Presse Med
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Comparative Study
[Comparison of high-frequency jet ventilation and conventional ventilation in the adult respiratory distress syndrome].
Sixteen adult patients with respiratory distress syndrome requiring mechanical respiratory assistance entered this study, the purpose of which was to obtain the same blood gas values under high frequency jet ventilation as under conventional ventilation. When high frequency jet ventilation without spontaneous breathing was compared to continuous positive pressure ventilation, peak airway pressure was the same, but mean airway pressure, positive end-expiratory pressure and pleural pressure were higher and cardiac index lower. When high frequency jet ventilation with spontaneous breathing was compared to intermittent mandatory ventilation, peak airway pressure was lower, mean airway pressure and positive end-expiratory pressure were higher, and pleural pressure and cardiac index were not different.
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Case Reports
[Immunoallergic complication induced by rifampicin with disseminated intravascular coagulation].
In a 48-years old woman, intermittent rifampicin treatment induced an immunoallergic reaction with digestive disorders, haemolysis, acute renal failure and prolonged prothrombin time. The reintroduction of rifampicin, 17 days later, resulted in a similar, though more severe, reaction associated with diffuse haemorrhages from disseminated intravascular coagulation, this association being exceptional. The responsibility of rifampicin was demonstrated by the chronological relationship between clinical symptoms and administration of the drug, and by the presence in the patient's serum of anti-rifampicin antibodies. The antigen-antibody reaction with complement activation and haemolysis probably explains the disseminated intravascular coagulation.
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Increased activity of the complement alternative pathway proteins C3, B and H was found in the sera of 16 patients with paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH). This increased activity might depend on protein hypersynthesis secondary to in vivo low-grade complement consumption by abnormal erythrocytes in PNH patients, despite the fact that serum levels of C3d were found to be normal. B and H activities were directly related; however, the B/H ratio was higher in patients whose sera had been taken early after an episode of haemoglobinuria. Activation of the alternative pathway, which is known to result in vitro lysis of PNH erythrocytes, only accounts for part of the events leading to chronic haemolysis and haemoglobinuria in vitro.