illness during pregnancy and was associated with placental abruption.

Abruptio Placentae

Multiple cutaneous granular cell tumors with systemic defects: a distinct entity?

BACKGROUND: The association between cutaneous granular cell tumors and systemic defects is extremely rare, this being the tenth case reported in the literature. The reported defects in the literature include lentiginosis, face and skull alterations, heart defects, muscular and neural pathologies, among other sporadic defects in other organs. The patients do not present visceral granular cell tumors. CASE REPORT: An 11-year-old girl had 124 skin granular cell tumors associated with face and skull defects, pulmonary stenosis, EEG and other neurologic alterations, diffuse muscle hypotonia, and an excess of finger joint mobility. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of multiple cutaneous granular cell tumors with repeated alterations in other organs seems to be more than simply coincidental, thus suggesting a syndromic separate entity.

Cell Nucleus

Cocaine use and withdrawal: the effect on sleep and mood.

Three recreational cocaine users (age, 26.7 years), after one adaptation night, spent 5 days and nights in the laboratory where their EEG, EOG, and submental EMG were recorded during all of their sleep. On the second afternoon and evening of the study, subjects used an estimated 1 to 2 g cocaine intranasally. They all slept between 2:00 A.M. and 9:00 A.M. that night. Blood samples were drawn each evening and morning. Absolute plasma cocaine levels and patterns of elimination were consistent with subjects report of dose and time of administration. Mood ratings were made repeatedly throughout the study. There was suppression of REM sleep during the use of cocaine followed by a rebound which is specific to REM sleep and is not seen in other stages of sleep. REM variables subsided to normal levels on the third recovery night following cocaine use.

Adult

Sleep and apnea in the elderly: reliability and validity of 24-hour recordings in the home.

Two studies investigated the reliability and validity of measures of sleep and apnea using the home sleep monitoring system (HMS), which requires no instrumentation of the subject. From a pressure-sensitive pad on the subject's bed, signals from respiration and motility are recorded. These are scored for sleep and the occurrence of apneas, and the following measures are obtained: time in bed, total sleep time, number of awakenings from sleep, waking after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, and number of apneas. Overnight recordings of 14 adults were made concurrently with polysomnographic recordings in the New Haven Sleep Disorders Center. Significant agreement was found for each sleep measure and the apnea index. Four weekly 24-h recordings were made of eight elderly women, aged 62 to 90, in the home. There were significant individual differences and measurement reliability for each sleep measure and number of apneas. Some of the elderly showed highly episodic sleep patterns; and three of them showed high and variable apneas over the four weeks. These studies indicate the potential of the HMS for characterizing sleep in the elderly from nonintrusive, naturalistic observations in the home.

Adult

Pregnancy in women with chronic renal disease: a 14-year study.

Between 1975 and 1988 authors encountered 44 pregnancies in 26 women who had had chronic renal disease and unimpaired renal function before the conception. Complications during pregnancy and the outcome of pregnancy were studied. There were 5 spontaneous abortions between the 11th and 20th weeks of gestation, 1 therapeutic abortion, 3 still births at weeks 28, 32 and 33, 6 neonatal deaths at age of 26 to 35 weeks, 11 preterm newborns, 35 live births, 9 infants with intrauterine growth retardation including 4 preterm newborns and 1 fetal malformation and 2 cases with premature rupture of the fetal membranes. The pregnancies were complicated with anaemia in 23 cases, with urinary tract infection in 19, with hypertension in 16, with proteinuria in 12 and with edema in 11 cases. Increase in the serum creatinine value during pregnancy was found in 6 cases. These data indicate that the pregnancy in patients with chronic renal disease who had normal renal function before the planned conception, is accompanied with increased risk for both the mother and child.

Adult

[Cutaneous Crohn disease].

The term "metastatic" Crohn's disease is used to define the cutaneous lesions, distant from the gastrointestinal tract and separated from other ulcerations by normal skin, showing granulomatous histology. A case of Crohn's disease with metastatic ulcerations of the vulva, perineum, submammary folds, groins and abdominal fold is presented. In the literature only 26 similar cases were found. Cutaneous manifestations associated to Crohn's disease, its classification and treatment are commented. The excellent response of our case to metronidazole is stressed.

Aged

Episodic secretion of hormones and the diagnostic value of single blood estimates. III. Testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, cortisol.

The episodic fluctuation of serum testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHA), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHAS) and cortisol levels was analysed to determine the reliability of a single blood estimate in characterizing the mean value of a 4 h period. Radioimmunoassay of the steroids was performed in sera of 8 apparently healthy women in various phases of the menstrual cycle in 10 min intervals between 08 and 12 h a.m. Reliability criteria of the methods used were comparable to those in common use. The within-person fluctuation of individual values was determined by the coefficient of variation of single estimates, and the methodological error of the single estimates was characterized with the maximum increment from the mean at 95% confidential limits. A maximum deviation of 30.8, 28.6, 37.0, 25.0 and 61.2%, respectively, found in the above order of steroids, suggests several hormone estimations to be necessary for judging hormone availability in a subject.

Adult