The relationship between atrophic gastritis and gastric ulcer

The physiological and biochemical effects of a carefully graduated course of vigorous gymnasium training with two or three weekly exercise sessions lasting only 15 minutes have been studied in middle-aged London business men. Activity diaries and psychological questionnaires indicated that these men had a positive attitude to exercise which was probably greater than average. The gymnasium exercises caused a large oxygen debt and considerable rises in plasma catecholamines and lactate levels. A close correlation was found between the pulse rate during exercise and the Borg scale of perceived exertion, so that both could be used to ensure that short periods of exercise were sufficiently vigorous to produce a training effect, and protect against over-exertion. The acceptability of this particular exercise regime was shown by the low fall-out and injury rate. It is suggested that this exercise training programme possesses many features which are advantageous if increased physical activity is to be more widely used as a method of reducing some of the risk factors in coronary heart disease.     

Doppler echocardiographic method to determine early and late diastolic filling volume separately. Validation and relationship between filling velocity and volume

The advantage of modelling agreement on a categorical scale among observers rather than using summarizing indices is now well established. However, analysis of agreement among more than two observers is essentially based on pairs of observers. We present a global and partial agreement modelling approach derived from the quasi-independence and quasi-symmetry log-linear models. This approach addresses high order interactions in the contingency table rather than two-way interaction in the pairwise agreement approach. Pairwise, global and partial agreement models were applied to the detection by six pathologists of three lesions in biopsy specimens arising from patients suspected to be affected by Crohn's disease. The global and partial agreement approach surpasses the pairwise agreement approach, especially if there is heterogeneity among ratings.     

Bag-1蛋白表达与胃交响癌临床病理因素关系的研究

Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate Bcl-2 antanogene-1 (Bag-1) expressions in gastric cancer and evaluate their clinical significance. Methods: Bag-1 expressions were studied by the immunohistochemical streptavidinperosidase (S-P) method in 62 samples of gastric cancer tissues, 11 normal gastric tissues, and their clinical significance was analyzed. Results: The positive rate of Bag-1 expression in the gastric carcinoma tissues was 41.94% (26/62), while it was 9.09% (1/11) in the normal gastric tissues (P = 0.046). Though Bag-1 was positively related to the tumour pathological grade, lymph node metastasis and prognosis (P < 0.05), it was not related to the sex, age, location, tumour diameter, depth of invasion (P > 0.05). Conclusion: There are over expression of Bag-1 gene protein in gastric cancer, it is significance in prognosis of gastric cancer.     

Sensitizing effects of pretreatment measures on cancer chemotherapy nausea and vomiting.

This study explored the sensitizing effects of pretreatment assessment on posttreatment chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and the interactive effects of personal dispositions for information seeking. Seventy oncology outpatients were recruited from oncology waiting rooms prior to receiving scheduled chemotherapy. Half of the patients were asked to complete an inventory about the severity of side effects that they had experienced following their most recent treatment session (experimental condition) and half were asked to complete an inventory concerning parking conditions at the treatment facility (control condition). All patients were also asked to complete the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS) and to later rate the severity of their side effects (between 36–48 hr following treatment). Based on the MBSS scores, patients were then divided into information seekers (monitors) and information avoiders (blunters). Overall, patients in the experimental condition rated the severity of their nausea as more severe than the control patients. In addition, patients who preferred a monitoring coping style experienced a significantly higher incidence rate and longer episodes of nausea than patients who preferred a blunting style. The methodological implications of these results for data collection and the assessment of side effects associated with aversive medical procedures are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between high-dose treatment and combination chemotherapy: the concept of summation dose intensity

