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Biomedical subjects

U Böhm

Publications and source records attributed to U Böhm.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Accidental autoerotic deaths between 1978 and 1997. Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical School Hannover.

Between 1978 and 1997 the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Hannover Medical School examined 17 fatal autoerotic deaths. The incidence for the Hannover region was 0.49 cases per million inhabitants per year. The victims included 17 men with an average age of 36.8 years; a peak in the age distribution was seen between 20 and 29 years. Twelve of the men were found by friends or family in a domestic environment, while other situations in which the victims were found included the victim's own car, a hotel room, a canal embankment, a public parking lot as well as the holding cell of the youth detention center. The men were of varying socioeconomic status and held a number of different types of jobs or still attended school. Five of the men were found completely nude, while five were only undressed below the waist. Four men wore women's clothes and two were fully clothed with exposed genitals. Besides women's clothes, other objects found at the scene included various types of sexual aids, including ropes, chains, metal bars, locks, sex magazines, condoms, plastic bags, rubber items, etc. In four cases blood alcohol levels between 0.1 and 2.5 per thousand (urine alcohol levels between 0.2 and 2.5 per thousand ) were found. Toxicologic examination revealed chloroform, ketamine, a propane-butane gas mixture in one case each, and in two cases cocaine and morphine. Causes of death included central paralysis after strangulation (seven cases), asphyxiation (4), subarachnoid hemorrhage (2), intoxication (1), hypothermia (1), left heart failure (1), and drowning (1). The history, findings at scene, and autopsy findings and, in individual cases, other investigations are of utmost importance to accurately reconstruct a fatal autoerotic accident.

Accidents↗
PubMed2001

Subsets in psoriatic arthritis formed by cluster analysis.

The aim of the study was to create subgroups among psoriatic arthritis patients on the basis of dermatological features, clinical pattern of arthritis, and laboratory, immunological and radiological findings. Data on 100 patients were expressed in a standardised form and entered into hierarchical cluster analysis according to Ward's method. Seven subgroups were created. Fifty-six patients with mild psoriasis were sorted into a 'polyarticular group'. Two 'RA-like groups' were formed, differing from each other serologically and in axial involvement. In an 'oligoarticular group' (18 patients) serious skin disease and female gender predominancy were found to be characteristic. Eight patients with polyarticular arthritis were assigned to an 'erythrodermal group', in which polyarticular arthritis, mutilating, severe arthritis and a history of erythroderma were characteristic. Close to this group on the dendrogram eight women were sorted into a 'distal form'. Sausage fingers were frequent, and nail dystrophy was present in every case. In a 'pustular group' (three patients) the different type of skin involvement was considered and nail dystrophy was common. In the newly created subgroups not only the arthritic status, but also the type of the skin disease, played a determining role.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

L-carnitine reduces malondialdehyde concentrations in isolated rat hearts in dependence on perfusion conditions.

The study investigated the influence of L-carnitine on the formation of malondialdehyde, an indicator of lipid peroxidation, in isolated Langendorff rat hearts. Earlier investigations of hemodynamic parameters and the recovery of ATP and creatine phosphate, carried out by means of 31P-NMR spectroscopy, had demonstrated that, depending on the composition of the perfusates (content of glucose, fatty acids, and carnitine), quite strong differences may occur in the reperfusion period after ischemia. In order to determine a possible relationship between these differences and the addition of carnitine, the study investigated whether carnitine penetrated into the tissue during the experiments, and whether it was able to reduce the concentration of detrimental substances. The concentrations of free and total carnitine as well as the malondialdehyde content as an indicator of ischemia/reperfusion damage were determined in different parts of the cardiac tissue as follows: After the Langendorff-experiments the hearts were dissected, homogenized and reconditioned; then carnitine and malondialdehyde were determined. The study included 63 hearts, which were divided into 8 different perfusion groups. Carnitine concentrations in heart tissue perfused with L-carnitine were much higher than those of the controls. Since exogenous L-carnitine and formed esters could be found in the tissue after the experiment, they must have permeated the cellular membrane rapidly. The concentrations of malondialdehyde behaved in an inverted way; as expected they were lower in carnitine-perfused hearts. The favourable effects of L-carnitine, expressed both by improved cardiac dynamics and ATP and CrP recovery in the reperfusion period, are obviously due to the fact that L-carnitine reduces ischemic damage.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Identifying chromosomal fragile sites from individuals: a multinomial statistical model.

