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T Hauser

Publications and source records attributed to T Hauser.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Will computers replace or complement the diabetes educator?

Computer programs are playing an increasingly important role in the management of diabetes and fall into various categories. Instructional programs are used to teach patients about diabetes. They cover the principles of blood glucose monitoring, diet, exercise, foot care and so on. Statistical and graphical analysis programs are used in diabetes clinics to help the physician, diabetes educator and patient detect patterns and trends in the patient's home blood glucose readings. Hand-held insulin dosage computers have been used by patients to advise them on insulin dosage adjustment on a day-to-day basis. The diabetes simulator we have recently developed allows patients to practise, and gain experience with insulin dosage adjustment; the patient decides on alterations to insulin dose, diet or the amount of exercise and the computer program demonstrates the resulting effect on blood glucose levels. Overall, computers complement and enhance, rather than replace the functions of the diabetes educator.

Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring↗
PubMed1992

Assessment of experts' approach to insulin therapy and development of a simulator for diabetes insulin adjustment.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a computer program (Macintosh) to predict changes in blood glucose after changes in insulin dose, timing, and regimen. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We established program parameters (apparent insulin action profiles; different for insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus) to match predictions by five diabetes specialists at our hospital of blood glucose changes after insulin-dose adjustment in 22 hypothetical patient cases. We compared the action profiles, which represent the blood glucose changes predicted by the experts with glucose-clamp studies of insulin action. We tested the program's performance in 22 different hypothetical cases against the responses of 15 specialists from outside our hospital. RESULTS: The specialists, when predicting effects of insulin dose adjustment, integrate numerous processes (insulin action, diet, sequential blood glucose interactions). They could not specify algorithms for determining these individual factors, but they could easily predict the overall effect in the context of patient cases. The computer program's insulin-action profiles simulate this "composite" approach. The developed program incorporates multiple insulin regimens, which may be changed during the stimulation, and adjusts predicted responses according to the patient's estimated sensitivity to insulin. Its predicted change in 172 blood glucose levels (22 cases) correlated well with the corresponding means of the outside specialists (r = 0.83, P = 0.0001). Comparing this correlation with that of individual specialists ranked the program third. CONCLUSIONS: A computer program can simulate specialists' "composite" approach (not based purely on conscious application of physiological data) to insulin adjustment.

Blood Glucose↗
PubMed1991

Absence of effects of thymopentin on murine host resistance to Listeria monocytogenes.

The effects of various doses of Thymopentin, the synthetic 5 aminoacid fragment of thymopoietin injected on d -4 and d -1 on murine host resistance to Listeria monocytogenes were tested. The experiments did not reveal any regular dose-effect relationship; i.e. no or only marginal (more often small negative rather than positive) effects were observed on clearance and on resistance neither during the T cell independent first hour or the first 2 days of infection in euthymic or thymus deficient nude mice, nor during the T cell dependent phase after 2 days of infection in euthymic mice. Also survival of mice was not increased in a regular dose-effect relationship with dose ranges of Thymopentin from 0.3 ng-30 mg per 30 g mouse; furthermore, injections of 3 micrograms per 30 g mouse for varying time intervals from -3 days before up to 6 days after infection had no protective effect. Thus Thymopentin apparently does not induce measurable macrophage activation directly or cannot increase macrophage activation mediated by T cells in euthymic mice nor does it induce adequate T cell responses in nude mice to promote improved resistance to Listeria.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Role of tumor necrosis factor in Listeria resistance of nude mice.

The effects of sheep anti-murine recombinant tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) on resistance to Listeria monocytogenes infection were studied in T cell-deficient nu/nu mice. The sheep anti-TNF-alpha antibody preparation was specific for TNF since it neutralized 300 U of recombinant murine TNF-alpha in vitro at a dilution of up to 1/1,000 but did not neutralize 32 U of interferon (IFN)-alpha, -beta or 32 U of IFN-gamma in vitro at a 1/20 dilution. When tested in vivo in sublethally Listeria-infected nu/nu or T cell-competent C57BL/6 or ICR mice, a single treatment of 0.2 ml anti-TNF-alpha given intraperitoneally on either day -1,0 or +1 resulted in the death of mice by day 5-7 due to the uncontrolled growth of Listeria; bacterial counts in spleen and liver were increased on days 3-5 by a factor of 10-1,000 in these organs. When examined histologically, organs from mice with the anti-TNF-alpha treatment contained more, and considerably bigger, lesions that exhibited central necrosis. The enhancing effect of anti-TNF-alpha on Listeria infection seemed greater early during Listeria infection on days 1-6 when compared to later phases of the infection around days 6-10. From the data presented we conclude that in addition to other lymphokines, such as IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha is of importance during the entire course of a Listeria infection in nu/nu mice.

Animals↗