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Biomedical subjects

M Malkamäki

Publications and source records attributed to M Malkamäki.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Serologic response against cardiolipin and enterobacterial common antigen in young patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Elevation of anticardiolipin antibodies has been observed in myocardial infarction and in many infections. To elucidate this topic, paired serum specimens from 40 patients with acute myocardial infarction were tested for anticardiolipin antibodies (solid-phase enzyme immunoassay) and enterobacterial common antigen antibodies (indirect hemagglutination test). Forty-one randomly selected individuals and 30 patients with chronic coronary heart disease served as controls. All individuals were males whose maximum age was 50 years. In patients with acute myocardial infarction the levels of anticardiolipin antibodies in paired sera rose significantly in all immunoglobulin classes (18% in the IgG class, 26% in the IgA class, and 43% in the IgM class), whereas no elevations occurred in the other groups. Fifteen of the acute myocardial infarction patients also showed at least a fourfold increase in enterobacterial common antigen antibodies, as compared with only one such increase in the two other groups combined. The increases were less marked than those seen in pronounced enterobacterial infections. These two reactions were closely associated.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Serological evidence for the role of bacterial infections in the pathogenesis of thyroid diseases.

Subacute thyroiditis is generally believed to be of viral origin, and infection is also suspected of playing a role as a triggering factor in the pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid diseases. We have measured a broad spectrum of bacterial and viral antibodies in paired sera of 32 patients with thyroid disease of recent onset. The data indicate a preceding infection in 14 (44%) of the patients, enterobacterial in 5, streptococcal in 4 and staphylococcal in 2. A viral infection was suggested in 6 patients, in each case caused by different agents; 3 of them also showed evidence of a bacterial infection. Patients with positive microbial serology were found in all diagnostic groups, including subacute thyroiditis, Graves' disease and Hashimoto's disease. These results suggest an association between a preceding bacterial infection and the development of thyroid disease in some patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Association between cerebral infarction and increased serum bacterial antibody levels in young adults.

Increased antibody levels against several bacteria were found in 15 of the 34 stroke patients (44%) under the age of 45 years, but in only six of the 68 controls (9%) (p less than 0.001). Based on the serologic data, the most common preceding infections were streptococcal, staphylococcal, and enterobacterial. There was no relationship between viral antibodies and cerebral infarction. When the clinical history of the patients was also taken into consideration, stroke was found to be associated with a recent infection in 68% of the patients, as compared with 26% for the second most common risk factor, ethanol intoxication. The results suggest an association between cerebral infarction and bacterial infections in young adults.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Triggering infections in reactive arthritis.

Certain microbes like yersinia, salmonella, shigella, campylobacter, chlamydia, and possibly gonococcus can trigger reactive arthritis especially in patients of the HLA-B27 type. In the present study we have used serological and culture methods to identify the probable triggering infection in 50 consecutive HLA-B27 positive patients diagnosed as having reactive arthritis. The two most common triggering agents thus identified were Yersinia enterocolitica (12 patients) and Chlamydia trachomatis (11 patients). In addition six patients had high antistreptolysin O titres and two high teichoic acid antibody titres suggesting group A streptococci and Staphylococcus aureus as triggering agents. In 13 patients no preceding infection could be identified. The identity of the infective agent seems to have very little effect on the clinical picture of the reactive arthritis - the only difference between the various aetiological groups in the present material was absence of fever in the patients with a preceding C. trachomatis infection, of whom only one out of 11 had a temperature greater than or equal to 38 degrees C, whereas 13 of 16 patients with a preceding enterobacterial, and five of the eight patients with a streptococcal or staphylococcal infection had raised temperatures.

Arthritis, Infectious↗
PubMed1984

Endotoxaemia and acute pancreatitis: correlation between the severity of the disease and the anti-enterobacterial common antigen antibody titre.

