Patients with congenital vascular malformations often suffer from arthralgia, especially of the lower limbs. This orthopaedic disease pattern is defined as destructive, angiodysplatic arthritis or Hauert disease and leads to very early destruction of the joints. By presenting diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms, Hauert disease is emphasized as a possible differential diagnosis in order to minimize the risk of an incorrect diagnosis which might lead to under-, over-, or even incorrect treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOn the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Académie et Université de Genève, a historical account of the developments of chemistry in Geneva from its beginning in the late 18th century to the present time is given.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlatelet adhesion, the initial step of platelet activation, is mediated by the interaction of von Willebrand factor (VWF) with its platelet receptor, the GPIb-IX complex. The binding of VWF to GPIb-IX is induced either by increased shear stress or by exogenous modulators, such as botrocetin. At a molecular level, this interaction takes place between the A1 domain of VWF and the GPIb alpha chain of the GPIb-IX complex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCreating functional biological molecules de novo requires a detailed understanding of the intimate relationship between primary sequence, folding mechanism, and packing topology, and remains up to now a most challenging goal in protein design and mimicry. As a consequence, the use of well-defined robust macromolecules as scaffolds for the introduction of function by grafting surface residues has become a major objective in protein engineering and de novo design. In this article, the concept of scaffolds is demonstrated on some selected examples, illustrating that novel types of functional molecules can be generated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFC1 inhibitor, a plasma proteinase inhibitor of the serpin superfamily involved in the regulation of complement classical pathway and intrinsic blood coagulation, has been shown to bind to several components of the extracellular matrix. These reactions may be responsible for C1 inhibitor localization in the perivascular space. In the study reported here, we have examined whether C1 inhibitor could function as a substrate for plasma (factor XIIIa) or tissue transglutaminase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemin Thromb Hemost
December 1999
Clopidogrel, a potent novel platelet ADP-receptor antagonist, induces a significant inhibition of ADP-induced platelet aggregation. Maximum inhibition of 40 to 50% is observed 2 to 5 hours after a single 400 mg dose. The same level of inhibition is achieved with 75 mg once daily at steady state, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeating of the serpin C1-inhibitor above 55 degrees C induced the formation of inactive polymers. Western blotting of non-denaturing gels showed that the polymers bound to the conformation specific monoclonal antibody 4C3, suggesting that a similar conformational change to that occurring in complexed or cleaved inhibitor had taken place. N-Terminal analysis of tryptic peptides which bound to 4C3 showed that the epitope resides within residues 288-444, a region which includes parts of beta-sheets A and C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe natural history of acute myocardial infarction has been dramatically changed by the advent of thrombolytic treatment, with a 30% mortality reduction, a better recovery of ventricular function, and a better quality of life. This treatment notwithstanding, failure or delay in achieving reperfusion, along with reocclusion and bleeding, still worry clinicians and challenge researchers to improve thrombolytic regimens and concomitant antithrombotic treatments. Platelet activation, at least in part because of thrombolytic treatment itself, plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of resistance to lysis and rethrombosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFL-selectin is expressed by most leukocytes and mediates the initial step of adhesion to vascular endothelium. A feature of this adhesion receptor is to be shed from the cell surface. We report here the presence of high levels of the shed form of L-selectin (sL-selectin) in plasma from patients with acute leukemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis randomized study compares the coronary perfusion rate in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with 2 different intravenous thrombolytic agents: streptokinase 1.5 million U given over 60 minutes and anisoylated human plasminogen streptokinase activator complex (anistreplase) administrated as a bolus of 30 U over 5 minutes. One hundred seventy-five patients (149 men and 26 women, mean age 54 years) have been included in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnticardiolipin antibodies (ACL) are associated with the presence of several clinical conditions. To determine the clinical interest of their evaluation, we reviewed all the results of ACL determinations performed in our laboratory during 1990 and 1991. 266 analyses (232 patients) were carried out.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchweiz Med Wochenschr
December 1992
We report the appearance of a factor V inhibitor in an 82-year-old female patient following abdominal surgery. This anomaly was totally corrected following 9-day treatment with i.v.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn impaired fibrinolytic activity after a venous occlusion test is the most common abnormality associated with thomboembolic disease. To better characterize the causes of abnormal responses we have measured different fibrinolytic parameters, before and after 10 and 20 min of venous occlusion, in 77 patients with a history of idiopathic deep vein thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism and in 38 healthy volunteers. The patients had a lower mean fibrinolytic response to venous occlusion than the controls and higher antigen levels of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA:Ag) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1:Ag).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchweiz Med Wochenschr
