Modification of general practitioner prescribing of antibiotics by use of a therapeutics adviser (academic detailer).

Aims: This was a pilot study of the use of a clinical pharmacist as a therapeutics adviser (academic detailer) to modify antibiotic prescribing by general practitioners.

Methods: Following a visit by the adviser (March-May), 112 general practitioners were recruited and randomised to control or active groups. A panel of experts prepared a best practice chart of recommended drugs for upper and lower respiratory tract infections, otitis media and urinary tract infections.

Comparison of urinary oxalate excretion in urolithiasis patients with and without hypercalciuria.

The relationships between urinary oxalate, calcium and magnesium were investigated in 81 patients with idiopathic calcium oxalate urolithiasis on their regular diets. A significant relationship was established between calcium and oxalate excretion in the analysis of recurrent stone-formers (n = 44, P less than 0.01), though there was no significant difference between the two in the analysis of the patients overall or in single stone-formers.

The effects of vegetable and animal protein diets on calcium, urate and oxalate excretion.

A group of 30 meat eating normal subjects were compared with a second group of vegetarians matched for age and sex. Their diets and urinary excretion patterns were compared by statistical analysis. A link between protein intake, particularly animal protein, and urinary calcium excretion was demonstrated and also that dietary calcium was inversely related to urinary oxalate excretion.

Urinary bladder stones in aboriginal children.

Primary bladder stones are described as occurring in aboriginal children from native reserves. Here breast feeding is supplemented early in life with white flour and little else. A comparison is made between this diet and that of children in endemic bladder stone regions, and reasons are advanced for the formation of these stones, with biochemical evidence to support the thesis that ammonium acid urate precipitation is the initiating factor.