Interferon plus amantadine versus interferon alone in the treatment of naïve patients with chronic hepatitis C: a UK multicentre study.

Background/aims: The antiviral agent amantadine may have activity against the hepatitis C virus. To determine whether the combination of interferon-alpha plus amantadine was more effective than interferon monotherapy we conducted a multicentre clinical trial in untreated patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.

Methods: We performed a pilot study in two centres (36 patients) to determine the number needed for a statistically significant clinical trial and then conducted a multicentre, randomized controlled clinical trial involving 14 centres and 143 patients.

Gastritis and gastric campylobacter-like organisms in patients without peptic ulcer.

Gastric biopsy specimens were obtained from 83 patients without peptic ulcer disease and analysed histologically. Culture and serological studies were done on the last 64 patients. The patients were divided into two age groups (young and old groups.

Sensorineural deafness--a new complication of ulcerative colitis?

A case of sudden bilateral sensorineural deafness associated with active ulcerative colitis is reported. Evidence for an autoimmune basis for this condition is reviewed and the potential benefit of systemic corticosteroids emphasized. The condition may represent a recently recognized extra-intestinal complication of ulcerative colitis.

Twice daily tripotassium dicitrato bismuthate in the treatment of duodenal ulceration.

Fifty three patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulceration have cooperated in a clinical trial to compare the ulcer healing effect of tripotassium dicitrato bismuthate (TDB) at standard dosage administered either twice or four times daily. No statistically significant difference has been found to exist between ulcer healing in the two groups at 4 weeks (72% and 67%, P = 0.944) or at 8 weeks (92% and 81%, P = 0.

Tranexamic acid therapy in ulcerative colitis.

The antifibrinolytic drug tranexamic acid was assessed in controlling bleeding in 12 patients with left-sided proctocolitis. The study was designed as a double-blind cross-over trial employing a dose of 4·5 g of tranexamic acid/day together with identical placebo. A statistically significant reduction in rectal bleeding was achieved in 50% of cases with a minimum of side effects.

Likelihood of relapse of duodenal ulcer after initial treatment with cimetidine or colloidal bismuth subcitrate.

Colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS, DE-NOL) and cimetidine have been compared in a double-blind randomized trial in the management of 75 patients with duodenal ulcer. The drugs had similar potency with respect to ulcer healing. At one month the healing rates were 66% for CBS and 59% for cimetidine.

Difference in relapse rates of duodenal ulcer after healing with cimetidine or tripotassium dicitrato bismuthate.

In a double-blind randomised trial in 75 patients with duodenal ulceration diagnosed endoscopically, 38 patients were given tripotassium dicitrato bismuthate and 37 cimetidine. There was no significant difference in the healing rates between the two drugs after 1 and 2 months, although relief of symptoms was marginally quicker with cimetidine. During follow-up for at least a year, relapse was significantly more common in patients whose ulcers had healed during treatment with cimetidine than in those whose ulcers had healed during treatment with tripotassium dicitrato bismuthate.

Serial liver biopsies in blood donors with persistent HBs antigenaemia.

Initial liver biopsies from asymptomatic HBs antigen positive blood donors showed a range of histological abnormalities ranging from minor parenchymal lesions to cirrhosis. Twenty of these have now been followed up for periods of up to four years and during that time have had at least two liver biopsies. Throughout the period of study all the donors have remained carriers of HBs Ag, and there was no significant variation in the titers of antigen or the electron microscopic appearances of the serum in individual donors.

Electrical stimulation and insulin tests used with bilateral selective vagotomy.

Completeness of vagotomy has been assessed by use of the electrical stimulation test and the insulin test in 50 patients suffering from chronic duodenal ulceration. A positive result from either was taken as evidence of incomplete vagotomy. The electrical stimulation test provided such evidence more often than the insulin test.

Recurrent ulceration after vagotomy and drainage with electrical stimulation test, 1957-69.

Between 1957 and 1969 700 patients with duodenal ulceration were treated by selective vagotomy and simple drainage using the electrical stimulation test to achieve complete nerve section. Ten of these patients have been re-admitted to the hospital with further ulceration, one with a lesser curve gastric ulcer and nine with recurrent duodenal disease. The first patient had gastric retention and has apparently been cured by gastrojejunostomy to improve antral drainage.

Selective vagotomy without drainage. An interim report.

The results of surgical treatment for duodenal ulcer were compared in two groups of patients-51 who had undergone selective vagotomy without drainage and 17 who had had selective vagotomy and pyloroplasty. It is suggested that in the absence of organic pyloric or duodenal stenosis the former method seems both preferable and desirable, since postoperativley dumping does not occur and there is a steady improvement in gastric emptying.