March 1992
Factor XI deficiency, also called hemophilia C, was first described in 1953. It is thought to constitute 7% of all disorders of the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation. It represents the only deficiency of a contact phase protein associated with a bleeding tendency with widely variable expression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlatelet function defects observed in chronic alcoholics are not wholly explained by the inhibitory action of ethanol on platelet aggregation; they are not completely reproduced either in vivo by short-term ethanol perfusion into volunteers or in vitro by the addition of ethanol to platelet-rich plasma. As acetaldehyde (AcH) binds to many proteins and impairs cellular activities, we investigated the effect of this early degradation product of ethanol on platelets. AcH formed adducts with human platelets at neutral pH at 37 degrees C which were stable to extensive washing, trichloracetic acid hydrolysis and heating at 100 degrees C, and were not reduced by sodium borohydride.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn isolated, considerably prolonged aPTT (117 and 112 sec respectively; normal range 26-36 sec) was discovered during the preoperative workup in 2 patients aged 48 and 66 years. Both had a negative personal and family history for bleeding. Levels of the intrinsic coagulation factors which potentially cause a bleeding risk (VIII, IX, XI) were normal, and an inhibitor of the aPTT could not be detected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchweiz Med Wochenschr
December 1990
The hemorrhagic risk associated with isolated prolongation of the PTT has been evaluated in a 2-year retrospective study. Of the 60 cases thus found, a hemorrhagic risk was present in 15 patients of whom 7 had hemophilia A, 5 von Willebrand's disease and 3 factor XI deficiency. Among the other etiologies not associated with a bleeding tendency, there were 31 proved or suspected cases with inhibitors of the PTT, most of whom were children, 2 factor XII deficiencies, 2 prekallikrein deficiencies and 4 contact phase activations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchweiz Med Wochenschr
December 1990
We describe the clinical and biological characteristics of 12 pregnant women with the HELLP syndrome as defined by Weinstein in 1982 (H for hemolysis, EL for elevated liver enzymes and LP for low platelet count). The data demonstrate that this syndrome is an obstetric emergency threatening the lives of both mother and child. However, if delivery is prompt the prognosis is good.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchweiz Med Wochenschr
July 1989
We studied the effect of incorporation of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid into the normal Western diet in nine human volunteers for 6 weeks. They received 1.5 g per day of omega 3-polyunsaturated fatty acids (W3-PUFA) for 3 weeks followed by 3 weeks with supplementation of 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo elucidate the mechanism by which activation of the contact system of blood coagulation leads to expression of fibrinolytic activity, we have determined the molecular characteristics of the plasminogen activators present in dextran sulfate-treated euglobulin fractions by electrophoretic-zymographic analysis and specific immunoadsorption. In addition to free and protease inhibitor-bound tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), dextran sulfate precipitates of euglobulins contained the complex formed between plasma kallikrein and C1-inhibitor, an indicator of prekallikrein activation. These precipitates also contained substantial fibrinolytic activity related to urinary-type plasminogen activator (u-PA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo elucidate which component(s) of the fibrinolytic system is (are) responsible for the diurnal variation of fibrinolytic activity we have studied several parameters of this system in 8 healthy male volunteers during a period of 24 h. Blood was collected at 8 a.m.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe anticoagulant and potential profibrinolytic effect of a combination of low molecular weight heparin with dihydroergotamine (LMWH-DHE) and of unfractionated heparin was studied in eight healthy volunteers. Each volunteer received a subcutaneous injection of either LMWH-DHE (1,500 U anti-Xa of LMWH + 0.5 mg DHE), unfractionated heparin (5,000 IU) or of placebo (saline) between 7 and 8 h in the morning on three different occasions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe analyzed fibrinolytic parameters in 20 healthy men and 20 healthy women, aged from 25 to 59, before and after 10 and 20 min venous occlusion. The 10 min post-occlusion fibrinolytic activity measured directly in diluted unfractionated plasma by a highly sensitive 125I-fibrin plate assay correlated well with the activity of euglobulins determined by the classical fibrin plate assay (r = 0.729), but pre-stasis activities determined with these two methods did not correlate (r = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo identify persons at risk for development of thromboembolic disease, fibrinolytic and blood coagulation parameters of normal controls (n = 40) and patients (n = 40) have been compared. Four fibrinolytic parameters, i.e.
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