The most important variables for the clinical use of antitumor agents (AAs) are dose and combination chemotherapy. The objectives of this study were to analyze the relationship between these two variables and to propose a unified conceptual framework for the construct and interpretation of clinical trials. Definitions and variables with respect to dose include potency, therapeutic index, standard dose, efficacy, relative efficacy, dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), dose rate, dose density, dose intensity, and fractional dose intensity. Our overarching concept, that is, summation dose intensity (SDI), was calculated in several ways, depending upon the nature of the data, and included the relative efficacy method, the unit regimen method, and the high dose method. The SDI concept was then applied to disease categories and strategies to determine its usefulness and effectiveness in integrating dose and combinations. The tumors and settings were: mustargen-vincristine-procarbazine-prednisone in Hodgkin's disease, combination chemotherapy for acute lymphocytic leukemia in children, metastatic breast cancer including dose and combinations, selected other solid tumors, alternating chemotherapy, and high dose studies in the leukemias and lymphomas. SDI was effective in integrating and quantifying dose and combination chemotherapy. For classical AAs, the implication of SDI for the construct and analysis of clinical trials was emphasized. In addition to new drug development, emphasis should be given to reducing or eliminating DLTs, such as those of the marrow, now and, in the future, those of the gastrointestinal tract toxicity and other DLTs. The above was derived from and applies to the classical AAs. Whether they will apply to, with appropriate adjustment, agents with significantly different dose-response curves, such as biotherapeutics and hormonal agents, remains to be determined.     

血浆D-二聚体水平与转移性胃癌患者生存期的关系

Objective: The principal purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between level of plasma D-dimer and survival time in metastatic gastric cancer patients. Methods: We retrospectively collected the data of plasma D-dimer in metastatic gastric cancer patients admitted in our Department (Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Changzheng Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China) from October 2006 to October 2008 and analyzed the relationship between level of plasma D-dimer and survival time along with other clinicopathologic parameters. Results: A total of 82 patients were studied in our research, 52 were males and 30 females, and the mean age was 57 years. The 48 cases had a normal plasma D-dimer level (< 300 μg/L) and 34 had a high plasma D-dimer level (≥ 300 μg/L). In the normal and high plasma D-dimer level groups, the mean survival times were 10.9 (95% CI: 9.8-12.2) months and 6.8 (95% CI: 4.4-7.6) months respectively, and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion: Metastatic gastric cancer patients with high plasma D-dimer level had significantly shorter survival time than those with normal plasma D-dimer level. Level of plasma D-dimer can be referred as a potential predictor in metastatic gastric cancer patients.     

A randomized trial of tropisetron in the prophylaxis of nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy

Thirty patients receiving cisplation or non-cisplatin (containing cyclophosphamide and adriamycin) chemotherapy were enrolled in a randomized, crossover study comparing the efficacy of single dose of Navoban (tropisetron, 5 mg) and Kytril (granisetron, 3 mg). The effective control of acute vomiting induced by cisplatin was achieved in 95.2% (20/21) of patients receiving Navoban and 90.5% (19/21) in those receiving Kytril. Complele control rate was 71.4% (15/21) in Navoban arm, and 81.0% (17/21) in Kytril arm. Total control of delayed vomiting (day 2-5) was 71.4%-90.4% in Navoban arm, while it was 66.7%-4% in Kytril arm. The effective control of vomiting induced by non-cisplatin drugs was achieved in 9/9 in both arms. It is concluded that both agents are effective in the control of vomiting induced by chemotherapy. They have identical adverse effects and are well tolerated by the patients.     

The relationship between sports participation and self-esteem during early adolescence.

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the links between sports participation and self-esteem, with particular interest in the possible mediating role of physical self-esteem. The participants in this study were 382 students (167 boys; 215 girls) in Grades 5-8. Participants completed a series of paper and pencil measures, detailing their sports participation, as well as their self-perceptions concerning physical and general self-esteem. Sports participation was related to all indices of self-esteem and this was equally true for boys and girls. Two distinct but related factors were identified as components of physical self-esteem (Physical appearance and Physical competence), differentially associated with self-esteem for boys and girls. Results supported a mediational model, with physical self-esteem mediating the relationship between sports participation and general self-esteem. Significant sex differences were noted with regard to specific indices of physical self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuous-infusion granisetron compared to ondansetron for the prevention of nausea and vomiting after high-dose chemotherapy

