Vitamin B12 deficiency in Israel.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Malnick.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Chemotherapy administration to patients with lymphoproliferative diseases that are carriers of hepatitis B can be complicated by reactivation of Hepatitis B. This may lead to morbidity and mortality due to liver failure. We report 2 cases, treated recently. The first case is that of a 63-year-old female with a diagnosis of immunoblastic lymphoma. The patient was treated with the ProMACE-CytaBOM protocol. During treatment Hepatitis B was reactivated and after termination, of chemotherapy she developed fulminant hepatitis with hyperbilirubinemia, coagulopathy, hypoalbuminemia and ascites. The second case is that of a 34 years old male with a diagnosis of T-ALL who was treated according to the BFM 95 protocol. He had reactivation of Hepatitis B during induction therapy. These two patients were treated with Lamivudine with resolution of the hepatitis and disappearance of HBV DNA from the sera. Prophylactic administration of Lamivudine enabled reinduction of chemotherapy in the first case after relapse of the lymphoma and continuation of BFM 95 protocol in the second patient. Lamivudine inhibits replication of hepatitis B virus and prevents reactivation of Hepatitis B during immunosuppression induced by chemotherapy and probably ameliorates the severity of already reactivated hepatitis.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The steroid anaesthetic Althesin (Glaxo), which is a mixture of two C21 steroids, alphaxalone (3 alpha-hydroxy-5 alpha-pregnane-11, 20-dione--the active compound) and alphadolone acetate (21-acetoxy-3 alpha-hydroxy-5 alpha-pregnane-11, 20-dione), has been especially useful for the study of forebrain-autonomic and neuroendocrine functions. As determined by the loss of the righting reflex, Child et al. found no sex difference in the anaesthetic dose of Althesin administered intravenously (i.v.). However, in our neuroendocrine studies in which the anaesthetic was administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) and at dosage sufficient to produce surgical anaesthesia and analgesia, we observed a sex difference in the efficacy of Althesin. This may explain the difficulties that have been encountered in obtaining adequate anaesthesia (blockade of the somatomotor response to pain) with Althesin. Here we report, using cortical electroencephalography, that Althesin is a more potent anaesthetic than either sodium pentobarbitone or urethane, and that anaesthesia in the male rat requires about four times more Althesin (administered i.p.) than in the female. This sex difference is age dependent, can be abolished by administering oestrogen to the male, does not depend on sexual differentiation of the brain, and cannot be attributed to a sex difference in the metabolic clearance rate of alphaxolone. These results, taken together with those of Richards and Hesketh, suggest that the effect of alphaxalone may be mediated by interactions with synaptic membranes that are more specific than simply a generalized change in membrane structure, and that these interactions are affected by sex steroids.
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an enteric virus that usually causes a self-resolving hepatitis; although, it may be fatal, especially in pregnant women. Although HEV is endemic in Israel, there have been no recent local outbreaks. We report the case of a 70-year-old man who presented with painless jaundice. Ultrasound and abdominal computed tomography scan revealed gallstones, with no evidence of cholecystitis and no dilatation of the intra-or extrahepatic bile ducts. An open cholecystectomy was performed with intraoperative cholangiography. There was no evidence of choledocholithiasis. A subsequent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography was normal. His bilirubin level subsequently increased to a maximum of 25 mg/dL, and his gamma-glutamyl-transferase level reached 1,400 U/L. There was no evidence of any autoimmune or metabolic disease, and routine viral serology was normal except for immunoglobulin G to hepatitis A virus. A liver biopsy revealed an acute cholestatic picture. The jaundice resolved slowly after a period of 6 months. Hepatitis E virus RNA was isolated from the acute-phase serum and was not detectable in the convalescent serum. This case is a unique example of chronic cholestatic jaundice that we think is caused by acute HEV infection.