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Biomedical subjects

M Forsgren

Publications and source records attributed to M Forsgren.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Genital herpes simplex virus infection and incidence of neonatal disease in Sweden.

Herpes virus may cause serious infection in a neonate. Although antiviral therapy may improve the outcome, serious sequelae still occur in many survivors and prevention is a challenge. In the majority of cases the mother is the source of infection. Among 48 Swedish children with neonatal herpes 12 had type 1 and 35 type 2 infection. Maternal infection was symptomatic and recognized in 5/12 of the type 1 infections and only in 4/36 type 2 infections. In the Stockholm area genital herpes virus strains from pregnant women are predominantly type 2 (97% of 622 strains). The seroprevalence of herpes type 2 among pregnant women have been rising from 17.1% in 1969 to 31.8% in 1983. In the last ten years approximately 200,000 children have been borne. By extrapolation from the incidence data the number of mothers with overt or latent herpes type 2 infection is estimated to be in the range of 60,000. During this period ten children with neonatal herpes type 2 have been diagnosed: two infected from a mother with primary type 2 infection, in three cases the mother had previous type 1 infection and first time type 2 and in five cases the mother had secondary type 2 infection. In an ongoing sero-surveillance study in the Stockholm area of herpes type 2 antibody activity in mentally retarded children no additional cases of herpes type 2 have yet been identified. Thus the prospective risk of a woman with secondary type genital herpes virus infection to transmit the infection to her baby at the time of delivery is small. The silent nature of the majority of maternal infections makes prevention difficult.

Antibodies, Viral↗

Detection of cell-free human immunodeficiency virus in cerebrospinal fluid by using immune scanning electron microscopy.

The cerebrospinal fluid of 52 patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection was incubated with polystyrene microspheres coated with monoclonal antibodies specific for HIV-1 core or envelope antigens. The beads were then collected on a filter surface and inspected by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In 37 of 51 samples from subjects with chronic HIV-1 infection and from all three patients with primary HIV-1 infection, with or without neurologic symptoms, particles of 50-75 nm and 100-125 nm were visualized on beads coated with antibodies to HIV-1 core and envelope antigens, respectively. No such binding of particles was detected in the controls. Findings using immune SEM, which was found to be as sensitive as virus isolation, indicate that HIV-1 can replicate in the central nervous system (CNS) of patients with primary or chronic HIV-1 infection without causing neurologic symptoms. Production of cell-free virus seems to occur in the CNS of the majority of HIV-1-infected patients.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Association between intrathecal anti-HIV-1 immunoglobulin G synthesis and occurrence of HIV-1 in cerebrospinal fluid.

The levels of antibodies to HIV-1 and the occurrence of HIV-1 were determined in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the blood of 60 people in various stages of HIV-1 infection. Intrathecal synthesis of anti-HIV-1 immunoglobulin (Ig) G was detectable at a low frequency in individuals with normal immunological parameters, and in the majority of patients with various degrees of immunodeficiency. The intrathecal production of antibodies to HIV-1 was strongly associated with the recovery of the virus from CSF. A relationship between high anti-HIV-1 IgG levels and occurrence of HIV-1 was also found in blood. Patients without overt neurological symptoms exhibited intrathecal synthesis of anti-HIV-1 IgG as often as those with such symptoms. These findings suggest that intrathecal synthesis of antibodies to HIV-1 is related to a persistent HIV-1 antigenic stimulation in the central nervous system (CNS). HIV-1 often seems to elicit a humoral immune response in the CNS, without concomitant overt neurological symptoms.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Influenza B in transplant patients.

Six cases of influenza B occurred in transplanted patients in a period of 3 weeks. Three renal allograft recipients recovered within 5 days without antiviral therapy. Two allogeneic bone marrow recipients were treated with ribavirin inhalations during the leukopenic phase. Treatment was given until influenza B was no longer detected and fever disappeared after 5 and 6 days, respectively. Engraftment was not delayed and no side-effects were noted. One recipient of autologous marrow was treated for 2 days, but ribavirin was discontinued due to pleuritic pain. We conclude that influenza B can be spread by asymptomatic carriers in the nursing staff and in spite of reversed isolation with the use of gown, hand wash and gloves.

Adult↗

Antigen detection in primary HIV infection.

Serial blood samples were obtained from 21 homosexuals who had developed symptomatic primary infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after a median incubation time of 14 days. During the first two weeks after the onset of illness HIV antigen (p24) was detected in the blood by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). During the second and third weeks after the onset of illness p24 antibody was detected by Western blot assay and antigen concentrations rapidly decreased to undetectable values. Dissociation of antigen-antibody complexes showed complexed antigen during the phase of declining concentrations of free antigen. Neither free nor complexed antigen was detected in any serum samples for several months thereafter, which suggested that failure to detect HIV antigen reflected low or absent synthesis of viral protein rather than masking of antigen by antibodies. Reappearance of HIV antigen with a fall in p24 antibody concentration was observed in a few patients six months or more after the onset of disease. The combined use of antigen and antibody assays made it possible to obtain evidence of infection with HIV in all of the 95 serum samples tested, illustrating the usefulness of these assays for diagnosing infection with HIV in its early stages.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Detection of immunoglobulin M antibody in primary human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Consecutive serum samples obtained from 20 homosexual men during symptomatic primary HIV infection were examined by a variety of IgG and IgM antibody assays. All sera obtained 2-5 weeks after onset of disease contained IgM anti-HIV as demonstrated by an IgM antibody capture assay. The IgM antibodies appeared during the 2 first weeks of illness, reached peak titres at 2-5 weeks and declined thereafter to undetectable levels at 2-3 months after the onset of disease. By contrast, IgG anti-HIV appeared later, during the second week after the onset of symptoms, and did not reach maximal levels until the IgM response had waned. The first IgM antibodies to appear were directed against gag proteins. IgM antibodies against env antigens were found less frequently and later in the course of the disease. These results suggest that IgM antibody determination may be helpful in the diagnosis of early HIV infection as a possible addition to the combined use of antigen detection and a second generation ELISA, which, in the present study, was found to be highly reliable for diagnostic purposes.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Management of pregnant women with contagious infections at delivery.

