[Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia with unfractionated heparin. A prospective study of inpatient treatment of internal medicine patients]. / Heparin-induzierte Thrombozytopenien unter nichtfraktioniertem Heparin. Eine prospektive Studie bei stationär behandelten internistischen Patienten.

AIM: To investigate the influence of unfractionated heparin on heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) type II. PATIENTS AND METHOD: In 162 patients with internal diseases treated therapeutically of prophylactically with unfractionated heparin (heparin sodium, heparin calcium), we carried out a prospective study to determine the incidence of HIT type I and II. 55.6% of the patients were female (n = 90) with an average age of 76.5 years (range: 25 to 96 years) and 44.4% male (n = 72) with an average age of 67.5 years (range: 17 to 93 years). A platelet count was taken regularly before the start of heparin treatment, on the first day of treatment and then every second day from day 5 to 20. Whenever HIT II was suspected, an HIPA test was performed. RESULT: Type I HIT occurred in 10%, type II in 3% of the cases. Two of the 5 patients with type II developed severe thrombotic complications. CONCLUSION: In view of the high incidence of HIT, regular platelet counts should always be carried out in patients receiving heparin treatment.

Activity of a monoclonal antibody against Besnoitia besnoiti endozoites.

Besnoitia besnoiti multiplication in vitro was inhibited by a specific organelle complex-directed monoclonal antibody (MoAb) raised against the endozoite stage. Multiplication rates in antibody-treated cultures were lower at parasite/cell ratios of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:10, than in untreated cultures, after 4 or 8 d of incubation. At 1:100 ratio, there was no difference between test and control cultures irrespective of the incubation period. In in vivo experiments, the anti-B besnoiti MoAb had no neutralizing effect on the infectivity of endozoites. Inoculation of gerbils with antibody-preincubated endozoites, followed by treatment with these MoAb through 5 successive days ultimately failed to prevent death in any of them. In Western blots the specific anti-B besnoiti MoAb of the IgG1 subclass recognized a 70 kDa endozoite protein in the cytosolic and the insoluble membrane fraction of endozoites.