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O Wichmann

Publications and source records attributed to O Wichmann.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Epidemiological and clinical features of travel-associated cryptosporidiosis.

Data concerning the clinical and epidemiological features of travel-associated cryptosporidiosis are lacking. In order to investigate the impact of this disease on travellers' health, a retrospective study was conducted at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Berlin. In total, 57 cryptosporidial infections were identified between 2000 and 2004, resulting in a prevalence of 2.9% in patients with travel-associated diarrhoea. Travel to south-central Asia, especially India, was associated with a higher prevalence of infection than was travel to other destinations. Clinically, the disease resembled giardiasis, but fever and arthralgias seemed to occur more frequently.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Fatal malaria in a German couple returning from Burkina Faso.

We report on a German couple found dead at home 7 days after returning from Burkina Faso. Postmortem evaluation revealed Plasmodium falciparum infection with a parasitemia of approximately 80% in both cases. No pathological findings of the organs were present at autopsy except moderate splenomegaly in both cases and myocarditis in one case. Typical findings of fatal malaria like petechial hemorrhages of the brain or other organs, or sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes in venules and capillaries were absent. Lack of sequestration with excessive hyperparasitemia leading to systemic hypoxemia and host cytokine release may have contributed to the rapid fatal course in these nonimmune patients.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Prophylaxis failure due to probable mefloquine resistant P falciparum from Tanzania.

Failures of mefloquine prophylaxis in travellers returning from Africa have been reported repeatedly. Non-compliance to chemoprophylaxis is considered to be a major factor for failure. Only few reports on mefloquine prophylaxis failure in sub-Saharan Africa were able to report blood levels of the drug that were sufficient for prophylactic effectiveness. We report the case of a 44-year-old German female who travelled to Tanzania for 3 weeks. The patient reported that she never missed a dose of mefloquine during her weekly prophylaxis schedule. Four weeks after returning from Tanzania, the patient presented with fever, headache and myalgia. Only a few trophozoites of Plasmodium falciparum were found in a thick film. Blood levels of mefloquine at that stage were at 1400 ng/ml, thus largely excluding non-compliance and malabsorption. To our knowledge, this is the first case of confirmed prophylaxis failure due to mefloquine resistance in East Africa.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

FRET probes to monitor phospholipase A2 activity.

Phosphatidylethanolamine and -choline derivatives equipped with fluorescent donor-acceptor pairs of dyes connected to the tips of the fatty acids were synthesised and shown to be suitable substrates for phospholipase A2.

Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer↗
PubMed2001

[What does the medical student learn in pathology in Germany, China and the USA?].

From the point of view of a medical student who studied at a couple of universities in Germany, one semester at a medical school in the USA, and who was involved in an exchange-program with a Chinese university, the importance of pathology as a main part of the medical course is stressed.--In Germany and the USA, pathology is a central subject in the medical course studies. After studying how the human body functions correctly (anatomy, physiology etc.), the medical student learns the pathological basics of diseases. Then clinical training, including electives or rotations, starts, where the student enters clinical settings and learns how to treat these diseases. As medicine is going to be more and more specialized, this will sooner or later also have consequences on the system of medical teaching. In the USA, for example, it is to a certain extent possible to specialize during clinical rotations already. For this reason, pathology is going to be even more important in the future.--In China there are two medical systems that exist independently: Our so-called Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The biggest difference in traditional medicine seems to be that diseases are treated without any (western) knowledge of their pathological background, but with the empirical knowledge of 5000 years of Chinese Medicine (so-called "black-box-system").--In conclusion, pathology is fundamental to the understanding of diseases in humans in Western Medicine. The facts taught are, of course, the same everywhere. There are differences as far as the teaching methods are concerned, both between the different countries and within Germany. Most important is the attitude of both medical students and teaching staff.

China↗