Pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of capecitabine and its metabolites following replicate administration of two 500 mg tablet formulations.

Purpose: To describe concentration versus time profiles of capecitabine and its metabolites 5'-DFUR, 5'-DFCR and 5-FU, depending on tablet formulation and on frequent and/or relevant genetic polymorphisms of cytidine deaminase, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, thymidylate synthase and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR).

Methods: In 46 cancer patients on chronic capecitabine treatment, who voluntarily participated in the study, individual therapeutic doses were replaced on four consecutive mornings by the study medication. The appropriate number of 500 mg test (T) or reference (R) capecitabine tablets was given in randomly allocated sequences TRTR or RTRT (replicate design).

Critical illness VR rehabilitation device (X-VR-D): evaluation of the potential use for early clinical rehabilitation.

We present a new critical illness VR rehabilitation device (X-VR-D) that enables diversified self-training and is applicable early in the rehabilitation of severely injured or ill patients. The X-VR-D consists of a VR program delivering a virtual scene on a flat screen and simultaneously processing commands to a moving chair mounted on a motion system. Sitting in the moving chair and exposed to a virtual reality environment the device evokes anticipatory and reactive muscle contractions in trunk and extremities for postural control.

Suppression of cutaneous reflexes by a conditioning pulse during human walking.

There are two ways in which responses to successive unexpected stimuli are attenuated, namely through habituation and conditioning. For the latter, it suffices that the unexpected stimulus is preceded by another just perceivable stimulus. In spinal cord reflexes this is termed conditioning, while in brainstem reflexes this is usually referred to as prepulse inhibition.

Cutaneous reflexes evoked during human walking are reduced when self-induced.

Reflex responses are often less pronounced when they are self-induced, but this question has barely been investigated quantitatively. The issue is particularly relevant for locomotion since it has been shown that reflexes elicited during normal gait are important for the regulation of locomotion. The cortex is thought to be involved in the control of reflexes during gait, but it is unclear whether it plays a role in the modulation of these reflexes during the step cycle.

Phase-dependent modulation of short latency cutaneous reflexes during walking in man.

In reduced animal preparation (cat fictive locomotion) most of our knowledge on the phase-dependent modulation of cutaneous reflexes concerns early- (P1 responses) rather than medium-latency (P2) responses. In contrast, in humans, virtually only P2 responses have been studied because P1 responses are relatively rare in adults. In this work, human P1 and P2 responses following sural nerve stimulation were compared in BF (biceps femoris).