The inability to identify fragile sites from data for single individuals remains the major obstacle to determining whether these chromosomal loci are predisposed to cancer-causing and evolutionary rearrangements. We describe a novel statistical model that is amenable to data from single individuals and that establishes site-specific chromosomal breakage as nonrandom with respect to the distribution of total breakage. Our method tests incrementally smaller subsets of the data for homogeneity under a multinomial model that assigns equal probabilities to a maximal set of nonfragile sites and unrestricted probabilities to the remaining fragile sites with significantly higher numbers of breaks. We show how standardized Pearson's chi-square (X2) and likelihood-ratio (G2) statistics can be appropriately used to measure goodness-of-fit for sparse contingency (individual-based) data in this model. A sample application of this approach indicates extensive variation in fragile sites among individuals and marked differences in fragile-site inferences from pooled as opposed to per-individual data.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Immunoglobulin profiles and antibacterial antibody levels in hairy cell leukaemia.

Serum immunoglobulin and natural antibody concentrations to environmental antigens have been determined in 26 hairy cell leukaemia (HCL) patients. The serum IgG, IgA and IgM levels as well as the concentration of antibodies to the majority of intestinal bacteria were found to be normal in both groups of HCL patients. In contrast to the data on the impaired humoral immunity of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) patients, our results show that in HCL the studied aspects of humoral immunity are normal. Serum IgE levels were found to be significantly decreased in HCL when all patients were taken as a group. The difference was due to the decreased serum IgE concentration of splenectomized HCL patients, while IgE levels of untreated HCL patients did not differ statistically from that of the healthy controls.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Immunoglobulin profiles and antibacterial antibody levels in 50 patients a long time after posttraumatic splenectomy.

Serum immunoglobulin and antibacterial antibody concentrations have been determined in 50 patients 2 to 20 years after posttraumatic splenectomy. The serum levels of IgG, IgA and IgM were found to be significantly greater in the group of posttraumatic splenectomy patients than in that of the healthy controls. The serum IgE concentrations did not differ statistically from that of the controls. The serum level of natural antibodies against intestinal bacteria were found to be elevated (Shigella 1b, 2a, 3 and Salmonella typhi 02 strains) or normal (Salmonella typhi 0901 as well as E Coli 026 and 055 strains). Our results show that the studied functional aspects of humoral immunity in this group of otherwise healthy splenectomized individuals were not impaired.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

E. coli antibodies do not cause false-positivity in recombinant anti-HIV assays.

129 sera with known antibody titres against E. coli 026 and E. coli 055 strains were tested with the Abbot second generation anti-HTLV III recombinant screening assay. No difference in the O.D. values was found between sera with high, normal and low anti-E. coli titres. In addition, no false-positive reactions were observed with the anti-HIV negative sera containing E. coli antibodies in high titres in a Western blot assay in which recombinant env antigen was applied. These results suggest that E. coli assays in which E. coli-produced recombinant antigens are used.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗
PubMed1987

PHA- and Con A-induced chemiluminescence of human blood mononuclear cells and granulocytes in luminol or lucigenin.

Phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and concanavalin A (Con A) can evoke a chemiluminescence (CL) response both in granulocytes and blood mononuclear cells. We have used two parallel systems to compare the quantity and quality of oxygen radicals produced during activation. While the luminol-enhanced CL response is linked to the myeloperoxidase-H2O2-chloride system, the lucigenin-dependent light production measures only the superoxide radical. PHA produced higher CL response in the presence of luminol than with lucigenin. Con A showed high CL response only in the lucigenin-enhanced system. The results suggest that while Con A induces mostly superoxide production, the membrane stimulus evoked by PHA produces light through the myeloperoxidase-H2O2-halide system. Granulocytes are less sensitive to PHA than the blood mononuclear cells. The sensitivity of the responses to several scavengers and enzymes support the differential production of oxygen radicals following activation via these two lectins.

Acridines↗
PubMed1985

Induction of human rheumatoid factor and other autoantibodies by bacterial lipopolysaccharide.

