Development and validation of a questionnaire for the assessment of bowel and lower urinary tract symptoms in women.

Objective: To develop a simple but sensitive instrument to evaluate and document symptoms of both bowel and urinary dysfunction in women.

Design: A 22-item questionnaire covering a range of bowel and urinary symptoms was developed and underwent rigorous psychometric testing.

Setting: The gynaecology departments of three hospitals, a urogynaecology clinic, a functional bowel clinic and a general practice.

Cytomegalovirus causing acute colonic pseudo-obstruction in a renal transplant recipient.

A female patient presented with pyrexia and features of large intestinal obstruction, 10 weeks posttransplantation, with biopsy-proven colitis caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV) and positive CMV antigenaemia and IgM tests. The symptoms resolved after treatment with ganciclovir, nasogastric aspiration and intravenous fluid replacement.

Cytomegalovirus involving gastrointestinal tract in renal transplant recipients.

Infection due to cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a substantial cause of mortality and morbidity among renal transplant recipients but the prognosis of the disease has changed dramatically since the introduction of ganciclovir (GAN). During a period of 5 years we treated 54 patients who developed CMV disease. From this group of patients we identified 7 patients with primary gastrointestinal tract (GIT) CMV disease who received treatment with GAN.

Reduced dose OKT3 prophylaxis in sensitised kidney recipients.

Prophylactic use of the monoclonal antibody OKT3 has been studied for the prevention of rejection in sensitised renal transplant recipients. Patients receiving a full dose (FD) regimen were compared to a subsequent consecutive group of patients receiving a reduced dose (RD) regimen. The characteristics of the two groups were not significantly different with regard to age, HLA mismatch and panel-reactive antibody (PRA) status.