Radiation therapy and concomitant paclitaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy for muscle invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder: a well-tolerated combination.

This review evaluates tolerance and disease control for eight patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer treated with pelvic radiotherapy and concomitant paclitaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy. From October 1996 through February 1998, eight patients were treated with pelvic radiotherapy and concomitant paclitaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy. All received from 39.

Costs of seeking ethics approval before and after the introduction of multicentre research ethics committees.

With the advent of multicentre research ethics committees in the UK, local research ethics committees (LRECs) are required to advise only on issues relating to the local acceptability of a project. We looked at the handling of two commercially sponsored studies, one initiated before the change and one after, confining the analysis to 21 LRECs approached in both. As judged by the amount of paper per application, the new system for LRECs is simpler and should be less costly.

The rates of common adverse events reported during treatment with proton pump inhibitors used in general practice in England: cohort studies.

Aims: To estimate the rates of common adverse events in patients treated with the proton pump inhibitors omeprazole, lansoprazole and pantoprazole in general practice in England.

Methods: In prescription-event monitoring cohort studies, data on dispensed prescriptions prescribed by general practitioners in England soon after each drug was launched were linked to subsequent clinical events recorded by the prescriber. 16 205 patients prescribed omeprazole between June 1989 and June 1990, 17 329 patients prescribed lansoprazole between May and November 1994, and 11 541 patients prescribed pantoprazole between December 1996 and June 1997 were studied.

Regional variation in incidence and case fatality of myocardial infarction among young women in England, Scotland and Wales.

Objectives: To examine the regional variation in incidence and case fatality of myocardial infarction among young women.

Design: Cross sectional survey, using population based incidence data.

Setting: England, Scotland and Wales.

Bmp4 and Fgf10 play opposing roles during lung bud morphogenesis.

Morphogenesis of the mouse lung involves reciprocal interactions between the epithelial endoderm and the surrounding mesenchyme, leading to an invariant early pattern of branching that forms the basis of the respiratory tree. There is evidence that Fibroblast growth factor 10 (Fgf10) and Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (Bmp4), expressed in the distal mesenchyme and endoderm, respectively, play important roles in branching morphogenesis. To examine these roles in more detail, we have exploited an in vitro culture system in which isolated endoderm is incubated in Matrigel(TM) substratum with Fgf-loaded beads.

Newer antidepressants: a comparison of tolerability in general practice.

Background: An increasing number of antidepressants have been released on the United Kingdom market in recent years, and these are being prescribed more frequently in general practice. Clinical trials suggest that such agents have similar efficacy and the choice of drug is probably based on tolerability, toxicity in overdose, and cost.

Aim: To compare the tolerability and safety profile of six, newly marketed antidepressants used in general practice.

Antidepressants and the serotonin syndrome in general practice.

Background: As a consequence of the greater use of agents affecting the serotonergic system, a syndrome of serotonin hyperstimulation has been recognized more frequently. The serotonin syndrome is characterized by a constellation of symptoms that include mental status changes, agitation, myoclonus, hyperreflexia, sweating, shivering, tremor, diarrhoea, lack of coordination, and fever. Deaths have been reported.

Sedation with "non-sedating" antihistamines: four prescription-event monitoring studies in general practice.

Objectives: To investigate the frequency with which sedation was reported in post-marketing surveillance studies of four second generation antihistamines: loratadine, cetirizine, fexofenadine, and acrivastine.

Design: Prescription-event monitoring studies.

Setting: Prescriptions were obtained for each cohort in the immediate post-marketing period.

Nucleotide sequence and thermostability of pND324, a 3.6-kb plasmid from Lactococcus lactis.

A 3.6-kb plasmid, designated pND324, was isolated from Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis LL57-1.

Lymphomas and bone tumors: clinical presentation, management, and potential late effects of current treatment strategies.

While many pediatric malignancies are seen predominantly in pre-school children, many cases of childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and most cases of Hodgkin's disease and bone tumors are seen in the older child and adolescent. This review focuses on current knowledge concerning the epidemiology, histopathology, molecular biology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, staging, treatment, and prognosis for older children and adolescents diagnosed with lymphoma or either of the two commonly seen childhood bone tumors, namely osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma. Survival figures for all of these childhood malignancies have increased markedly in the past two decades.

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn.

We present the MRI findings in a case of subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn. To our knowledge, the MRI findings of this entity have not been reported. Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn is an uncommon, benign process in full-term infants.

Risk of myocardial infarction in young female smokers.

Objectives: To determine the extent of risk of myocardial infarction from cigarette smoking in young women, and to examine the relation of smoking with other putative risk factors.

Design: Community based case control study.

Setting: England, Scotland, and Wales.

Psychiatric aspects of alcohol misuse.

Alcohol and psychiatric disorder have a complicated relationship. Certain important psychiatric syndromes arise from the toxic effects of alcohol and thiamine deficiency. Liver disease and hypoglycaemia are also associated with their own psychiatric syndromes.

Bmp signaling regulates proximal-distal differentiation of endoderm in mouse lung development.

In the mature mouse lung, the proximal-distal (P-D) axis is delineated by two distinct epithelial subpopulations: the proximal bronchiolar epithelium and the distal respiratory epithelium. Little is known about the signaling molecules that pattern the lung along the P-D axis. One candidate is Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (Bmp4), which is expressed in a dynamic pattern in the epithelial cells in the tips of growing lung buds.

Prescription-event and other forms of epidemiological monitoring of side-effects in the UK.

The post-marketing surveillance (PMS) of drugs is necessary because of the limited size of the clinical safety database at the time of marketing. The principal hypothesis-generating methods of PMS are spontaneous reporting (e.g.

Oral contraceptives and myocardial infarction: results of the MICA case-control study.

Objectives: To determine the association between myocardial infarction and use of different types of oral contraception in young women.

Design: Community based case-control study. Data from interviews and general practice records.

Nicorandil and diabetes: a nested case-control study to examine a signal generated by prescription-event monitoring.

Objective: To investigate a signal generated by an observational cohort study that treatment with the potassium channel opener drug, nicorandil, is associated with an increased incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM).

Methods: Nested case-control study within cohorts used for prescription-event monitoring.

Results: The cohort study of nicorandil showed that there was a significant difference between the event rate for DM in the first month after starting nicorandil, compared to months 2-6 (difference in rates 1.

A plasmid-encoded two-component regulatory system involved in copper-inducible transcription in Lactococcus lactis.

Two regulatory genes (lcoR and lcoS) were identified from a plasmid-borne lactococcal copper resistance determinant and characterized by transcriptional fusion to the promoterless chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene (cat). RT-PCR analysis indicates that lcoR and lcoS are organized within an operon, controlling the transcription of cat in a copper-inducible manner. The amino acid sequences deduced from lcoR and lcoS show homology to the response and sensor proteins of known two-component regulatory systems.