Browsing by Author "Girdle-Brown, B."

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    Onyalai - therapeutic effects of vincristine sulphate : a prospective randomized trial
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 1986-08) Hesseling, P. B.; Girdle-Brown, B.; Smith, J.
    Twenty out of 40 patients with onyalai admitted to Rundu State Hospital, Kavango, SWA/Namibia, were randomized to receive a vincristine sulphate bolus of 1,5 mg/m2 or an equivalent volume of normal saline intravenously on days 8 and 15 when haemorrhage or a platelet count of less than 50 x 109/l persisted for more than 1 week after admission. All patients were observed in hospital for at least 21 days. Five out of 10 patients who received vincristine achieved a platelet count in excess of 100 x 109/l on day 21 and only 2 out of 10 patients who received placebo achieved a similar rise in the platelet count. Two patients, neither of whom was treated with vincristine, died of cerebral haemorrhage.
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    Serum immunoglobulin and complement values in onyalai : comparison with black, San and white inhabitants of Kavango, SWA/Namibia
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 1986-08) Hesseling, P. B.; Cooper, R. C.; Girdle-Brown, B.
    The hypothesis that onyalai results from a polyclonal immune response and that complement activation occurs in its active phase was investigated. Serum immunoglobulins IgA, IgG and IgM and complement fractions C3 and C4 were measured in 21 black onyalai patients and 44 of their close relatives, 37 healthy black schoolchildren, 42 Barakwenga San, 10 Kung San and 18 whites in Kavango. An additional 4 patients with onyalai were investigated after splenectomy. Total complement level, circulating immune complexes and antinuclear antibodies were measured in an additional 6 patients with acute onyalai. The results did not support the hypothesis.