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Query: UMLS:C0032285 (pneumonia)
 54,520 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The pathophysiology of meconium aspiration is marked by lung hyperinflation because of airway obstruction, which is often followed by an acute pneumonitis with classic lung injury characteristics. Surfactant dysfunction may contribute to this latter pulmonary pathophysiology. We sought to determine to what extent meconium itself might contribute to a functional surfactant deficiency. Specimens of newborn infants' first meconium were collected and pooled. Serial dilutions of the meconium were then added to various concentrations of calf lung surfactant extract, a mixture with the surface properties of natural surfactant that is used clinically to treat neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, and the dynamic surface activity of these mixtures was studied with a pulsating bubble surfactometer. At surfactant concentrations of less than or equal to 1.5 mg/ml, even 6500-fold dilutions of meconium-inhibited surface tension lowering ability (10 +/- 2 mN/m vs 1 +/- 0.1 mN/m for controls, p less than 0.05). Moreover, this inhibitory activity resided in both the chloroform-soluble and the aqueous phases of meconium and appeared to be additive in nature. However, at sufficiently high concentrations of surfactant, even large amounts of meconium were unable to affect surface tension lowering properties. Thus meconium inhibits surfactant function in a manner that is dependent on the surfactant concentration, suggesting the possible utility of exogenous surfactant therapy in some cases of meconium aspiration.
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PMID:Inhibition of pulmonary surfactant function by meconium. 199 87

Acholeplasma axanthum sp. was isolated from the lung of swine with catarrhal pneumonia. Clinical symptoms of respiratory disease, gross and histological lesions of pneumonia, as well as serological response were produced by intranasal inoculation of ;miniature pigs' with the supernatant of lung suspension containing Acholeplasma axanthum and by a 48 hr. broth culture of the strain.A similar picture of disease was observed in animals held in contact with the animals inoculated with untreated lung suspension. Acholeplasma axanthum was isolated from the nasal cavity, lung and peribronchial lymph nodes 7-41 days after inoculation. No lesions were observed after inoculation of pigs with the supernatant of lung suspension pretreated with oxytetracycline or chloroform, and no successful isolation of Acholeplasma axanthum could be achieved after this treatment.
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PMID:Studies on the pathogenicity of Acholeplasma axanthum in swine. 452 23

Preexposure of blood samples to perchloric acid permitted an accurate, quantitative measurement of endotoxin levels as low as 1 pg/ml using a colorimetric limulus test. Conventional chloroform and dilution-heating methods were unsatisfactory because of high residual nonspecific amidolytic activity and poor recovery. The normal peripheral plasma endotoxin level was less than 10 pg/ml when Escherichia coli 0111:B4 endotoxin was used as a reference. One nanogram in this assay was equivalent to 2.9 endotoxin units of USP reference standard endotoxin (E. coli 0113). High values were noted in portal venous blood and in cases of acute hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, strangulation ileus, pyothorax, lung abscess, diffuse panbronchiolitis, and pneumonia. Normal human plasma and serum exhibited a high capacity to inactivate added endotoxin. E. coli 0111:B4 and Salmonella minnesota 9700 were more susceptible to inactivation than Pseudomonas aeruginosa endotoxin. This inactivating activity was temperature dependent, was maximal between 37 degrees and 45 degrees C, and disappeared completely after heating plasma or serum to 56 degrees C for 30 minutes prior to the addition of endotoxin. The E. coli 0111:B4 endotoxin-inactivating activity of normal platelet-rich plasma, platelet-poor plasma, and serum, all at 37 degrees C, was 8.1 +/- 3.1, 11.7 +/- 4.5, and 15.2 +/- 4.9 micrograms/min/ml (mean +/- SD; n = 4), respectively. Endotoxin-inactivating activity was markedly decreased in plasma from patients with endotoxemia, but returned to normal with recovery from the underlying illness.
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PMID:Addition of perchloric acid to blood samples for colorimetric limulus test using chromogenic substrate: comparison with conventional procedures and clinical applications. 608 54

