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Biomedical subjects

M Valencia

Publications and source records attributed to M Valencia.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

[Evaluation of social functioning in patients at a health center].

The Social Functioning Scale (SFS) is described, together with its rationale and development. The instrument consists of 35 items, and was administered to a sample of 320 adult patients of a health center. Social functioning is assessed in a semistructured, 30 minute interview. The patient reports the level of satisfaction related to his/her role performance in five major areas: occupational, social relationships, economic, marital and familiar. Reliability and validity have been established for the SFS. The reliability coefficients for all areas were over 0.80 (p = 0.01). A varimax factor analysis was applied and five factors emerged for the construct validity. This accounted for 52 percent of the total variance. The use of the SFS is recommended since its validity and reliability have been demonstrated. The instrument could be useful for Mexico, and also for other Spanish speaking countries.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cyclosporine A in atopic dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic pruritic dermatosis that requires individualized treatment. Recent studies have shown that low-dose oral treatment with cyclosporine A may be useful in more severe forms. We report our experience with two patients who had severe atopic dermatitis. Both had high IgE concentration and satisfied Hanifin and Rajka's diagnostic criteria for atopic dermatosis. We began oral treatment at a daily dosage of 5 mg/kg divided into two doses. We monitored cyclosporine concentration in whole blood, as well as kidney and liver function. Contraindications for cyclosporine A were excluded. Clinical improvement commenced between the first and third week of treatment and was marked in one case and partial in the other. Improvement did not correlate with a reduction in serum IgE concentration. Side effects were mild (hypertrichosis, slight trembling, and gingival hypertrophy). On discontinuing treatment, clinical manifestations reappeared. We conclude that cyclosporine A may be an effective alternative for some forms of atopic dermatitis resistant to other treatments.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Plantain allergy (Plantago lanceolata): assessment of diagnostic tests.

A study was made of 55 patients with skin prick test results for Plantago lanceolata of 3 mm2 or more. They were evaluated in relation to the response elicited by 10 mg/ml of histamine HCl. Patients with a response to Plantago less intense than the response to histamine were considered as having a "negative" response, whereas those whose response to Plantago was more intense than the response to histamine were considered as having a "positive" response. In 35 cases a radioallergosorbent test (RAST) was performed and in 22, nasal provocative testing (NPT). The frequency of positive response was 0.63 for skin tests, 0.11 for RAST and 0.72 for NPT. Among the patients with positive NPT, the frequencies of positive response to skin tests and RAST were 0.71 and 0.6 (p < 0.05), respectively. Results are discussed and study methods are proposed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Allergy to Alternaria. I. Clinical aspects.

We studied 66 patients allergic to mould Alternaria. 53% males and 47% females, with 60% diagnosed as having asthma versus 40% rhinitis, only 29% had allergy to Alternaria without any other cutaneous reactivity while 71% were polisensitized, more frequently to D. pteronyssinus, grass pollen, Cladosporium and cat epithelium. We compared the patients allergic to Alternaria with those allergic to grass pollen and D. pteronyssinus.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Diagnosis of allergy to cat epithelium in clinical practice. I. Value of skin tests.

Seventy atopic patients were studied. Pin-prick skin tests with cat epithelium extract (Ifidesa-Aríste-gui) were made. The results were compared by dividing the patients into a group with clinical manifestations of contact with cats and a group without clinical manifestations of contact with cats. Our results show that skin tests for cat epithelium, such as those carried out routinely in clinical practice, are not very sensitive or specific, and, therefore, are not suitable for diagnosis or prevalence studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Allergy to Alternaria. II. Diagnostic comparison of skin-tests and RAST.

The diagnosis of Alternaria allergy is difficult and tests in vivo and in vitro usually do not give results as satisfactory as those obtained with other allergens. We studied 33 patients with a cutaneous response of 2 mm2 or more to skin-prick tests for Alternaria (extract containing 104 micrograms/ml of Alt-1). Results were compared with those of RAST. Skin tests were positive in 75.8% of cases (the resulting papule was the same size as or larger than that elicited by 10 mg/ml histamine) and negative in 24.2% of cases. RAST was positive in 75% of cases and negative in 25%. There was no significant difference in the frequencies. RAST was positive four times more often in males than in females; when these figures were corrected for population data, the ratio was 2:1. The coefficient of correlation between the intensity of skin-test and RAST results was r = 0.51 (p < 0.05). These findings are evaluated and results are discussed.

Adolescent↗