Substitution treatment and HCV/HIV-infection in a sample of 31 German prisons for sentenced inmates.

Injection drug use (IDU) and IDU-related infectious diseases such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are highly prevalent among prisoners worldwide. However, little is known about the prevalence of IDUs, HCV/HIV and the availability of respective treatment options in German prisons. Data provided by prison physicians of 31 prisons, representing 14,537 inmates, were included in this analysis. The proportion of IDUs among all prisoners was 21.9%. Substitution treatment was available in three out of four prisons (74.2%). Overall, 1137 substitution treatments were provided annually with a wide range of treatment aims. The prevalence rate was 14.3% for HCV and 1.2% for HIV. Around 5.5% of all HCV-infected prisoners were in antiviral treatment annually, 86.5% of all HIV-positive inmates in antiretroviral HIV-treatment. Generally, substitution treatment, and HCV and HIV testing and treatment are available. However, due to abstinence-orientated treatment aims, substitution treatment is rarely available as maintenance treatment, and HCV/HIV-treatment is mainly provided for patients with an existing treatment before imprisonment. The inconsistent data quality necessitates changes in prison-related policy to improve surveillance and to generate aggregated data in German prisons. The selection process in this analysis might lead to overestimating the provision of substitution and antiviral HCV-treatment.

Interrelation between nucleotide degradation and aldehyde formation in red blood cells. Influence of xanthine oxidase on metabolism: an application of nucleotide and aldehyde analyses by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The mechanism by which hypoxia leads to irreversible cellular damage is poorly understood. A decrease in purine nucleotides is common to all ischaemic tissues, yielding hypoxanthine as the substrate of the xanthine oxidase reaction. Excessive production of radicals via xanthine oxidase induces peroxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, accompanied with the formation of aldehydes. The nucleotides and aldehydes were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of red blood cell extracts. Nucleotides and their derivatives were determined by HPLC on an ODS column and elution with 10 mM phosphate buffer containing 2 mM tert.-butylammonium phosphate. The aldehyde production in glucose deprived red blood cells was stimulated by addition of xanthine oxidase and by inhibition of different haemotype enzymes with sodium azide. Aldehydes were analysed by derivatization to dinitrophenylhydrazones, followed by thin-layer chromatographic and HPLC separation with aqueous methanol on an ODS column. The HPLC methods presented are appropriate for the determination of nucleotides, nucleosides and nucleobases, in addition to alkenals and hydroxyalkenals in extracts of oxidatively stressed red blood cells.

Nucleotide status in erythrocytes of rats infected with Pl. berghei.

Nucleotide concentrations in erythrocytes of rats infected with Plasmodium berghei were measured by ion-pair reversed-phase HPLC. UTP and GTP levels were higher in highly infected red blood cells obtained after density separation. The infected red blood cells possess higher hypoxanthine, adenine, and adenosine levels.