Tilmicosin is a novel macrolide antibiotic with a wide range of therapeutic uses against gram positive (+ve) and gram negative (-ve) bacteria and mycoplasmae causing pneumonia and mastitis and can be used to treat these diseases in sheep. After its use there may be residues present in ovine milk that interfere with cheese making and processing of other milk products. It is important to monitor for the presence of tilmicosin in ovine milk and a method has been optimized and validated for its determination. Tilmicosin is extracted from milk into methanol. The methanol extract is acidified and non-polar co-extractives removed using hexane followed by carbon tetrachloride. The pH is adjusted to 9.0 and the tilmicosin partitioned into chloroform. The chloroform extract is evaporated to dryness and the residue resuspended in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) mobile phase. Tilmicosin is determined using reversed-phase HPLC and ultraviolet (UV) detection at 280 nm. Recovery of tilmicosin from ovine milk fortified over the range 50 to 250 micrograms l-1 is in the range 84.3-104.8%, with a relative standard deviation ranging from 6.6 to 12.9%. The proposed procedure allows the determination of residues of tilmicosin in ovine milk at levels less that 50 micrograms l-1 and satisfies the quality criteria specified in European Commission Decision 93/526/EEC with the exception of reproducibility data from interlaboratory trials.
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PMID:Determination of tilmicosin in ovine milk using high-performance liquid chromatography. 787 57

Detection of Pneumocystis carinii by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), based on the thymidylate synthase (TS) gene of rat P. carinii, is a specific and sensitive method for the detection of the parasite in respiratory samples. However, the use of the method is limited by a laborious phenol-chloroform DNA extraction method and an expensive and time-consuming hybridization procedure. For routine clinical samples, DNA preparation can be simplified and hybridization substituted by a nested PCR technique. Such a modified PCR procedure, based on the TS gene of P. carinii, was evaluated on 190 induced sputum samples from 50 immunosuppressed patients, infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with and without symptoms of P. carinii pneumonia (PCP). The PCR assay, preceded by a rapid DNA preparation (Wizard DNA Clean-up), detected P. carinii-DNA in 13/15 sputa containing parasites as seen by microscopy using immunocytochemical (IFL) staining, and in 10 additional sputum samples lacking demonstrable parasites by microscopy. These samples are to be considered as 'true' positives, since all but 2 were from patients, who developed a PCP within 1 year. We conclude that the nested PCR assay is more sensitive than IFL for the detection of P. carinii in AIDS patients, prior to the debut of PCP symptoms.
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PMID:A rapid and simple nested PCR assay for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii in sputum samples. 906 63

We report on the development of a rapid nested PCR protocol for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens in which the protocol included the use of a commercially available DNA extraction kit (GeneReleaser). GeneReleaser enabled us to obtain amplification-ready DNA within 20 min without requiring the purification of the DNA. The nested PCR was performed with the primers pAZ102-E, pAZ102-H, and pAZ102-L2 (A. E. Wakefield, F. J. Pixley, S. Banerji, K. Sinclair, R. F. Miller, E. R. Moxon, and J. M. Hopkin, Lancet 336:451-453, 1990.). Results were obtained in about 4 h with the adoption of denaturation, annealing, and extension steps shortened to 20 seconds. The sensitivity of the nested PCR was tested with a P. carinii cyst suspension and was found to be less than one cyst (one to eight nuclei). The detection limit was the same with the use of GeneReleaser or proteinase K-phenol chloroform for DNA extraction. The nested PCR assay was prospectively compared with staining with Giemsa and methenamine silver stains for the detection of P. carinii in 127 BAL samples from 105 human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients investigated for acute respiratory illness. Twenty-five BAL specimens (20%) were positive by staining and the nested PCR and 25 (20%) were negative by staining and positive by the nested PCR. These 25 BAL specimens with conflicting results were obtained from 23 patients, 82% of whom were receiving prophylactic therapy against P. carinii pneumonia (PCP). Only two patients were diagnosed with possible PCP. The final diagnosis was not PCP for 20 patients who were considered to be colonized or to have a low level of infection. This colonization is not of clinical importance but is of epidemiological importance. Our rapid, simple, and sensitive amplification protocol may be performed in clinical laboratories for the routine diagnosis of PCP with BAL specimens.
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PMID:Rapid detection of Pneumocystis carinii in bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients: use of a simple DNA extraction procedure and nested PCR. 935 Jul 26

