Biomedical subjects

U Walther

Publications and source records attributed to U Walther.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1991

The application of knemometry in renal disease: preliminary observations.

Short-term lower leg length was measured longitudinally using a high-precision device called a knemometer in 11 children with chronic renal failure and 12 normal children. The method has a high accuracy (mean standard error 0.13 mm) and may prove useful for prediction of long-term total body growth. Its application in renal patients undergoing corticosteroid, growth hormone (GH) and erythropoietin (EPO) therapy is documented. GH was shown to improve lower leg growth in an adolescent who already had passed the maximum of his pubertal spurt. EPO treatment produced no consistent increase of short-term growth.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

Myeloablative conditioning for marrow transplantation in myelodysplastic syndromes and paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria.

Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are disorders of pluripotent stem cells resulting in haematopoietic insufficiency which can be cured by marrow transplantation. The extent of myeloablative conditioning necessary for elimination of the non-malignant and premalignant clones is not known. We report our results of marrow transplantation with and without myeloablative conditioning in two patients with PNH and seven patients with MDS. Conditioning was not used in a patient with PNH and a monozygotic twin as donor. In this patient the disease remained unchanged. Myeloablative treatment with busulphan (BUS) in addition to immunosuppression with cyclophosphamide (CY) was used for conditioning in a patient with PNH and a 2-year-old boy with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML). Fractionated total body irradiation (FTBI) and CY was used in six patients with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts (RAEB) and RAEB in leukaemic transformation (RAEB-T). Haematopoiesis was fully restored in all patients conditioned with myeloablative treatment except for a patient in leukaemic transformation with myelofibrosis and a HLA-DR-incompatible donor. Chimerism was complete in all patients except for the 2-year-old boy conditioned with BUS and CY. Our results and those reviewed in the literature indicate that myeloablative conditioning with either BUS or FTBI is advantageous for marrow transplantation in PNH and MDS.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

[Cell membrane differences between malignant and nonmalignant cells].

Malignant cells possesses an electric surface charge differing from their healthy counterparts. In many cases they exhibit increased electronegativity. We incubated blood or bone marrow with heparin--a polyanion--and subsequently stained the cells with a fluorochrome. In healthy subjects or patients with non-malignant disease heparin was found to attach closely to the cell surface, visualised through fluorescence. In a variable number of malignant cells heparin did not attach to the cell surface. Electrostatic repulsion of the negative heparin molecule through the increased negativity of the malignant cell is discussed as an explanation of this finding which can be corrected/inhibited by neuraminidase incubation.

Blood Cells↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Effect of chloroquine on polyanions].

Chloroquine forms complexes with polyanions as does the metachromatic dye pseudoisocyanine. This phenomenon can be used to show chloroquine binding to polyanions. It is shown spectrophotometrically that glycosaminoglycans form complexes with chloroquine more readily than with pseudoisocyanine. Moreover chloroquine abolishes fluorescence of glycosaminoglycan inclusion bodies in leucocytes of mucopolysaccharidosis patients. A woman of 34 suffering from mucopolysaccharidosis type I-S had such inclusion bodies in 19 out of 200 leucocytes examined before and in only two after a month of chloroquine treatment. In heparinized blood chloroquine induces clotting faster than does saline in control samples. This finding suggests inactivation of polyanions by chloroquine binding.

Anions↗