PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Nicolescu

Publications and source records attributed to S Nicolescu.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

The Mureş-Uzhgorod-Debrecen study: a comparison of hospital stroke services in Central-Eastern Europe.

Stroke mortality is extremely high in Central-Eastern European countries. The high rate of risk factors and differences in health care services might be among the factors resulting in high stroke morbidity and mortality in this region. As only few prospectively collected information are available from this region, we decided to evaluate some characteristics of stroke services in neurological departments of a Romanian, a Ukrainian and a Hungarian city in the framework of the Mureş-Uzhgorod-Debrecen comparative epidemiological study. We registered demographic data, the absence or presence of the most important risk factors, and clinical signs on admission and at discharge. We recorded the application of various diagnostic methods, stroke treatment and recommendations for secondary prevention. Follow-up is planned after 30 days and after 1 year. The paper summarizes the methodology of this prospective epidemiological study of stroke patients hospitalized in neurological departments in Târgu Mureş, Uzhgorod and Debrecen, three Central-Eastern European cities in Romania, Ukraine and Hungary, respectively.

Follow-Up Studies↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Correlation between Congo red binding as virulence marker in Shigella species and Sereny test.

Six variants of nutrient agar were tested in order to chose the suitable media for Congo red binding test. Trypto-soy Eiken, T.S.A - Cantacuzino Institute and B.T.S.D. (a medium prepared with Difco ingredients) are appropriate to distinguish between virulent Crb+ and avirulent Crb- strains. Congo red binding was compared with Sereny test using 25 Shigella strains. The strains were inoculated onto trypto-soy agar Eiken plates with 0.01% Congo red, incubated 24 hours at 37 degrees C. A number of each kind (Crb+ and Crb-) of colonies developed by every strain was subcultured on nutrient agar and Sereny test was performed with these cultures. As expected, all 84 Crb+ colonies in vivo tested, produced keratoconjunctivitis. In the case of Crb- colonies a proper correlation with Sereny negative test was observed in 57 out of 73 colonies (78.2%) to which 10.9% (8 out of 73) less virulent (evoking illness in only one of the two inoculated eyes) colonies may be added. As our results confirmed that loss of pigmentation was consistently accompanied by loss or diminishing of virulence, we consider that Congo red binding may be used as an alternative of in vivo test for establishing the virulence of Shigellae in the routine practice of microbiology laboratories which usually are not provided with cell cultures or animals. Its reduced cost is an important advantage, too.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Identification of Shiga-like toxin in Escherichia coli strains, etiological agents of diarrheal disease.

Shiga-like toxin presence, in 20 E. coli strains, etiological agents of diarrheal diseases, is studied by preparing extracts at +4 degrees C, in the presence of chloroform and by i.v. inoculation in mice. In 4 out of 20 strains, Shiga-like toxin in high titres was identified. Most of the strains presented an inconstant and variable production of Shiga-like toxin in comparison with Shigella dysenteriae type 1 (Shiga) reference strain. The authors also confirm the existence of Shiga-like toxin under 2 forms (neutralizable with Shiga antitoxic serum and non-neutralizable). The importance of the obtained results is further discussed from the point of view of pathogeny and diagnosis of the infections produced by these germs.

Animals↗