The detection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA in blood by PCR could be useful for studying the natural history of pneumocystosis and could also be a noninvasive diagnostic method. The results of previous studies are nevertheless conflicting. In our study, we compared three commercially available DNA extraction kits (GeneReleaser, QIAamp Tissue Kit, and ReadyAmp Genomic DNA Purification System) and proteinase K and proteinase K-phenol-chloroform treatments for the extraction of P. carinii DNA from dilutions of a P. carinii f. sp. hominis cyst suspension mixed with human whole blood. A rapid and simple nested PCR protocol which amplifies a portion of the mitochondrial large-subunit rRNA gene was applied to all the extraction products. The QIAmp Tissue Kit was the most effective kit for the isolation of amplification-ready P. carinii DNA and was used with nested PCR for the testing of whole-blood specimens from 35 immunocompetent control patients and 84 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients investigated for pulmonary disease and/or fever. In HIV-infected patients, P. carinii DNA was detected by nested PCR in blood samples from 3 of 14 patients with microscopically proven P. carinii pneumonia, 7 of 22 patients who were considered to be colonized with P. carinii, and 9 of 48 patients who were neither infected nor colonized with P. carinii. P. carinii DNA was not detected in blood specimens from the 35 immunocompetent patients. P. carinii DNA in blood might represent viable P. carinii organisms or DNA complexes released from pulmonary phagocytes. In conclusion, P. carinii DNA may be detected in whole blood from HIV-infected patients, but the nature and the meaning of the circulating form of P. carinii remain to be established.
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PMID:Detection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA in blood specimens from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients by nested PCR. 985 76

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes both an acute lung disease in patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia and a chronic lung disease in individuals with cystic fibrosis. Many of the pathophysiologic effects of P. aeruginosa infection are due to factors secreted by the bacterium. Conditioned media from cultures of P. aeruginosa increased interleukin-8 expression and decreased regulated on activation, normal T cells expressed and secreted (RANTES) expression by human airway epithelial cells. Both of these activities were present in heat-treated, protease-treated, small molecular weight fractions. The activities were not inhibited by polymyxin B and were not extracted into ethyl acetate, suggesting that they were not due to endotoxin or autoinducer. Conversely, results from chloroform extractions and studies with a phenazine-minus mutant suggested that the blue pigment pyocyanin contributes to these activities when present. In addition to the effects of small molecular weight factors on cytokine expression, proteases in bacterial-conditioned media further decreased levels of RANTES. By altering expression, release, and/or activity of inflammatory cytokines, secretory factors from P. aeruginosa could disrupt the delicate balance that constitutes the immune response to bacterial infection and thus could contribute to the lung damage that occurs in P. aeruginosa-infected airways.
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PMID:Small molecular weight secretory factors from Pseudomonas aeruginosa have opposite effects on IL-8 and RANTES expression by human airway epithelial cells. 1150 28

OBJECTIVE: Because presently used methods for diagnosis of Legionella pneumonia lack sufficient sensitivity and sometimes specificity and rapidity, the detection of Legionella spp. by amplification of nucleic acids might be valuable. However, performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on clinical samples such as sputum is difficult because of the presence of extraneous DNA and inhibitors of the reaction. An attempt to circumvent these problems was made. METHODS: A nested PCR method was devised using primers from the mip gene of Legionella pneumophila. This PCR was tested on pure cultures of legionellae and clinical isolates of other bacteria. Clinical samples (bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, bronchial aspirate and sputum) from patients who suffered from legionellosis and samples from patients who suffered from other causes of pneumonia were also tested. RESULTS: The PCR was specific for L. pneumophila and no non-Legionella bacteria reacted. Ten to 50 colony forming units of Legionella in the sample could be detected. Twenty-two of 25 clinical samples were positive among patients suffering from pneumonia proven to be due to L. pneumophila serogroups 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Two of the three negative samples were from patients who had been treated with adequate therapy for at least 2 days and were culture negative. However, nine other culture-negative samples were PCR positive, of which seven came from patients who had been treated for 3-7 days. All pneumonia patients in the control group proved negative in PCR. A commercial kit for DNA preparation from clinical samples, based on absorption of nucleic acids to silica gel, was superior to the traditional phenol/chloroform extraction and increased the rapidity, simplicity and sensitivity of the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: A nested, simplified and rapid PCR method using mip primers proved to be more sensitive than culture and as sensitive and specific as other PCR procedures previously reported.
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PMID:A nested polymerase chain reaction for detection of Legionella pneumophila in clinical specimens. 1186 82

A viral agent was isolated from lung tissue obtained upon necropsy of an Arabian foal which had exhibited clinical signs of pneumonia. The virus is 75 nm in diameter, cubic in symmetry, and resistant to chloroform and low pH (3.0). It contains deoxyribonucleic acid and has a buoyant density of 1.31 g/cm(3) in cesium chloride. These findings indicate that the virus is a member of the adenovirus group.
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PMID:Isolation and characterization of an equine adenovirus. 1655 78


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