Abstracts

Health

Search abstracts:

Effect of whole-body hyperthermia on AIDS patients with Kaposi's sarcoma: a pilot study

Article Abstract:

Elevating the body temperature of HIV-infected people with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) appears to be safe and may cause a regression of KS and a decrease in the amount of HIV in blood plasma. Six men with AIDS and KS underwent whole-body hyperthermia (WBHT), in which their core body temperature was raised to either 40 or 42 degrees Celsius for one hour. Researchers used heat blankets in combination with a system that pumped blood to and from the person's body to heat it while controlling its chemistry and fluid balance. No serious side effects occurred in the patients as a result of the treatment. Regression of KS occurred immediately after WBHT at both temperatures, but this effect was not observable 1 week after treatment. Plasma HIV RNA levels decreased after the 42-degree WBHT treatment, but this effect was also not maintained after 1 week. In the 40-degree WBHT group, CD4 immune cell numbers were reduced throughout an 8-week follow-up period.

Evaluation, Kaposi's sarcoma, Thermotherapy

---

Developing quality review criteria from standards of care for HIV disease: a framework

Article Abstract:

Medical personnel in managed care settings may use a framework based on established standards of HIV care to develop HIV quality review criteria. Criteria to evaluate the quality of care must allow for reasonable differences in HIV treatment among medical practices. Local standards and patient and provider preferences are major factors in defining appropriate care. Quality review criteria must differentiate medically necessary care from inappropriate care. Medically necessary HIV care includes antiretroviral therapy for AIDS patients, screening for dormant infections or unrecognized diseases, and drug therapy to prevent infections in patients with end-stage disease. Inappropriate HIV care includes drug therapy to prevent infections in low-risk patients, excessive laboratory monitoring, and long-term use of anti-retroviral drugs in patients with CD4 counts greater than 500.

Medical care, Quality management, Medical care quality

---

HIV and the primary care physician in Japan

Article Abstract:

Japan's health care system may be unable to care for large numbers of AIDS patients. Many Japanese physicians believe that AIDS is largely a Western phenomenon. Surveys have shown that many Japanese physicians do not want to treat HIV patients and many hospitals are not equipped to handle them. Japan also emphasizes hospital care rather than outpatient care. Japan has no formal informed consent guidelines and patients' civil rights are not well developed. All this will have to change if Japan is to deal successfully with the AIDS epidemic.

Japan, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Japanese, Japanese (Asian people)

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Propagation of a human herpesvirus from AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma
• Abstracts: The prevalence of androgen excess among patients with minimal unwanted hair growth. Stress model for research into preterm delivery among black women
• Abstracts: Key role for a viral lytic gene in Kaposi's sarcoma. No respecter of age. More than meets the eye
• Abstracts: Early predictors of outcome for HIV patients with neurological failure. The prevalence of serum antibody to human herpesvirus 8 (Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus) among HIV-seropositive and high-risk HIV-seronegative women
• Abstracts: Extreme variations in racial rates of total hip arthroplasty for primary coxarthrosis: a population-based study in San Francisco

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.