Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0036690 (sepsis)
 59,461 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Dry heat forms a specific burn toxin in mouse and human skin from a naturally occurring precursor by a polymerization process and not by producing breakdown products. Precursor and toxin are both macromolecular lipid-protein complexes with similar chemical composition and physical structure both occurring in mouse and human skin as well as in serum of burned patients. Specific toxicity resides only in the apoprotein of the polymeric toxic form which also has new specific artificially produced antigenic site or sites. This phenomenon makes it possible to jump the species from man to mouse, shown by the success of specific immunotherapy. Neutral apolar lipids of the coat are contributing in an unspecific but significant manner to the toxic effect. Bacteria are not involved in toxin production nor in toxin activity. The target systems of the toxin are the cell wall membranes of all parenchymal cells of paractically all organs. The toxin apparently causes severe damage of the membrane verified by an increased permeability for compounds which otherwise do not penetrate. This basic cell damage itself is able to kill the animal, depending on the ratio of intact to damaged cells. Sublethal doses of toxin, however, prepare the background upon which bacteremia in burn injuries leads to a lethal sepsis. Finally, the direct toxic action as well as the enhancement of the susceptibility for gram-negative organisms both leading to the lethal outcome can be counteracted by specific passive antitoxic immunotherapy.
 ...
PMID:Experimental evidence for a significant impairment of host defense for gram-negative organisms by a specific cutaneous toxin produced by severe burn injuries. 116 80

The diagnosis of urinary tract sepsis is being made more often today because of increased awareness of the condition and improved techniques in the detection and management of genitourinary disorders. Patients developing urinary tract sepsis (bacteremia or septicemia) usually demonstrate certain predisposing factors: underlying chronic disease, advanced age, general debility, or recent urinary tract sepsis is easily made in a patient who has a sudden onset of fever, chills, malaise, nausea, and vomiting, along with tachycardia and a drop in blood pressure. Cultures should be taken from urine and blood samples, but therapy should be instituted immediately rather than after obtaining the results of cultures.
 ...
PMID:Treatment of genitourinary infections. 122 Sep 5

An experimental model was designed to evaluate a combined protocol of active immunization and granulocyte transfusions for treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa sepsis in the neutropenic host. One member of a pair of dogs was immunized with P. aeruginosa vaccine. Both dogs were then rendered transiently neutropenic with a single intravenous dose of cyclophosphamide (40 mg. per kilogram) and challenged with an intravenous inoculum of P. aeruginosa. Twenty-four and 48 hours after pseudomonas challenge each animal received granulocyte transfusions. Effectiveness of therapy was evaluated by observation of survival time, febrile response, and quantitative blood cultures. Results showed a significant increase in the survival period (P is less than 0.05), a lower febrile response (P is less than 0.025), negative blood cultures, and a greater recovery rate in the immune group. Immune dogs that died had negative blood cultures or less than or equal to 10 pseudomonas per milliliter of blood despite the presence of P. aeruginosa in tissues. In contrast, control dogs had septic deaths within 67 hours of pseudomonas challenge, marked febrile responses with 24 hours of infection, and positive blood cultures with 4,000 to 25,800 pseudomonas per milliliter of blood. These data show that combined therapy with immunization and granulocyte transfusions is effective in reducing the severity of P. aeruginosa infection and in preventing bacteremia during periods of leukopenia.
 ...
PMID:Combined pre-immunization and granulocyte transfusion therapy for treatment of pseudomonas septicemia in neutropenic dogs. 127 Aug 91

We did a retrospective study of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia--from removable foci of infection--treated with short course antimicrobial therapy. Patients with S. aureus endocarditis were excluded from our study. The majority of patients had sepsis from intravascular devices. After removal of the focus of bacteremia, antibiotics were administered for a mean period of 15.2 days. There were no relapses, and no patient developed endocarditis. A 10- to 21-day antibiotic regimen can be curative in S. aureus bacteremia associated with a removable focus of infection.
 ...
PMID:Therapy of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia associated with a removable focus of infection. 127 57

Many microorganisms are able to produce neuraminidase, which can uncover the T antigen on red blood cells and cause hemolysis. We studied T activation in 224 patients with positive blood cultures. Only those patients were included who had real bacteremia according to clinical parameters and microbiological results. None of our patients showed T transformation. We conclude that T activation is a rare or a very passing phenomenon which has less importance in routine diagnosis of sepsis.
 ...
PMID:[Liberation of the T-antigen in bacteremia]. 128 44

Enterococci are a frequent cause of hospital-acquired infection, being associated with urinary tract infections, wound sepsis, bacteremia, and endocarditis. The source of infection is usually thought to be endogenous, but some evidence points to cross-infection between patients. A better understanding of the epidemiology of enterococci has been limited by the lack of a good discriminatory typing system. This report describes the application of two DNA-based typing methods to Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium: comparison of restriction fragments from total DNA by conventional electrophoresis and comparison of restriction fragments hybridizing to an rRNA gene probe (ribotyping). Comparison of restriction fragments (from SstI digestion) by conventional electrophoresis was simple and highly discriminatory. The results of analysis of blood culture isolates and of repeat isolates from individual patients are reported. Ribotyping (with BscI digestion) was more applicable at the level of species discrimination.
 ...
PMID:Typing of Enterococcus species by DNA restriction fragment analysis. 131 38

