[The course of proctologic disorders in HIV-positive patients].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Rüdlinger.
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Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in renal allograft recipients is a rare though serious complication of immunosuppressive treatment. Therapeutic procedures such as surgical excision and local irradiation are inappropriate, since the endothelial-originated tumor is often multicentric. However, systemic treatment such as chemotherapy entails further immunosuppression. We observed a patient with renal allograft who developed disseminated KS of legs and trunk while receiving azathioprine, cyclosporin and prednisone after intensive rejection therapy with high dose corticosteroids, antithymocyte globulin and transplant irradiation. At that time the immunological status was similar to that of an AIDS patient, though HIV serology was negative. Azathioprine was withdrawn while cyclosporin and prednisone were continued. KS disappeared shortly after without a decrease in allograft function, and immunological parameters tended to normalize. When KS had disappeared almost completely the patient became infected with HIV. Complete remission was not hampered, nor was there recurrence of KS. The late appearance of HIV-antigenemia with seroconversion in the course of the tumor makes HIV unlikely as a causative factor. The predisposing factors for KS after renal transplantation are discussed: 1. Amplification of immunosuppression due to rejection therapy, 2. Genetic predisposition such as HLA DR5 antigen, 3. Cytomegalovirus infections. For therapy of iatrogenic KS we propose reduction of immunosuppressive therapy before additional chemotherapy is initiated.
We report the case of a 58-year-old renal transplant patient who developed oral hairy leukoplakia. Examination for HIV-1 and HIV-2 infection was negative. Biopsy of the lateral tongue showed ballooned prickle cells and electron microscopy revealed herpes-type viruses. In situ hybridization and examinations with the Southern blot technique yielded Epstein-Barr virus. Serology for Epstein-Barr virus was reactive. Immunological investigation of the patient showed a marked decrease of T-helper and T-suppressor cells as the result of immunosuppressive regimen. Oral hairy leukoplakia may be a marker for severe immunosuppression but is not necessarily associated with HIV infection.
A renal allograft recipient with small raised red scaly lesions on a forearm is described. The clinical and histological picture was that of similar lesions reported in some epidermodysplasia verruciformis patients. Virological investigations revealed the presence of human papilloma virus type 5; this is the second report of the occurrence of this type in allograft patients. As human papilloma virus type 5 is known to have malignant potential, clinicians should be on the lookout for these banal-looking and distinctly non-warty lesions in renal transplant recipients. Close follow-up is indicated.
Anogenital warts of the condyloma acuminatum type seem to occur quite often during HIV infection. These warts--according to our study--are not commonly caused by malignancy-associated human papilloma virus types, but by types 6 and 11 as seen in the nonimmune-compromised population. Widespread condylomata acuminata may appear in rather early stages of HIV infection and they may therefore represent early warning signs of HIV infection.
The collection of moulages at the Department of Dermatology, Zürich University Hospital, is well preserved and still offers the possibility of following the scientific interests of it's founder, Bruno Bloch. These are presented here together with a short biography of Bloch.
G. Miescher was a scholar and the successor of B. Bloch in the Dermatology Department at Zürich University Hospital. He continued with the moulage collection founded by B. Bloch. Miescher's scientific interests can still be followed up by browsing through this collection.
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The cause of Kaposi's sarcoma is still unknown. Apart from genetic influences, the data available at present indicate that cytomegaloviruses may play a certain role. Serological investigations as well as results from molecular biology techniques seem to point to an association. However, whether the association is indeed causal remains to be determined.
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One hundred and twenty renal transplant recipients were investigated. Fifty-eight (48%) were found to have warts, 13 (11%) keratoses and six (5%) to have, or recently to have had cancers. The longer the time of immunosuppression, the greater the prevalence of warts; of those patients who had had their transplant for at least 5 years, 87% had warts. Those with a graft survival time of 10 years or more are at special risk of warts, keratoses and malignancy. Five (10%) of 50 women had genital warts, four of whom had internal lesions (vaginal, cervical or anal) and one developed a carcinoma of the vulva. These findings indicate the advisability of colposcopy for all female renal transplant recipients, a high risk group. Eighty-eight specimens from 42 patients were examined by DNA restriction enzyme analysis and cross hybridization for the presence and type of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV DNA was detected in 66% of the warts examined, HPV2 and HPV4 occurring most often and HPV1 and HPV3 only infrequently. In sequential specimens from common hand warts of one individual, an HPV was found which could not be precisely identified but was related to HPV4. HPV16 was detected in a vaginal wart from one patient and an HPV6-related virus in a vulval wart of another. HPV DNA of an unknown type was demonstrated in one of 11 keratoses examined. With the probes used to examine the few samples of skin cancers available, HPV16 was found in a squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva, and faint bands from an unidentified type of HPV were detected in two squamous cell carcinomata from a patient's hand. One woman had plaque lesions morphologically and histologically resembling those found in epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV). HPV5 was identified in these lesions. This is only the third reported case of HPV5, previously thought to be unique to EV, in a renal transplant recipient.
The clinical and pathological characteristics of Kaposi-like diseases (acroangiodermatitis of Mali and Stewart-Bluefarb syndrome, both of which have been called pseudokaposi at some time) are summarized, compared with each other and with those of Kaposi's sarcoma. The prognostic and therapeutic peculiarities of these two syndromes suggest that they should be differentiated.
Hair casts (peripilar keratin casts) of two girls are investigated by electron microscopy. The 31 cases of hair casts so far known are briefly summarized. The etiology seems to be heterogeneous. The ultrastructural study of the casts reveals three layers. Two of them can easily be interpreted as internal root sheet, the third with parts of the outer root sheet, rather than with parts of the epithelium of the follicular infundibulum, as was suggested by Kligman in 1957.
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The pathological cells of the cervix uteri were examined for the presence of some types of human papilloma viruses (HPV) by DNA-hybridization and by the Southern blot method. Different degrees of neoplasia were found in the majority of these pathological changes of the uterus. The control group of patients included in the study had normal clinical, cytological and colposcopical results. Two parameters were identical both in the examined and the control patients. Types 6/11 were found in neither of the groups examined. The control patients had types 16/18 HPV in 8.3% of cases, while the frequency of these types was much higher in the examined group; it depended on the phase of the disease. These types were not detected in pathological lesions of CIN I; 40% of patients with CIN II had them, and 7.3% of patients with CIN III were positive to types 16/18 HPV. The majority (75%) of the examined samples of invasive neoplastic cervical lesions were positive to the presence of HPV 16/18.