Single-dose non-random, antibiotic treatment was evaluated in 377 Ethiopians with louse-borne relapsing fever. Oral doses of tetracycline hydrochloride 500 mg, doxycycline 100 mg, erythromycin base 500 mg, chloramphenicol 500 mg, or a single intramuscular injection of 1,200,000 units of penicillin aluminum monostearate (PAM) were equally effective treatments. All drugs induced a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, which was clinically less severe in patients given PAM. The duration of spirochetemia after treatment was much longer after PAM treatment, however. Three critically ill patients died shortly after receiving antibiotic treatment, from complications of LBRF that were present on admission to hospital.
A patient is described, having Richter's syndrome and immunodeficiency with hyper IgM, who developed suppressor T cell lymphoma (CD3+, CD4-, CD8+) following untreated helper-suppressor T cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+). The neoplastic T cells in both malignancies expressed interleukin (IL) 2 receptors but were deficient in typical CD2+ and CD5+ pan T antigens. Additionally, a large percentage of malignant lymph node T cells expressed HLA-DR+ activation antigens. In vitro immunoglobulin-production experiments demonstrated that the patient's leukemic blood T cells had an excess helper function for IgM synthesis but a suppressor function for IgG and IgA synthesis by normal B and T cells. The leukemic blood T cells demonstrated a poor response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA). A defect in IL 2 receptor expression was evident in PHA-stimulated leukemic blood T cells. Of interest was the observation that PHA stimulated the induction of a novel CD3+, CD4-, CD8+ T cell subset from patient's CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ leukemic blood T cells. These PHA-induced CD3+, CD4-, CD8+ T cell subsets produced an elevated proliferative response to PHA and concanavalin A, had a helper cell function for IgM synthesis and produced highly elevated amounts of IL 2.
We are reporting on a decade of experinece with cases of renal tuberculosis treated at a large tuberculosis hospital. Most patients were men less than 50 years old. The most frequent symptoms were dysuria, back or flank pain, nocturia and hematuria. Physical examinations were generally normal and hypertension was not seen. Most patients had acid urinary pH, pyuria and/or hematuria. Excretory urograms were abnormal in 86 per cent of the cases, the most common finding being preserved function but calicectasis or abscess. Most patients had abnormal chest x-rays and nearly half of them had coexisting, active pulmonary or miliary tuberculosis. Tuberculin tests were positive in 85 per cent of the cases. In our experience urinary tuberculosis was almost always responsive to multi-drug chemotherapy, even in patients with a non-functioning, tuberculous kidney. An asymptomatic, non-functioning kidney need not be removed, provided documentation of urine culture conversion is obtained and a prolonged period of multi-drug chemotherapy is completed.
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