Clearance of refractory bile duct stones with Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy: higher failure rate in obese patients.

Objective: Bile duct stones that cannot be removed endoscopically are still a challenge in interventional gastroenterology. Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) with subsequent endoscopic extraction of residual fragments is an established treatment option if other endoscopic means are not successful. Our study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of ESWL for clearance of refractory bile duct stones.

[Do low-threshold detoxification units reach new groups of the drug dependent?].

The conventional form of detoxication for illicit drug users in German psychiatric hospitals is an inpatient treatment approach connected with high admission prerequisites. These demand a high stage of motivational compliance from of the patients, e.g.

[Various forms of chronicity in addicted patients at a psychiatric hospital].

Developing differential treatments for addicts implies discrimination of clinically relevant subgroups of addicts. It is common practice to classify patients by their capability to engage in an in-patient therapy covering a period of six month on average. This rough classification offers no starting-point to optimize therapeutic strategies especially for patients with only insufficient understanding of and suffering from their disorder (so-called depraved alcoholics).

A case of acute pulmonary edema, splenomegaly, and ascites in guinea fowl.

Acute pulmonary edema, splenomegaly, and ascites were observed in a disease outbreak in adult white and pearl guinea fowl. The clinical history and gross and microscopic lesions resembled those described for marble spleen disease of pheasants and avian adenovirus group II splenomegaly of chickens. A small number of intranuclear inclusion bodies were found in liver, spleen, and lung sections of affected guinea fowl.

Exercise attenuates diet-induced arteriosclerosis in the adult rat.

The present investigation was conducted to assess the effects of exercise on diet-induced arteriosclerosis in retired breeder rats. Thirty-two 8- to 9-mo-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated to one of four treatment groups: hypercholesterolemic diet-exercise (HE), hypercholesterolemic diet-sedentary (HS), normocholesterolemic diet-exercise (NE) and normocholesterolemic diet-sedentary (NS). The hypercholesterolemic diet contained 10% lard and 0.