In vitro autoantibody production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was studied using peripheral blood mononuclear (PBM) cell suspensions from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy subjects. PBMs from both groups could be induced by LPS to secrete IgM and IgA rheumatoid factors (RF), antinuclear and anti-beta-2-microglobulin autoantibodies. Spontaneous production of IgM-RF was considerably higher in RA than in controls. The rate of IgM-RF and IgA-RF secretion detected by ELISA increased with the dose of LPS in cultures of both groups. In RA, differences were found between the kinetics of IgM- and IgA-RFs secretion. LPS augmented the relative avidity of IgM-RF produced by PBMs from RA patients and this value was significantly higher than that of healthy persons. In some cases RFs cross-reacting with nuclear antigens and beta-2-microglobulin were detected.

Antibodies, Antinuclear↗
PubMed1984

IgE class immune complexes in Felty's syndrome: characterisation of antibody activities in isolated complexes.

By means of a double polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation and PRIST technique IgE was detected in 3% PEG precipitates and in the immune complex enriched fractions purified by solid-phase Clq adsorption from sera of 11 of 20 patients with Felty's syndrome. No correlation was found between the occurrence of complexed IgE and total protein content of the immune complex enriched material. IgE rheumatoid factor and anti-IgE antibody activity were detected in some of the immune complex fractions. Serum levels of complement C3, C4, and factor B were low in IgE immune complex positive cases. Only 4 of 20 patients with articular rheumatoid arthritis had IgE-containing immune complexes.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Chemiluminescence response of human blood mononuclear cells to PHA and histamine.

Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) elicited a short early chemiluminescence (CL) response of human blood mononuclear cells with a maximum at 2.5 min. The magnitude of the CL production was a function of the PHA concentration used. The CL response could be dose-dependently inhibited by histamine. In the presence of mepyramine the action of histamine was more pronounced while a dose-dependent reversal of the inhibition was found by cimetidine.

Cimetidine↗
PubMed1982

Beta-2-microglobulin-specific autoantibodies cause platelet aggregation and interfere with ADP-induced aggregation.

The anti-platelet activity of beta-2-microglobulin (beta 2m) specific autoantibodies isolated from sera of patients with autoimmune diseases was tested in direct and ADP-induced aggregation assays. It was established that human anti-beta 2m autoantibodies and heterologous rabbit anti-beta 2m antibodies evoke a dose-dependent aggregation of human platelets. Anti-beta 2m autoantibodies also impaired ADP-induced platelet aggregation. Antibodies with anti-beta 2m activity could be desorbed from the platelets and lymphocytes of a patients with systemic lupus erythematosus who was not thrombocytopenic. The possibility that such autoantibodies may alter platelet function is considered.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗
PubMed1981

Beta2-microglobulin-containing IgG complexes in sera and synovial fluids of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

The occurrence and composition of complexed beta2-microglobulin (beta2m) in sera and synovial fluids of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus patients and control persons was investigated. Beta2m-containing complexes were detected in immune complex (IC)-enriched fractions isolated by precipitation with 3% polyethylene glycol 6000, in the macromolecular peaks after Sephadex G-200 gel filtration, and in IC desorbed from solid-phase Clq. Beta2m complexes were demonstrated also after precipitation of redissolved PEG-insoluble material by anti-human beta2m serum or isolation of the complexes by use of Sephadex-anti-beta2m. IgG was co-isolated with beta2m on Sephadex-anti-beta2m and free beta2m inhibited the binding of IgG to Sephadex anti-beta2m, indicating that IgG was present in the complexed beta2m. Analysis by SDS-polyacrylamide gradient electrophoresis under reducing conditions indicated that the purified beta2m complexes contained IgG and beta2m.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗
PubMed1981

In vitro study of complement dependent active adherence on SLE and RA leukocytes.

Immunological disorders may cause altered motility or attachment of leukocytes. Active adherence of buffy cost cells derived from normal subjects and with autoimmune diseases patients and complement dependency of this process was studied on glass surfaces. The adherence of leukocytes of both normal persons and of SLE and RA patients was decreased in the presence of normal human serum compared to serum-free medium. The effects of native and heat inactivated human sera on leukocytes of SLE and RA patients were compared. Adherence of SLE leukocytes was higher, whereas that of RA leukocytes was lower in unheated serum compared to heat inactivated human serum. Supernatants of leukocytes of SLE, RA patients and control subjects were harvested after incubation in serum-free medium. The C3 levels of supernatants were determined by rocket electrophoresis. Surface attached C3 was detected with immunofluorescence mainly on SLE leukocytes. The cellular effects of supernatants on control leukocytes, were consistent with the changes observed with leukocytes derived from SLE, RA or control patients.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