Attachment loss and serum antibody levels against autologous and reference strains of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans in untreated localized juvenile periodontitis patients

Abstract Immunological data have been suggested to be a potential tool in the diagnosis, classification and monitoring of periodontal diseases. However, the role of circulating antibodies in periodontal patients is poorly understood. Patients suffering from localized juvenile periodontitis (LJP) are often reported to show high titers of serum IgG antibodies against Aetinobaeillus actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcotnitans), but several affected patients do not. Most studies use well-known reference strains of the bacterium for testing against the patients' sera. The aim of the present investigation was to study the relationship between serum IgG antibody levels to autologous A. actinomycetemcomitans strains and clinical attachment loss (CAL). In addition, we wanted to assess the patients’serum titers against 4 well-known reference strains of the bacterium as well as their general potential immunoglobulin response. Intravenous blood samples were taken from 23 LJP patients and 10 healthy individuals, and autologous A. actinomycetemcomitans strains were cultured from 18 of the L.JP patients. CAL was measured at 4 different sites around ail present teeth and assessed as a % of teeth with at least 1 site moderately ≥2<5 mm) or severely (≥5 mm) involved. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to evaluate the serum titers of IgG antibodies to A. actinomycetemcomitans antigens. No significant correlation was found between serum IgG antibody titers to autologous strains and CAL. However, there was a trend that low responders had more moderately affected teeth than had high responders and patients with undetectable A. actinomycetemcomitans levels, which is in agreement with a hypothetically protective role of the antibodies. The total counts of immunoglobulin assessed in all participants showed that the predominant class was IgG and the reference group displayed significantly less (p<0.05) IgG and IgG1 counts than the LJP patients. Both the reaction pattern against reference and autologous strains varied widely. We conclude that the specific antibody response against A. actinomycetemcomitans shows a weak correlation to clinical attachment levels in LJP patients.     

β-N-Acetylhexosaminadases in human cerebrospinal fluid and serum of patients with multiple sclerosis

β-N-Acetylhexosaminidase activity and isoenzyme have been investigated in normal human cerebrospinal fluid and that of patients with multiple sclerosis. β-N-acetylhexosaminidase activity in normal cerebrospinal fluids has been resolved into five components. The major component was in a form that eluted from DEAE cellulose at the same salt concentration as hexosaminidase As, the isoenzyme previously identified in human serum. Cerebrospinal fluid from patients exhibited a different isoenzyme profile, showing a remarkable increase in a form having a pI which was more acidic than that of As. These changes have a potential use in the diagnosis and further biochemical characterization of multiple sclerosis.     

Serum digoxin and beta-methyldigoxin in elderly patients on hospital admission: correlation with home compliance and clinical variables

Summary Serum digoxin and beta-methyldigoxin (BMD) were measured in 165 elderly patients (age >60 years) admitted to hospital, of whom 109 had been treated at home with digoxin and 56 with BMD.The mean BMD level was significantly lower than that of digoxin (1.1 vs. 1.4 ng/ml). Creatinine clearance and daily dose were the variables most strongly associated with digoxin level, and the prescribed dose and serum albumin were the best predictors of the BMD concentration. Compliance was assessed by a compliance index (CI), namely the ratio of the measured glycoside concentration, corrected for creatinine clearance, over the expected steady-state dose, calculated from a hospitalized reference group. Compliant individuals in both treatment groups, i.e. those with a CI > the median value, were characterized by a lower daily dose and dosage frequency.Toxicity, whether clinical or electrocardiographic, was present in 9% of the patients and was associated only with a significantly higher mean serum level of the drug.     

The Effects of Serum from Patients with Acute Liver Failure on the Growth and Metabolism of Hep G2 Cells

In many bioartificial liver systems currently being designed and evaluated for use in fulminant hepatic failure, direct contact is required between the patient's blood and the liver cells in the device. The efficacy of such devices will be influenced by the interaction of fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) patient serum with the cells. We have found that FHF serum inhibits the growth rate and the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and protein; disturbs glutathione homeostasis; and induces morphological changes in cultured human Hep G2 cells. These interactions should influence the design of bioartificial liver devices based on proliferating cell lines and indicate the requirement to pretreat FHF patient plasma to reduce the toxin load.     

急性心肌梗塞患者血清唾液酸含量测定

本文测定了５０例正常人，３２例急性心肌梗塞，５４例冠心病无梗塞者血清ＳＡ水平，结果表明，急性心肌梗塞组血清ＳＡ水平与冠心病无梗塞组及正常人相比，具显著性差异，可能与心肌梗塞造成心肌细胞受损所致使细胞表面成份释放入血有关，所以血清ＳＡ测定可提供一新的心肌梗塞诊断依据。     

Development of Activity Assays for High-Volume Evaluation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Protease Inhibitors in Rat Serum: Results with Ditekiren