OBJECTIVES: The main aim was to calculate the prevalence of mental pathology in women between 18 and 70 in a Health District of Pamplona; second, to describe comorbidity and to analyse how mental pathology was recorded in the clinical histories. DESIGN: An observational crossover study with randomised selection. SETTING: A community study in the Txantrea quarter of Pamplona, covering 21,590 inhabitants, with 7605 women between 18 and 70. PATIENTS: Randomised sample, stratified by age, of 237 women between 18 and 70 taken from the 1991 Census. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: In a face-to-face interview at the Health Centre, the DIS Questionnaire, which diagnoses mental illness, was administered to all participants. A check was made to see if mental pathology was recorded in their clinical history. The prevalence of mental illnesses, mainly Phobias and Depression, in the "last year of life" was 33.3% (27.5-39.5), which fell to 24.9% (19.7-30.7) when tobacco abuse was excluded. The most common pathologies were: Depression (17.3%), Tobacco dependency (17.3%), simple Phobia (14.8%), Agoraphobia (13.5%), social Phobia (8.9%) and post-traumatic stress (8.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the high psychological morbidity in these urban women can contribute to the development of Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Programmes and foment fuller mental health training for Primary Care professionals.     

Therapeutic suggestions given during neurolept-anaesthesia decrease post-operative nausea and vomiting

BACKGROUND: Data on prevalence of cigarette smoking by hospital employees are limited in Australia, but anecdotal evidence suggests that many health sector employees continue to smoke despite abundant evidence regarding the harmful effects of this habit. Nicotine is an addictive drug and arguably this should be known better in the health industry than in any other industry. Despite having this knowledge at their disposal, health sector employers rarely provide assistance to employees, relying instead on restrictive policies to reduce smoking in the workplace. METHODS: To assist employees to quit smoking, we instituted a medium intensity Stop Smoking Programme, run by a clinical pharmacist offering nicotine patches and support on a weekly basis. A principal aim of the service was to redress the imbalance between the availability of cigarettes and the most effective nicotine replacement therapy, the trandermal nicotine patch. Following 18 months operation of this service, we surveyed hospital employees to ascertain smoking rates and views on smoking cessation in this South Australian teaching hospital. RESULTS: In the first 18 months of operation, 111 staff members availed themselves of the service. At the first follow up period (three months), 21 were not contactable, 29 were successful in not smoking and 61 were still smoking. Six of the 29 who were not smoking at three months resumed smoking by six months, and a further four resumed smoking by 12 months. At the time of this report, 12 of the remaining 19 non smokers had completed two years since quitting and a further three of these had resumed regular smoking by this time. The cost of providing the service was modest at approximately $180.00 per known successful quitter. Results from the survey showed that 12.4% of hospital employees were regular smokers. Smoking prevalence was not equally distributed with female employees being twice as likely to smoke as their male counterparts and employees in the catering department having the highest smoking prevalence (23.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Although the prevalence of cigarette smoking by employees of this teaching hospital is lower than for the general community, health sector employers can reduce smoking prevalence further by providing assistance to their employees to quit smoking. The Stop Smoking Programme we describe is effective and could be replicated by other hospitals and similar organisations.     

The relationship between static lower extremity measurements and rearfoot motion during walking

Despite the fact that clinicians regularly perform static lower extremity measurements on their patients, to date, little research has been published supporting their ability to predict dynamic rearfoot motion. The abilities of static measurements to predict dynamic foot motion could have important implications considering the fact that excessive rearfoot motion has been associated with various injuries of the lower extremity. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine if static lower extremity measurements could be used to predict the magnitude of rearfoot motion during walking. Rearfoot motion of each lower extremity was measured from videotape in 27 healthy young adult subjects with a mean age of 26.1 years. In addition, 17 static measurements were measured and recorded bilaterally for each subject. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that the only variable that was able to predict maximum rearfoot pronation was the "difference in navicular height" (r2 = .17). None of the 17 measurements were found to predict time to maximum pronation. These results indicate that static measurements of the lower extremity and foot are poor predictors of dynamic rearfoot motion as measured by maximum pronation or time to maximum pronation in healthy individuals without severe foot deformities.     

Paradoxical relationship between frequency selectivity and threshold sensitivity during auditory-nerve fiber development

The acquisition of adult-like frequency selectivity is generally assumed to be the tightly coupled to improvements in threshold sensitivity during cochlear development. In this study, frequency versus threshold (tuning) curves obtained from 1108 auditory-nerve fibers were used to investigate the relationship between tuning and threshold at characteristic frequency (CF) during postnatal development in kittens. At the earliest ages included in this study, sharpness was within the adult range, but thresholds were significantly higher than adult values. Tuning and thresholds improved along different exponential time courses that varied with CF. For units with CFs below 1 kHz, tuning curve slopes below CF matured earliest, followed by CF threshold, and then by slopes above CF. In contrast, for CFs above 1 kHz, the high-frequency slopes matured first, followed by threshold and then by slope below CF. One interpretation of these results is that tuning and thresholds are not tightly coupled in immature animals. Paradoxically, however, high-frequency slopes were correlated with threshold for individual units at all ages, suggesting that the relationship between tuning and threshold is maintained during development. This contradiction can be resolved by a developmental model that features a functional separation between cochlear nonlinearities and mechanical/electrical conversion.     