Enterobacterial common antigen is a highly immunogenic component of the Gram negative bacterial cell wall that is common to all enteric bacteria. In the present study, the humoral antibody response against enteric bacteria was investigated by measuring antibodies to enterobacterial common antigen in paired serum samples in 38 patients with acute pancreatitis and in 31 healthy subjects. In mild pancreatitis (11 patients), no changes in anti-enterobacterial common antigen titres were observed as compared with healthy controls. Nine of the 10 patients had a significant increase (greater than or equal to 8 times) in anti-enterobacterial common antigen titres during the disease. Similarly, in patients with fulminant (haemorrhagic) pancreatitis who survived, a significant increase in anti-enterobacterial common antigen titres occurred during the course of the disease (in nine of the 11 patients). Paradoxically, only one of the six patients with fulminant pancreatitis with fatal outcome showed a significant increase in his anti-enterobacterial common antigen titre. The results suggest that Gram negative bacterial components escape into the systemic circulation in acute pancreatitis. This may have pathophysiologic significance in this disease.

Abscess↗
PubMed1983

An association between epileptic seizures and increased serum bacterial antibody levels.

Increased serum levels of a variety of bacterial antibodies were more common in unselected patients with recent epileptic seizures than in healthy control subjects (17/29 versus 2/31; p less than 0.001). In most of these cases no infections were recognized clinically or bacteriologically. Although infections have been considered as one of the possible provocations for the manifestation of epileptic seizures, the demonstrated strong association may give a new approach to the pathogenetic mechanisms of epileptic seizures or may mean a nonspecific immune response. The explanation for the higher antibody titers in epileptic patients and their etiologic significance are uncertain, but these results also suggest that epileptic seizures may very often be triggered by bacterial infections even when no clinically apparent bacterial infection has been recognized.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Branhamella catarrhalis as a cause of bacteremic pneumonia.

A new enzyme immunoassay was used to confirm the pathogenetic role of Branhamella catarrhalis in a diabetic young man with pneumonia affecting the left lower lobe with pleural involvement. His temperature rise was only minimal, but his ESR and blood leucocyte count were elevated and one blood culture grew B. catarrhalis. The levels of branhamella antibodies of the IgG and IgA classes were high and rose during the infection.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Serological evidence for the role of Bacteroides fragilis and enterobacteriaceae in the pathogenesis of acute pelvic inflammatory disease.

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is classically divided into gonococcal and non-gonococcal forms depending on whether or not gonococcus is isolated from the lower genital tract. Chlamydia trachomatis seems to be another major pathogen in PID. In an attempt to determine the role of facultative enteric bacteria and anaerobic Bacteroides fragilis in the pathogenesis of PID antibodies to the enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) and B. fragilis capsular polysaccharide were measured in paired sera of 101 consecutive patients with PID. Significant ECA and B. fragilis antibody tires were each found in about a third of the patients whether or not the lower-genital-tract culture yielded gonococci or C. trachomatis. These results support the concept that PID is a polymicrobial infection in which both anaerobes and aerobic enteric bacteria, as well as gonococci and C. trachomatis, have an important role.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1981

Antibodies to the enterobacterial common antigen: standardization of the passive hemagglutination test and levels in normal human sera.

The passive hemagglutination test for antibodies against the enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) of Kunin was standardized for diagnostic purposes. Human erythrocytes were coated with a soluble ECA+ preparation from Salmonella typhimurium or, as specificity controls, with a similar ECA- preparation from congenic ECA-negative bacteria with saline, and the hemagglutination assay was performed on microtiter plates. The specificity of the test was ascertained further by inhibition assays with purified ECA and with crude ECA+ and ECA- preparations. The reproducibility of the tests was 96.4%; on this basis, a fourfold or larger difference in titers was regarded as significant. The anti-ECA titers in 649 serum samples from healthy persons ranged from less than 4 to 8,192. The titers increased with age, so that th geometric mean titers were 57 at 1.5 years of age and 201 at 45 years of age. After this, the titers decreased again, to a low of 52 in persons more than 70 years old. Women had higher titers than men up to the age of 40 years.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Endotoxin and liver diseases. High titres of enterobacterial common antigen antibodies in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.

We have measured antibodies to the enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) in sera of 86 patients with various liver diseases. ECA is a component of the cell wall of all enteric bacteria, and ECA antibodies are a specific indication of the presence of enterobacterial components. Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis with or without signs of alcoholic hepatitis had significantly raised anti-ECA titres compared with healthy control subjects. Other groups of patients (alcoholic hepatitis and/or fatty liver, primary biliary cirrhosis, chronic active hepatitis, or liver metastases) did not differ significantly from controls in the height of their anti-ECA titres. The results support the concept that Gram-negative bacterial components may have some role in the pathophysiology of alcoholic cirrhosis.

Adult↗