We showed previously that a commercially available synthetic tetradecapeptide, Asp-Arg-Val-Tyr-Ile-His-Pro-Phe-His-Leu-Leu-Val-Tyr-Ser, produces authentic angiotensin I (Ang I) upon incubation with the HIV-1 protease (S. K. Sharma et al., Anal. Biochem. 198:363, 1991). Therefore, we developed an Ang-I based activity assay for HIV protease inhibitors based on the technology developed earlier (M. J. Ruwart et al., Pharm. Res. 7:407, 1990; S. K. Sharma et al., Anal. Biochem. 186:24, 1990) for tracking renin inhibitors in rat sera. Ditekiren was either extracted from sera with ethyl acetate or assayed after the interfering substances in sera were precipitated with acetonitrile. Purified recombinant HIV-1 protease was added to extracted rat serum and the enzymatic reaction was initiated in the presence of the tetradecapeptide substrate. The inhibition of Ang I production was measured by a commercially available RIA kit. The cleanup methodology also enabled a commercially available Proteinase Scintillation Proximity Assay (SPA, Amersham) to quantify ditekiren in rat serum through the addition of recombinant HIV-1 protease and cleavage of substrate from SPA beads. Results were confirmed by HPLC or by the renin assay for ditekiren, which inhibits both aspartyl proteases. These technologies should prove useful for assessing serum levels of HIV protease inhibitors in rat.     

Effect of haemodialysis on serum levels of tumour markers in patients with end-stage renal failure

SUMMARY: We studied the effect of haemodialysis on the serum levels of tumour markers in 78 patients, 49 men and 29 women with a mean age of 61 ± 2 years, who had been undergoing haemodialysis for 39 ± 10 months. No patient had any clinical evidence of malignancy. Serum values of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), squamous-cell-carcinoma-related antigen (SCC), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA), CA 15-3, CA 19–9, and among males prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were determined before and after dialysis. Postdialysis values, after being corrected for haemoconcentration, were compared with predialysis values. A significant increase of 32% was observed in NSE levels ( P <0.001) and of 21% in CA 15-3 ( P <0.001) after haemodialysis. A lesser, but still statistically significant, increase (8-12%) was observed in SCC, AFP and CEA levels ( P <0.05), while the values of the remaining three markers remained unchanged. In conclusion, an increase in some tumour markers was found in our patients after dialysis, a finding which requires further investigation.     

Quantification of risk factors in Hospital infection at a surgical service

In this paper we have analyzed several risk factors for developing nosocomial infections at a Surgical Service of the Hospital Clinico Universitario San Cecilio 2>, based on a retrospective follow-up program designed specifically for this study. Of all patients admitted to the Service from January 1 to June 17, 1987, we examined the following variables: age, sex, cause of admission, emergency or non-emergency admission, operation and related variables. The overall rate of nosocomial infections was 16.46%. The most significant risk factors we found were operation , which had a linear correlation coefficient of '0.929 (p < 0.01) with hospital infection when stratified by its lenght, advanced age ( >60 years old), especially in non-operated patients, and chemoprophylaxis. Such risk factors were ascertained taking into account the confounding effect produced by the variables studied in this survey.Corresponding author.     

Variation in serum binding of tertatolol mediated by disease-induced modification of alpha-acid glycoprotein concentration

Summary The serum concentrations of ₁-acid glycoprotein (AAG), albumin (HSA) and non-esterified fatty acids, and the serum binding of tertatolol were measured in four groups of individuals: healthy control subjects (n=24), and patients with inflammation (n=28), and hepatic (n=20) and renal (n=27) insufficiency.Serum binding of tertatolol was increased in patients with inflammation (94.6%), decreased in patients with hepatic insufficiency (88.8%) and it was unchanged in patients with renal insufficiency (92.8%) as compared to controls (92.7%).Multivariate analysis indicated that the changes were mainly related to concomitant changes in AAG concentration, which could account for 57% of intersubject variability in the bound/free ratio, and to a lesser extent in HSA, which accounted for only 4% of the variability in the binding.The data show that the free fraction of the basic drug tertatolol in serum is affected by pathological conditions that cause changes in AAG concentration.     

四川省绵阳市2019—2021年流行性感冒流行病学特征分析

目的 了解绵阳市2019—2021年流行性感冒流行病学特征,为绵阳市流感防控工作提供重要依据。方法 收集绵阳市2019—2021年流感监测相关数据,采用描述性流行病学方法进行统计学分析。结果 绵阳市2019—2021年流感共报告发病55 970例,年均报告发病率388.08/10万。报告流感样病例（influenza-like illness cases, ILI） 103 723例,年平均ILI%为3.58%。2019年流感报告发病率、ILI%、阳性检出率均远超过历年同期水平。人群分类构成以15岁以下学生为主。报告发病数居前三位的地区分别为涪城区20 118例（占35.94%）、游仙区6 394例（占11.42%）、江油市5 800例（占10.36%）。2019—2021年共收到并检测ILI标本10 126份,阳性率19.53%;标本阳性检出率以15岁以下学生为主。历年流感病毒优势毒株呈现出交替流行的趋势,2019年以A（H3）型为主,2020年受新冠疫情影响,全年阳性检出率均较低,2021年除检出2份A（H9）型外,其余均为BV型。2019—2021年共报告ILI暴发疫情43起,发生时间主要集中在冬季,场所以小学居多。结论 2019—2021年绵阳市流感病例、ILI、病原学监测、暴发疫情的特征基本一致,15岁以下的学生及学校仍为重点关注人群及场所。而新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情大流行下,流感的低发水平进一步印证非药物干预措施对流感防控工作的重要性。