Treatment of multiple sclerosis with anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody. A preliminary report on B-F5 in 21 patients.

Twenty-one patients with definite active multiple sclerosis (MS) were treated with a monoclonal anti-T CD4/B-F5 (murine IgG1) antibody for 10 days. Side effects were observed in 11 patients during the first infusion. These side effects were accompanied by and probably related to a transient increase in IL6 and TNF alpha serum levels.

[Maintenance treatment of Crohn's disease using orally administered mesalazine (Pentasa). A controlled multicenter study. The Study Groups on the Treatment of Inflammatory Digestive Disorders].

Background: Mesalamine provides a new therapeutic approach in treating Crohn's disease.

Methods: To assess the efficacy and safety of slow-release mesalamine (Pentasa) in maintaining remission in Crohn's disease, 161 patients with inactive disease were randomized to receive either Pentasa (2 g/day) or placebo in a 2-year double-blind, multicenter trial. Two strata were defined according to the duration of their remission: < 3 months (n = 64) or 3-24 months (n = 97), presumed to be high and low relapse risk strata, respectively.

Simultaneous assessment of liquid emptying and proximal gastric tone in humans.

Background: Barostat is the only technique that allows assessment of gastric tone in humans. Our aim was to simultaneously assess gastric emptying and relaxation in response to a liquid meal.

Methods: Gastric tone was monitored using an electronic barostat in six healthy subjects after three liquid meals (200 mL, 400 mL, 600 mL, 1 kcal/mL).

[Treatment with butyrate/IL-2 combination in peritoneal carcinomatosis of colonic origin].

Two therapeutic assays associating sodium butyrate (NaB) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) were applied on rats after intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of colon carcinoma cells.

Structural features of resistant starch at the end of the human small intestine.

Structural features of in vivo resistant starch were assessed using the ileal contents of four humans. Two of the latter were collected by ileostomy after ingestion of bean flakes or potato flakes and the other two were collected by an intubation technique after ingestion of retrograded high-amylose maize starch or complexed high-amylose maize starch. The degree of polymerizations (DP), solubility and crystallinity were assessed.

Effect of cisapride on relapse of esophagitis. A multinational, placebo-controlled trial in patients healed with an antisecretory drug. The Italian Eurocis Trialists.

The effect of a prokinetic agent, cisapride, on the relapse of reflux esophagitis was investigated in a randomized, double-blind trial conducted in 443 patients whose esophagitis had previously been healed with an acid antisecretory drug. Patients received cisapride, 20 mg at night, cisapride 10 mg twice daily, or placebo for 12 months or until endoscopic relapse was confirmed endoscopically. In 88% of all patients (respectively 133, 132, and 124), endoscopic data were available at discontinuation of treatment.

Oral mesalamine (Pentasa) as maintenance treatment in Crohn's disease: a multicenter placebo-controlled study. The Groupe d'Etudes Thérapeutiques des Affections Inflammatoires Digestives (GETAID).

Background: Mesalamine provides a new therapeutic approach in treating Crohn's disease.

Methods: To assess the efficacy and safety of slow-release mesalamine (Pentasa; Ferring AS, Vanløse, Denmark) in maintaining remission in Crohn's disease, 161 patients with inactive disease were randomized to receive either Pentasa (2 g/day) or placebo in a 2-year double-blind, multicenter trial. Two strata were defined according to the duration of their remission: < 3 months (n = 64) or 3-24 months (n = 97), presumed to be high and a low relapse risk strata, respectively.

[Electrogastrography: responses to food and sham feeding and relationships with gastric emptying of solids in men].

Cutaneous electrogastrography is a non invasive method to study gastric electromechanical activity. The aim of this work was to determine the amplitude of electrogastrographic (EGG) activity a) during fasting, b) after a meal, c) following vagal stimulation by sham feeding, and to determine the relationship between gastric emptying of solids and EGG activity. EGG activity was recorded in eight healthy subjects in various experimental conditions, twice after sham feeding, twice after a meal, and once during the simultaneous scintigraphic assessment of gastric emptying of the solid component of a meal.

[Use of an electronic barostat for measurement of motor response of the proximal stomach to feeding and different nervous stimuli in man].