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), a primary mediator of systemic responses to sepsis and infection, can be injurious to the organism when present in excessive quantities. Here we report that two types of naturally occurring soluble TNF receptors (sTNFR-I and sTNFR-II) circulate in human experimental endotoxemia and in critically ill patients and demonstrate that they neutralize TNF alpha-induced cytotoxicity and immunoreactivity in vitro. Utilizing immunoassays that discriminate between total sTNFR-I and sTNFR-I not bound to TNF alpha, we show that sTNFR-I-TNF alpha complexes may circulate even in the absence of detectable free TNF alpha. To investigate the therapeutic possibilities of sTNFR-I, recombinant protein was administered to nonhuman primates with lethal bacteremia and found to attenuate hemodynamic collapse and cytokine induction. We conclude that soluble receptors for TNF alpha are inducible in inflammation and circulate at levels sufficient to block the in vitro cytotoxicity associated with TNF alpha levels observed in nonlethal infection. Administration of sTNFR-I can prevent the adverse pathologic sequelae caused by the exaggerated TNF alpha production observed in lethal sepsis.
 ...
PMID:Tumor necrosis factor soluble receptors circulate during experimental and clinical inflammation and can protect against excessive tumor necrosis factor alpha in vitro and in vivo. 131 75

Since Aubaniac (1) described the puncture of the subclavian vein in 1952, and specially after the standardization of parenteral nutrition by Dudrick et al. (11) in 1968, much has been published about complications caused by percutaneous central venous catheterization. Among the various complications provoked by this procedure, a very important one is "primary sepsis" or "catheter-related sepsis", both because of its frequency and because of the morbidity and mortality it causes (18,19). It is, however, difficult to diagnose this complication. The main difficulty lies in differentiating catheters that are really causing sepsis from those that, though showing "positive culture" do not cause bacteremia and are not responsible for the occasional signs of infection that a patient may show (6,7). This difficulty in diagnosing has led to the recommendation that all catheters suspected of causing sepsis be systematically removed. This procedure has the effect of exposing patients in serious condition and with limited venous access to the risks of new punctures. Usually these risks are unnecessary, since 75 to 90% of the catheters removed for this reason are not the real source of infection (3, 17, 19, 21, 22). In 1977, Maki et al. (18) proposed a semiquantitative catheter tip culture that showed considerable correlation with positive hemoculture for the same microorganisms; that is, capable of identifying which "positive catheters" were really causing sepsis. Subsequent research confirmed these results, showing that the semiquantitative catheter tip culture had specificity and sensibility over 80% (10, 15).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Semiquantitative culture in diagnosing venous catheter-related sepsis. 134 Oct 16

Klebsiella pneumoniae strains involved in hospital outbreaks of nosocomial infections, such as suppurative lesions, bacteremia, and septicemia, were resistant to multiple antibiotics including broad-spectrum cephalosporins. Epidemiologic investigations revealed that the reservoir for these K. pneumoniae strains was the gastrointestinal tracts of the patients. The study of the adherence ability of the strains reported here showed that these bacteria adhered to the microvilli of the Caco-2 cell line. This adhesion was mediated by a nonfimbrial protein with a molecular mass of 29,000 Da designated CF29K. Pretreatment of bacteria with antibodies raised against CF29K or Caco-2 cells with purified CF29K prevented the adhesion of K. pneumoniae strains to Caco-2 cells. CF29K immunologically cross-reacted with the CS31A surface protein of Escherichia coli strains involved in septicemia in calves. Genes encoding CF29K were located on a high-molecular-weight conjugative R plasmid, which transferred to E. coli K-12. Transconjugants expressed a large amount of CF29K protein and adhered to the brush border of Caco-2 cells. These findings show that K. pneumoniae strains were able to colonize the human intestinal tract through a plasmid-encoded 29,000-Da surface protein. Hybridization experiments indicated that the gene encoding resistance to broad-spectrum cephalosporins by the production of CAZ-1 enzyme and the gene encoding the adhesive property to intestinal cells were both located on a 20- to 22-kb EcoRI restriction DNA fragment. Genes encoding aerobactin and the ferric aerobactin receptor were also found on this R plasmid.
 ...
PMID:R-plasmid-encoded adhesive factor in Klebsiella pneumoniae strains responsible for human nosocomial infections. 134 9

Thirty-two cases of Xanthomonas maltophilia bacteremia have been identified over the last two years at the Veterans General Hospital, Taipei. Among them, 27 cases (84%) were due to hospital-acquired infections, and 14 cases (44%) were polymicrobial bacteremia. One case was confirmed as prosthetic valve endocarditis and one case was complicated by recurrent attacks of ecthyma gangrenosum. Most cases had severe debilitating conditions. Twelve cases (38%) had a malignancy, 19 cases (59%) were resident in the Intensive Care Unit and 16 cases (50%) had undergone major surgery. The main predisposing factors included central venous catheterization, endotracheal intubation or tracheostomy, prior antibiotic therapy and prolonged hospitalization. Moxalactam, chloramphenicol and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole were the most effective agents in vitro against X. maltophilia. Twenty-two cases (69%) died during hospitalization; 13 cases (41%) were directly attributed to septicemia. Factors that adversely influenced mortality included inappropriate antimicrobial therapy and prior antibiotic treatment. Of particular interest is the fact that none of the patients who did not receive appropriate antimicrobial therapy survived. Early diagnosis and appropriate antibiotic therapy are critical for improving the prognosis of X. maltophilia infection.
 ...
PMID:Xanthomonas maltophilia bacteremia: an analysis of 32 cases. 136 39


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>