Since 1970 pregnant women with contagious infections in the country of Stockholm have been delivered at the Danderyd Hospital, the only hospital in the area which has departments of obstetrics and pediatrics as well as infectious diseases. This paper presents data from a prospective study carried out during a period of 10 years (1975-1984). The study includes 303 women and their newborns who for various reasons were transferred to the Department of Infectious Diseases (DID) before or after delivery. A comprehensive microbiological investigation was made in order to establish an etiological diagnosis in all women included in the study. A possible transmission of the infection from the mother to her fetus/child before or after delivery was also investigated. Only 0.17% of the pregnant women in the area needed care at the DID at delivery or in the puerperal period. 9% of the deliveries occurred at another hospital, 32% at the DID and the remaining at the obstetrical department, Danderyd Hospital. The rate of complications, including cesarean sections, was 12%. Of the 165 women suffering from an infectious disease at the time of delivery, 40% had a verified viral disease--in most cases varicella or mumps, 28% had a bacterial infection and for 32% no etiology of the disease could be established. The study population also includes women suspected either to be incubated with a contagious disease or to be carriers of infectious agents, as well as healthy mothers whose newborns were expected to be carriers of infectious agents such as rubella and varicella. None of the women died during the study period but 5 were seriously ill and 3 needed intensive care. The rate of stillbirths was the same as reported among all births in the country of Stockholm but the perinatal mortality rate was significantly higher (see also a following article, ref. 27). Our routines prove the necessity to take special care of pregnant women carrying a contagious infectious agent at term.

Communicable Disease Control↗

A longterm follow-up study of children born to women with contagious diseases at delivery.

Data are presented from a long-term follow-up study of 308 live born children to women admitted post partum to the Department of Infectious Diseases (DID), Danderyd Hospital, Sweden, during a 10-year period (1975-1984) for avoiding nosocomial transmission of infections in the obstetrical wards. The rate of stillbirths (1/309 deliveries) was not higher than reported for all births in Stockholm. 20% of the live born children were transferred within 24 h after birth to the pediatric department for observation, but half of them could return to their mothers at the DID within 6 days (generally 3 days). Four newborns were treated at an intensive care unit. Only 3 fatalities occurred, all of them among newborns to mothers with an overt infection at delivery. The fatality rate (1.8%) was significantly higher among the newborns of these mothers than normally (0.3%) noted among all children born in Stockholm county during the period studied. Two of the 3 newborns, who all died within 3 days of life, had a low birth weight (600 and 1,000 g). The total number of newborns with low birth weights (less than 2,500 g) was, however, not higher in the above-mentioned group of newborns than for all children born in Stockholm county 1980. None of the 3 fatalities was caused by infection transmitted from the mother. No further deaths occurred. Infections in pregnancy at term, at birth or post partum were transmitted from the women to 41 (13%) of their newborns.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Bacterial Infections↗

Molecular cloning and characterization of a full-length cDNA clone for human plasminogen.

A human liver cDNA library enriched for full-length clones was screened for plasminogen cDNA using a synthetic 24-nucleotide probe derived from a reported partial cDNA sequence. 12 positive clones were identified and one of these was characterized in detail. The 2.7 kb insert contains the complete coding region. At 5 positions, it gives residues different from those reported in a previous amino acid sequence analysis of the protein. The present results show an extra Ile at position 65, Gln instead of Glu at positions 53 and 342, Asn at position 88 instead of Asp, and Asp at position 453 rather than Asn. In the 3'-non-coding region an extension of 29 bases is found which does not contain any structure compatible with a known polyadenylation signal. Instead, the consensus signal AATAAA is placed at a distance of 46 bases upstream of the poly(A)-tail.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Visualization of defective measles virus particles in cerebrospinal fluid in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

Measles virus particles were visualized in the CSF of two patients with verified subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) by using scanning electron microscopy. Immunologic identification of the accumulated particles was performed with monoclonal antibodies, directly conjugated to carboxylated microspheres, specific for different measles virus antigens. The beads were amassed on the filter surface after a 1-hr incubation in the CSF. Spherical particles with a diameter ranging between 150 and 500 nm were detected. Such particles bound specifically to latex beads covered by monoclonal antibodies to measles virus hemagglutinin but not to beads conjugated with monoclonal antibodies specific for nucleoprotein. Adding the two monoclonal antibodies to measles virus hemagglutinin to the CSF agglutinated the virus particles in a dose-dependent way. Further, no particles in the CSF bound to microspheres conjugated with monoclonal antibodies to non-related antigens of Sendai virus, cytomegalovirus, or human immunodeficiency virus. Similarly sized particles were also identified by transmission electron microscopy after concentrating the CSF.

Antigens, Viral↗