Electronic barostat allows to measure volume variations of an intragastric air-filled bag maintained at a low constant pressure level, reflecting gastric tone variations. The aims of the present study were to record physiologic variations of gastric tone in humans a) in the fasting state, with and without different stimuli, and b) in the fed state. The bag was placed into the proximal stomach of healthy subjects and connected to the barostat.

Short-chain fatty acids do not alter jejunal motility in man.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) alter ileal and colonic motility, but their effects on duodenojejunal motility are unknown. Simultaneous jejunal manometric recordings and hydrogen breath tests after lactulose were performed in eight healthy subjects during continuous duodenal infusion of either saline or SCFAs. These experiments were conducted in the fasting state and postprandially.

[Barret's esophagus and acid gastroesophageal reflux. Two-channel pH-metric measurements and manometric study].

Although the pathogenic role of gastroesophageal reflux in Barrett's esophagus (BE) is now widely accepted, the pattern of pH profile in the esophagus of patients with BE is not well documented. The aim of this study was to assess the severity and "extent" of acid exposure in patients with BE using an automated single or two-channel 24-hour pH monitoring system. Eighteen patients with histologically proven BE were compared with 3 other groups: a) 100 patients with clinical symptoms and pHmetrically proven acid reflux divided in 2 sub-groups: 38 patients without esophagitis at endoscopy, and 62 patients with esophagitis (Savary-Miller classification; grade I: n = 24, grade II: n = 27, grade III: n = 8, grade IV: n = 3) and b) 9 healthy volunteers.

[Reproducibility of orocecal transit time and hydrogen production measured by breath tests].

The hydrogen breath test after a lactulose oral load in the fasting period is currently used to measure mouth to cecum transit time (MCTT). However, the reproducibility of this test is poor, and normal values are very scattered. The aim of the study was to determine the reproducibility of hydrogen breath test for MCTT measurement and hydrogen production after administration of 2 disaccharides: lactulose and lactitol ingested in the fasting state and postprandial period.

[Measurement of gastric emptying, intestinal transit time and colonic filling by scintiscan in healthy subjects].

A scintigraphic technique allowing combined measurements of gastric emptying, small intestinal transit time and colonic filling was developed and its reproducibility assessed in 8 healthy volunteers. Each subject underwent four tests: a) two were performed in the fasting state (99mTc labelled water, added to lactulose), b) two in the postprandial state (balanced meal, 1,750 kJ, included pellets labelled with 111In, the gut transit of which being nearly the same as dietary fibers). Intestinal transit was modeled using linear operators (expressed as a convolution product).

[Collis's operation for brachyesophagus. (49 patients)].

The results of infradiaphragmatic Collis' gastroplasty for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux associated with acquired short brachyesophagus (Barrett's esophagus) were prospectively studied in 49 patients (50 operations). Clinical and endoscopic findings, and 3-hour postprandial pH measurement including Kaye's score were evaluated at short (3 to 8 months), medium (1 to 4 years), and long-term (more than 4 years) for all patients. Postoperative morbidity was 16 percent; there were 3 deaths (6 percent).

[Lactase deficiency and lactose intolerance-related symptoms in adult healthy subjects from western France].

The prevalence of lactase deficiency (LD) and lactose intolerance is not well known in France. Using breath hydrogen and methane analysis after 50 g oral lactose load, we investigated the prevalences of LD, lactose intolerance, and methane producer status in 102 healthy adults born in western France, and we examined the relationships between these parameters and the daily milk consumption. In 10 subjects with LD and lactose intolerance, we studied the reproducibility of the lactose hydrogen breath test results for the diagnosis of LD and lactose intolerance and estimated the quantity of lactose malabsorbed in comparison with the lactulose hydrogen breath test.

Assessing the discomfort of the whole-body multi-axis vibration: laboratory and field experiments.

Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to determine the best procedure for predicting the discomfort caused by multi-axis vibration. In the laboratory experiment, 11 seated subjects compared single-axis vibration in one axis to single-axis vibration in another axis, and compared dual-axis vibration to single-axis vibration. In the field experiment, 22 lorry drivers rated the discomfort of 16 different rides.