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Biomedical subjects

P Thavarungkul

Publications and source records attributed to P Thavarungkul.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Clinico-pathological predictive factors of response to interferon therapy in chronic hepatitis C.

We performed a clinico-pathological study to determine which pre-treatment factors could predict the response to interferon (IFN) therapy in 55 Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C. Responses to the IFN therapy were evaluated as sustained response, relapse and non-response by the presence or absence of serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA during the course of treatment and at least 6-months post-treatment. The numbers of sustained response, relapse and non-response were 16 (29.0%), 25 (45.5%) and 14 (25.5%), respectively. Eight out of 16 sustained response cases (50%) showed HCV genotype III. Eight among 10 patients with HCV genotype III (80%) were sustained responders. HCV genotypes were found to be correlated with the response to the IFN therapy (p < 0.0001). None of the histological features, the types of the IFN therapy and other clinical factors showed significant differences. These findings suggest that outcome of the IFN therapy in chronic hepatitis C can be predicted by a virological factor, and that HCV genotype III is a useful predictor of a favorable outcome.

Biopsy↗

Cholesterol ester storage disease: a reported case.

Cholesterol ester storage disease is a rare autosomal recessive disease which is characterized by accumulation of cholesterol esters and triglycerides in the hepatocytes and other tissues. A 5-year and 4-month old Thai female with hepatosplenomegaly and hypercholesterolemia was diagnosed to have this disease by light and electron microscopic studies of the liver tissue from open biopsy. Early diagnosis and treatment with appropriate drug can help the patient by delaying the consequent complications. Genetic counselling and simplified explanation of the disease are a benefit to the patient's family.

Biopsy, Needle↗

Continuous monitoring of urea in blood during dialysis.

Urease was immobilized to porous glass and used in combination with a conductivity meter for determining urea in standard solutions as well as in blood from a patient undergoing dialysis. The sampling unit involves a possibility for heparinization at the sampling point and a dialysis step prior to exposure to the enzyme column. The unit operates in a linear mode in the concentration range 5-50 mM. Monitoring of dialysis process gave good correlation with off-line analyses.

Biosensing Techniques↗

Determination of transmembrane currents from external potential measurements by the method of regularization.

A novel non-invasive technique for measuring the transmembrane currents during action potential depolarizations of stalk segments of the giant unicellular alga Acetabularia mediterranea is described. This involves measurement of spatial samples of the time-dependent potential in the external medium (sea water) and an inverse transformation to give the current distribution at the cell surface. A detailed description of the method of regularization needed to handle this ill-conditioned inversion problem is presented in this paper, along with the results of test experiments to demonstrate its validity. An example of its application to the data recorded from an actual cell is also given.

Acetabularia↗