Both IgA nephropathy and alcoholic cirrhosis feature abnormally glycosylated IgA1 and soluble CD89-IgA and IgG-IgA complexes: common mechanisms for distinct diseases.

Abnormalities of IgA arise in alcoholic cirrhosis, including mesangial IgA deposits with possible development of secondary IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Since little is known about circulating immune complexes in cases of secondary IgAN, we analyzed IgA-associated parameters in the serum of 32 patients with compensated or advanced alcoholic cirrhosis. Galactose deficiency and decreased sialylation of IgA1, as well as increased amounts of abnormally glycosylated polymeric IgA1, were detected in the serum of patients with advanced alcoholic cirrhosis.

The spectrum of renal lesions in patients with cirrhosis: a clinicopathological study.

Background/objective: Little is known on the morphological changes in the kidneys of cirrhotic patients with abnormal urinalysis and/or high serum creatinine levels. This retrospective, one-point-in-time study aimed to report the results of the analysis of renal biopsy specimens obtained in patients with cirrhosis.

Methods: We retrieved information on 65 patients who underwent transvenous renal biopsy for proteinuria >0.

[Nephropathies and HIV virus infection. Anatamo-clinical study].

We report 16 patients with HIV1 infection with biopsy-proven renal involvement. Nine patients were caucasians and seven were blacks. There were 11 patients at stage II and 5 at stage IV of the HIV1 infection.

Pharmacokinetics of ranitidine in acute upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage.

A pharmacokinetic study of ranitidine was performed in 14 patients with haematemesis divided into two groups according to the severity of blood loss. Pharmacokinetic values were calculated from plasma concentrations after the first of three daily injections (100 mg) and compared with those obtained in five healthy volunteers (50 mg i.v.

[Treatment of primitive trigeminal neuralgia by differential thermocoagulation of Gasser's ganglion (author's transl)].

The authors report their experience in the Treatment of essential Trigeminal Neuralgia with controlled increments of radiofrequency heating from an electrode inserted in the Gasserian ganglion or the posterior rootlets. Assuming that the less myelinated small fibers (A delta and C) are more sensitive to the heat than the heavily myelinated A beta and A alpha fibers, graduate controlled thermo coagulation could produce a differential destruction of pain fibers. 30 patients were treated with this method since 10 months.