The relationship between smile type and play type during parent-infant play.

This study examined the relationship between smile type and play type during parent–infant interactions in the home. Thirty-six mother–infant and father–infant dyads were videotaped playing for 10 min. Smile type (basic, Duchenne, and duplay smiles) and play type (object, physical, vocal, and book reading) were coded. Results of loglinear analysis indicated that different types of smiles occur during different types of play more often than expected if distributed equally. In addition, different smile-type and play-type patterns occurred for father–infant dyads compared with mother–infant dyads. Qualitative analyses were used to generate hypotheses about the reasons why different types of smiles occurred during various play activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Diagnostic confusion between gastric carcinoma and gastric tuberculosis

Developing countries like developed ones need highly skilled medical personnel, referred to as 'specialists'. In the case of developing countries, the training of these specialists abroad is expensive to the sponsoring governments, imposes a lot of hardship on the doctors and, above all, the course-content of such training takes little or no cognizance of the environment in which these doctors would later practise. The developing countries also cannot afford the loss of years in valuable services which the training abroad entails. Attempts are now being made to train specialists wholly or partly at home, in some developing countries. The approach is still not much divorced from what obtains in Britain and North America, that is, one of being trained on the job, with the onus for self-education being placed on the prospective students. Such students in most developing countries of tropical Africa have little or no facilities for further education outside their places of work. It is proposed that purpose-designed postgraduate medical schools may provide a temporary solution to specialist training in developing countries of tropical Africa. Such schools would in addition provide highly skilled medical service as well as obviate the need and the expense for the setting up of government sponsored medical research and training institutes.     

Tropisetron in the prevention of acute and delayed nausea and vomiting over six courses of emetogenic chemotherapy

Tropisetron (Navoban") suppresses nausea and vomiting induced by cancer chemotherapy by antagonizing central and peripheral 5-HT3 receptors. In this open-label study, tropisetron was evaluated in 873 patients who were either refractory to antiemetic treatment during previous chemotherapy or at high risk of emesis as a result of current chemotherapy. The most commonly used agents alone or in combination were cyclophosphamide (35%), fluorouracil (30%), carboplatin (24%) and cisplatin (21%). The primary tumors were breast cancer (27%), lung cancer (16%), gynecological cancers (12%) and lymphoma (9%). Tropisetron was administered as a 15 min infusion prior to chemotherapy and an additional oral 5 mg dose was taken by 80% of the patients on subsequent days. During course 1, complete response to tropisetron was obtained in 64% of patients on day 1, 54% on day 2, 63% on day 3, 71% on day 4 and 77% on day 5. Very similar response rates were found for the six chemotherapy courses. There were few failures after complete and partial response, at maximum 3 and 15%, respectively. Moreover, 24-38% of those with partial response and 7-29% of those with failure could achieve a complete response during the following cycle. The treatment was well tolerated, the most frequently reported adverse events being constipation (3.7%) and headache (2.6%).     

Granisetron prevents nausea and vomiting during spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section

Acute pancreatitis is accompanied by destruction and digestion of tissues, causing hypercytokinemia and hyperreactivity of leukocytes (macrophages and neutrophils) and vascular endothelial cells. As one of the biological defense mechanisms in this condition, neutrophils infiltrate vital organs such as the lung, liver, and digestive organs. When acute pancreatitis is complicated by infection, hyperreactive macrophages release a large amount of proinflammatory cytokines that activate primed neutrophils, as a "second attack." Utilizing proteolytic enzymes and oxidant, neutrophils injure the infiltrated vital organs, causing cellular damage and dysfunction of vital organs distant from the pancreas. Multiple organ failure in acute pancreatitis with septic complications can develop, at least in part, by proinflammatory cytokine release and neutrophil activation.