Blood pressure control with a single-pill combination of indapamide sustained-release and amlodipine in patients with hypertension: the EFFICIENT study.

Objective: Despite antihypertensive treatment, most hypertensive patients still have high blood pressure (BP), notably high systolic blood pressure (SBP). The EFFICIENT study examines the efficacy and acceptability of a single-pill combination of sustained-release (SR) indapamide, a thiazide-like diuretic, and amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker (CCB), in the management of hypertension.

Methods: Patients who were previously uncontrolled on CCB monotherapy (BP≥140/90 mm Hg) or were previously untreated with grade 2 or 3 essential hypertension (BP≥160/100 mm Hg) received a single-pill combination tablet containing indapamide SR 1.

Constrictive pericarditis: an unusual clinical entity suggested during dobutamine stress echocardiography.

A 44-year-old female presents with disabling dyspnea and is unable to perform a regular treadmill stress test; instead a dobutamine stress echocardiogram is performed and although negative for ischemia reveals a vigorous paradoxical motion of the interventricular septum with dilatation of the inferior vena cava without respiratory variation and an increased diastolic flow signal in the hepatic veins after expiration with the infusion of dobutamine. The diagnosis of constrictive physiology is confirmed with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and right heart hemodynamics and the patient underwent pericardiectomy without complications with resolution of symptoms.

Randomised controlled trial of effect of raw and holder pasteurised human milk and of formula supplements on incidence of neonatal infection.

Supplementary formula feeds inhibited the protective effect of expressed raw and pasteurised human milk in 226 high-risk neonates in a randomised controlled trial. The infection rate in the group given pasteurised human milk and formula (33%) was significantly higher than the rates in the groups given raw human milk (10.5%), pasteurised human milk (14.

A planned prospective evaluation of the anti-infective property of varying quantities of expressed human milk.

This paper comprises 261 low birth weight infants who were divided into four groups with different feeding schedules. Group I--expressed human milk for all the feeds; Group II--human milk for half the feeds and the nursery formula for the rest; Group III--colostrum, 20 ml three times a day along with the nursery formula; and Group IV--control--only the nursery formula. The groups were matched by means of a randomized block design for identifiable factors which could predispose to the occurrence of infection.

A simple method of assessment of gestational age in newborn infants.

A simple method of assessment of gestational age based on only four characteristics, namely, the anterior vascular capsule of the lens, plantar creases, breast nodule, and ear firmness, is presented. Critical evaluation by appropriate statistical analyses has shown this to be a useful method of practical value with 95% confidence limits of 11 days. It is applicable to newborn infants, including sick babies, at any time within the first 2 days of life.

Partial supplementation with expressed breast-milk for prevention of infection in low-birth-weight infants.

In a prospective controlled study the anti-infective properties of breast-milk were evaluated in 70 high-risk low-birth-weight infants. 32 babies (group I) were given fresh expressed breast-milk during the day and milk formula at night. 38 infants (group II) received only milk formula and served as controls.