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Biomedical subjects

L Gürtler

Publications and source records attributed to L Gürtler.

153 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
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Epidemiology of HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) in selected African and Asian populations.

401 sera from patients of a rural hospital in Zimbabwe (1987), 211 South African sera (1982/83), as well as 460 sera from four Katmandu hospitals (1985) were tested for HIV-1 antibodies. The sera from Zimbabwe and Nepal were additionally tested for anti-HIV-2 using a panel of different tests, for hepatitis B markers, and partially for antibodies against other viral, bacterial, and protozoal antigens. Detailed clinical and sociodemographic data were taken from the Zimbabwe and Katmandu patients. The prevalence of HIV-1 antibodies in the Zimbabwe study population was 3.2%. All infections were found in the age group 17 to 30 years (n = 254). The epidemiological situation was entirely different from that of HBV (hepatitis B virus). No serum could be confirmed to be anti-HIV-2-positive, but a definite diagnosis is still difficult to establish. Regular town contacts may be considered a possible risk factor. Antibodies against HIV-1 could not be detected in the South African and Asian sera. The seropositivity for anti-HBc in Katmandu (14%) and the prevalence of HBsAg (1.1%) was much lower than reported from other Asian countries.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Infrequent detection of HIV-1 components in tears compared to blood of HIV-1-infected persons.

Beside the risk of infection via HIV-1-contaminated blood, ophthalmologists are especially interested in the possibility of HIV-1 infection via tears. Therefore we tried to isolate HIV-1 from tears of 50 HIV-1-infected persons in different stages of disease by reverse transcriptase (RT) and by p24-antigen (p24-AG) in the cultures. Simultaneously we tried to isolate HIV-1 in the supernatant from peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), which was successful in 32 of the 50 examined specimens. HIV-1 could not be isolated from the tears of these persons. In addition, polymerasechain-reaction (PCR) was performed to detect proviral sequences (gag, pol, env) of HIV-1 in tears and blood of ten HIV-1-infected patients. While in all the examined patients gag, pol and env could be detected in the blood samples, only one tear sample was found positive for gag and pol DNA fragments. These results indicate that tears of HIV-1-positive contain extremely low quantities of tissue culture infectious doses (TCID) of HIV-1 in contrast to PBL. HIV-1 infection via tears therefore appears to be unlikely.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chlamydophila pneumoniae respiratory tract infection aggravates therapy refractory bronchitis or pneumonia in childhood.

BACKGROUND: Chlamydophila pneumoniae was frequently found in bronchial secretions of children with therapy-refractory bronchitis or pneumonia. It was studied, how the agent modifies the course of disease and what findings are associated with the infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Bronchial secretions obtained at bronchoscopy of 428 children were studied for C. pneumoniae infection using polymerase chain reaction with enzyme immunoassay detection. Children tested negative and positive were compared for their clinical findings. RESULTS: C. pneumoniae was found in 143 children (33 %). A C. pneumoniae infection has been found to be associated with a purulent bronchial inflammation (90/143 vs. 144/285, p = 0.02), a Streptococcus pneumoniae co-infection (13/143 vs. 6/285, p = 0.002) and a restrictive disturbance (11/51 vs. 8/93, p = 0.04). Purulent inflammation (Odds ratio 7.9; 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.6-39.3), 2 co-infections (Odds ratio 14.3; 95 % CI 1.4-144.4) and co-infection with M. pneumoniae (4/4 versus 9/26, p = 0.03; Mantel Haentzel 3.0; 95 % CI 1.1-8.0) were identified as factors more often associated with a restrictive disturbance in children with bronchial C. pneumoniae infection. An adequate antibiotic therapy improved pulmonary function. No association was found for wheezing, eosinophil inflammation of the nasal mucosa, alpha-1 antitrypsin or immunoglobulin deficiency in serum, level of secretory IgA in bronchial mucus, pathological lung scintigram, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, sweat test and other co-infections. CONCLUSIONS: In children with therapy-refractory bronchitis or pneumonia bronchial C. pneumoniae infection was associated with a more severe disease in case of several, mostly bacterial co-infections. Adequate antibiotic therapy for C. pneumoniae infection has been demonstrated to improve pulmonary function.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Human immunodeficiency virus cannot productively infect freshly cultured human cartilage cells.

The use of cartilage allografts is being discussed because of the possible transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To further delineate the possibility for an HIV infection of cartilage cells the susceptibility and permissivity of normal human chondrocytes to HIV-1 was assessed in culture. Isolated cartilage cells were incubated during 30 days with the HIV, testing the production of viral p24 antigens and the formation of particle-bound reverse transcriptase (RT) in the supernatant. The H9 cell line was used as positive control. The production of p24 antigen did not occur on chondrocytes during the whole culture time. Furthermore, no RT activity was detected throughout the entire experimental period. Our results indicate clearly that HIV was not able to infect cartilage cells under these in vitro conditions, and, conclusively, HIV infection of cartilage in vivo is improbable.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Analysis of the possibility of transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus when using cartilage grafts].

Allogenic cartilage represents an important source of tissue for reconstructive surgery in the head and neck. The use of allografts is now being discussed because of the possible transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The purpose of this study was to investigate the susceptibility and permissivity of cartilage tissue to HIV-1, in order to analyze the possibility of a HIV-transmission through cartilage allografting.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