Throat carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes among infants and children in Zambia.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B Frederiksen.
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A method for elution of HIV antibodies from whole blood or serum impregnated filter paper discs was developed. The results from testing of 73 eluates in an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and the immunoblotting test agreed with the results obtained by ordinary serum testing. Significant loss of antibody activity was not observed, neither in the eluates after storage for 1 mth at -20 degrees C nor in the filter paper discs after storage for 3 mths at +4 degrees C. This technique may be useful in facilitating sample collection and transportation, particularly in remote areas of the world.
Ranitidine, 300 mg daily, was given to 92 patients with duodenal ulcer (DU), 38 with prepyloric ulcer (PPU), and 21 with gastric corporeal ulcer (GCU). The healing rates at 4 weeks differed for the different types of ulcers (P less than 0.01), being 91% for DU, 68% for PPU, and 81% for GCU. After established ulcer healing, maintenance treatment with either ranitidine, 100 mg twice daily or 150 mg at night, or placebo was given for 1 year or until ulcer relapse in a total of 108 patients--71 with DU, 24 with PPU, and 13 with GCU. There were no significant differences in relapse rates between the two groups treated with active drug or between the three ulcer groups. However, the overall relapse rate in the active drug groups was 16%, against 72% in the placebo group (P less than 0.001).
Polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) chemotaxis is thought to play an essential role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. PMN chemotaxis is in part sensitive to microtubule antagonists (MAs), e.g. colchicine. The antimycotic antibiotic griseofulvin inhibits the MA-sensitive PMN chemotaxis in vitro in concentrations far below those obtained in serum during antimycotic therapy. The role of the MA-sensitive chemotaxis in rheumatoid arthritis could thus be elucidated by a clinical trial of griseofulvin treatment. Griseofulvin (n = 20) was tested in a randomized double-blind study versus placebo (m = 19) during one year in patients with rheumatoid arthritis of mild-moderate activity. No beneficial effect of griseofulvin treatment was noted on clinical symptoms or laboratory parameters of rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, the placebo-treated patients showed more improvement than the griseofulvin-treated patients. It is therefore suggested that the MA-sensitive chemotaxis plays a reparative role in the inflammatory lesions of rheumatoid arthritis.
In an open multi-centre trial, 316 psoriasis patients were treated with clobetasol propionate intermittently over a 14-day period. The treatment gave rapid clinical healing of the psoriasis infiltration in 62% of the patients. A total of 132 of these patients was subsequently put on maintenance treatment with two applications per week. This regimen kept the disease in remission throughout the observation period, which exceeded 4 months on average, in 75% of the patients. Only 5 patients experienced side-effects.
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One hundred and twenty-three children, aged 1.5-18 months, participated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicentre study comparing different treatments for acute wheezing. The children were admitted to one of five participating paediatric departments. They were randomized into one of four treatment groups: (1) soluble prednisolone+placebo inhalation+terbutaline inhalation; (2) soluble placebo+budesonide inhalation+terbutaline inhalation; (3) soluble placebo+placebo inhalation+terbutaline inhalation; and (4) soluble placebo+placebo inhalation+normal saline inhalation. On admission, measurements of temperatures, respiratory rate and heart rate were made and once-a-day thereafter. Wheezing, accessory respiratory muscle use, prolonged expiration and general condition were scored on a scale ranging from 0 to 3. Significantly more treatment failures were recorded in the placebo group. Children from both steroid groups were discharged earlier than children from the terbutaline group. Compared with children from the placebo group, children from all three treatment groups had a greater improvement in symptom score, but this was significant for the budesonide group only.