Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0348321 (Haemophilus)
 15,372 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To define the contribution of aggressive lymphoma treatment to the risk of post-splenectomy septicemia, we investigated the humoral immunity of 44 patients with Hodgkin's disease. Specific antibody against Haemophilus influenzae Type b was significantly reduced (mean, 147 ng per milliliter, P less than 0.01) in patients receiving combined treatment (radiotherapy and chemotherapy), whereas single treatment reduced titers marginally (chemotherapy) or not at all (radiotherapy). Untreated patients had normal values (396 ng per milliliter), and splenectomy was without effect. In some patients who received combined treatment, titers were reduced to levels seen in infants. IgM levels were likewise normal in untreated patients. Chemotherapy, however, significantly reduced IgM levels (P less than 0.025), an effect potentiated by prior splenectomy. IgG, IgA, alternate-pathway activity, C3, C4 and CH50 were all normal or elevated. Aggressive treatment with chemotherapy and radiation impairs humoral defense against encapsulated micro-organisms, and thus magnifies the risk of post-splenectomy septicemia in patients with Hodgkin's disease.
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PMID:Impaired humoral immunity in treated Hodgkin's disease. 30 8

The epidemiology and incidence, etiology, pathogenesis and pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, principles of therapy, and treatment of bacterial meningitis in infants and children are reviewed. Bacterial meningitis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and most cases occur in children less than five years old. Haemophilus influenzae type b, Neisseria meningitidis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae are the major pathogens involved. Bacteremia or colonization of the upper-respiratory-tract epithelium often precedes meningitis. Defense mechanisms are poor in the cerebrospinal fluid; once an organism penetrates the blood-brain barrier, infection may follow quickly. Clinical signs and symptoms are somewhat nonspecific, with lethargy, restlessness, and poor feeding prominent; diagnosis often relies on the patient history along with preliminary results of lumbar punctures. Therapy is based on pharmacologic and pharmacodynamic principles concerning the available antimicrobial agents, the blood-brain barrier, and supportive therapy. Effective antimicrobial therapy requires attainment of adequate bactericidal activity in the cerebrospinal fluid; penetration of agents into the brain depends on their physico-chemical characteristics. Antibiotic therapy must generally be started before culture results are available, making empiric therapy based on the child's age, history, and underlying conditions important. Established therapeutic agents include penicillins, aminoglycosides, and chloramphenicol, though newer expanded-spectrum cephalosporins such as cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, and cefotaxime are being used with increasing frequency. However, the use of these newer, more potent antimicrobial agents have not appreciably altered associated morbidity and mortality. Aggressive supportive care and evaluation of newer nonantibiotic treatments should be addressed in future studies of bacterial meningitis in infants and children.
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PMID:Current concepts in clinical therapeutics: bacterial meningitis in infants and children. 353 67

Aggressive antibiotic therapy of bacterial airway infection is one of the main reasons for the dramatic increase in life expectancy over the last few decades. Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae are the predominant pathogens in younger patients, but the choice of antibiotic therapy against these pathogens remains highly controversial. There is general agreement that patients with pulmonary exacerbations should be treated and many cystic fibrosis (CF) centres will also try to eradicate bacteria in the absence of symptoms. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy, with anti-staphylococcal medications started at the time of diagnosis, is advocated by some groups but its positive effect remains unproven. In fact, recent studies have suggested that continuous prophylactic treatment with anti-staphylococcal antibiotics may increase the risk of early colonisation with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa is the main pathogen in older children with CF. While chronic airway infection with mucoid P. aeruginosa is considered irreversible, both the combination of oral ciprofloxacin with inhaled colistin and inhaled tobramycin alone has been used successfully in the early phase of colonisation. In patients chronically infected with P. aeruginosa, standard treatment of pulmonary exacerbations consists of intravenous combination therapy for 2-3 weeks. Controversy exists whether this treatment should be performed routinely every 3 months or only in the presence of a pulmonary exacerbation. Inhaled antibiotics such as tobramycin have been shown to improve lung function and reduce sputum density of P. aeruginosa, but both the optimal dose and the duration of therapy are unclear at the present time.
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PMID:Changes in strategies for optimal antibacterial therapy in cystic fibrosis. 1116 11

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-20 in medical debate. The history of the so called Spanish Influenza 1918-1920 is summarized especially in regard to the developments in medical debate. In Germany, Richard Pfeiffer, who had discovered Haemophilus influenzae after the previous pandemic 1890/91, managed it to defend his thesis that his "bacillus" was the causative agent of the flu, by modifying his theory moderately. The Early Virology of influenza in postwar times was still fixed to bacteriology and did not yet have the force of school-building. Aggressive therapy, e.g. with derivatives of chinine, were used in a concept of polypragmasy. The connection between influenza in animals and influenza in mankind was unknown or of no major interest till the rise of virology as an academic discipline in the 1950s. Since the outbreak of avian influenza in Asia 1997 virological archaeology is challenged to fill the historical part in the attempt to fight the threat of the highly pathogenic bird flu. In the beginning of the "short 20. century" politicians and doctors had no interest to build a "monument" of influenza. Today, virological reductionism does not have the power to (re-)construct such a monument.
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PMID:[The influenza pandemic of 1918-20 in medical debate]. 1714 57