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Biomedical subjects

R Kressig

Publications and source records attributed to R Kressig.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

[Innovative teaching, a successful invention: the European Academy for Medicine of Ageing (EAMA). The viewpoint of teachers and students].

INTRODUCTION: The origins of the EAMA (European Academy for Medicine of Aging) course are described in this paper by the Scientific Committee of this new post-graduate teaching activity. CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND KEY POINTS: Innovations are constantly introduced to improve training methodology so as to enable the students to update their knowledge, help them improve their skills in data gathering and in the critical interpretation of information, and exchange geriatric experience and know-how. To reach such goals, an interactive teaching method is implemented by the professors, with world experts being called in to ensure scientific soundness and quality. Evaluations by students and teachers are regularly carried out with the aim of perfectly adjusting their training methodologies and increasing the scientific level of exchanges. FUTURE PROSPECTS AND PROJECTS: If the students progress, so do the teachers....

Academies and Institutes↗
PubMed1998

[Physical activity and aging].

About a third of the initial muscle volume is lost during human life. This decline in muscle mass is responsible for impaired muscle strength, physical frailty, falls, impaired mobility, and functional decline. The age-related loss in muscle mass accounts for the age-associated decreases in basal metabolic rate, oxygen consumption, glucose utilisation, and bone density. Several of the anatomical and physiological changes in sedentary people, commonly attributed to primary aging processes, are in fact the consequence of lack of exercise. Recent studies show that strategies to maintain muscle strength and mass among the elderly (like regular exercise training) are most important for their functional independence.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[Dependency: possible risk or inevitable outcome?].

This is the burning issue of the hour. In attempting to resolve it within the context of advanced age, it is important to clarify the meaning of the words involved: Independence and autonomy are far from being synonyms. Independence refers to the ability to perform physical activities of daily living (bathing, eating, preparing meals, shopping, money management), whereas the second word, autonomy, refers more to the ability to make decisions, to reason, to express an appropriate opinion in a given situation. Hazard and inevitability are totally at variance. Hazard implies the likelihood of occurrence of an event harmful to health, or to the length or quality of life. Hazard is more or less predictable, whereas inevitability is the expression of a supernatural power controlling all events. To find out whether "dependency is a hazard or an inevitability", it is necessary to conduct a historical review of the extension in human longevity and in particular of the current "weight" of aging both on individuals and on society at large. In Geneva, the proportion of the over 65-year-olds grew from 5.1 percent in 1880 to 13.4 percent in 1990. During that time, the gain in life expectancy was 52.4 percent for Geneva males of 80 years of age and 93 percent for Geneva females of the same age. This drastic change in age groups was coupled with a noteworthy change in household sizes. In 1860, the number of persons per household was 4.5. In 1990, it was down to 2.2. Conversely, the number of inmates in Geneva's medico-social institutions went up from 649 to 1168 between 1982 and 1992. In this socio-economic and cultural perspective, the concept of "globality of the individual" throughout his lifetime explains: age-related physiological changes; the long-term repercussion of physical, professional or leisure activities; the consequences of the accumulation of such varied risk factors as overweight or its opposite, malnutrition, tobacco or stress. Such frailty caused by aging is an ideal breeding ground for disease. For now, what matters most is the functional consequence of disease. Is the disease acute or chronic? Two out of three deaths result from a chronic disease, which caused loss of function by organs (impairment), loss of function by the subject himself (disability) or loss of function by the individual in society (social handicap or disadvantage). Raising the question "Dependency: a hazard or an inevitability?" boils down to asking oneself about the place of disease in our society and its determinants, and about all aspects of medicine and especially of prevention. When detected, a susceptibility brings into play primary prevention, aimed at averting the onset of the disease. After a disease has set in, measures to prevent recurrence, or secondary prevention, are required. Lastly, prevention of dependency and of loss of autonomy is part of tertiary prevention. Except for violent traumatic accidents, the formulation of the above concepts proves that dependency is essentially "a hazard". Therefore, let us anticipate!

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1996

[Non-nosocomial pneumonias in the elderly: clinical findings, etiology, therapeutic approach].

Elderly subjects are at high risk for pneumonia, with an incidence 4 times that of younger adults and a higher mortality. Factors that contribute to this over-mortality and morbidity are age-related modifications of the immune system and of the respiratory system, co-morbidity, colonization of upper airways by gram-negative bacilli, and immunosuppression (iatrogenic or acquired). Clinical symptoms and signs are sometimes scarce or nonspecific; bacteremia and sepsis are more frequent. Responsible microorganisms are frequently undetermined. S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, S. aureus and respiratory viruses are the most frequently incriminated organisms; the incidence of infection with gram-negative bacilli rises in institutionalized patients or frail elderly subjects. Atypical pneumonias are rare in elderly patients. In this age group prevention is of major importance and consists mainly in vaccination against influenza and S. pneumoniae.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

High-resolution histocompatibility testing of a group of sixteen B44-positive, ABDR serologically matched unrelated donor-recipient pairs. Analysis of serologically undisclosed incompatibilities by cellular techniques, isoelectrofocusing, and HLA oligotyping.

We have characterized HLA incompatibilities in a group of 16 B44-positive patients who were serologically ABDR matched with their 23 (unrelated) potential bone marrow donors. After analysis with a combination of cellular techniques, IEF for HLA-A/B and oligotyping for class II and HLA-B44, 44% of the patients revealed one or more HLA incompatibility with at least one of their potential donors. CTL activity was detected in 12 of the 22 combinations tested. CTL incompatibility occurred more frequently in DR subtype-mismatched combinations, but CTL reactivity was always directed against class I. To characterize these incompatibilities between matched unrelated individuals, we analyzed the specificity of T-cell clones from seven primary CTL cultures. In three combinations, CTL reactivity was directed against a subtype of B44. In two combinations, the CTL reactivity was directed against a non-B44 class I subtype. In two of seven combinations, the CTLs recognized an antigen that, though unconditionally associated with B4403, was expressed by 60% of the B4403+ cells only. Because all 12 of these B4403+ targets recognized could be typed for one HLA-C allele only (Cwl-Cw8), we believe that this alloreactivity might be directed against a serologically undefined Cw antigen.

Base Sequence↗