Primary Meningococcal Septic Arthritis of the Knee by Neisseria meningitidis Serotype Y.

Neisseria meningitidis infection should be considered in patients presenting with septic arthritis especially if Gram-negative diplococcic are observed on Gram-stain.

Triple therapy in the eradication of Helicobacter pylori in patients with duodenal ulcer disease: results of a multicentre study in South-East Asia. South-East Asia Multicenter Study Group.

Background: The efficacy of proton pump inhibitor based triple therapy in patients from South-East Asia, where metronidazole resistance is reportedly high, has not been formally assessed in randomized, multicentre trials.

Aim: To compare the eradication rates of Helicobacter pylori, ulcer healing rates and side-effects of three regimens of omeprazole triple therapy in patients with duodenal ulcer from South-East Asia and to study the impact of metronidazole resistance.

Methods: A single blind, randomized parallel group, comparative multicentre study.

Quality of Life--Asian perspective--a personal view.

There is a need to define Quality of Life and to develop a practical method to measure objectively this aspect in gastrointestinal diseases. This has not been performed in any Asian population. It is proposed that this evaluation be part of future trials in Asia on the basis that Asian patients are culturally, socially and politically different from Westerners.

Omeprazole in acute and long-term treatment of Asian patients with peptic ulcer refractory to H2-antagonists.

Twenty-seven patients with peptic ulcer (19 with duodenal ulcer (DU) and eight with gastric ulcer (GU] refractory to H2-antagonists were treated with 40 mg of omeprazole once daily for 4-8 weeks, depending on the rate of ulcer healing. Clinical assessment, endoscopy and laboratory tests were performed at entry, after 2 and after 4 weeks, and if unhealed, also after 8 weeks' treatment. Ten healed patients were given a maintenance therapy of omeprazole 20 mg daily for up to 12 months during which the patients returned for endoscopy, gastric biopsy and laboratory tests at 3-monthly intervals.

Omeprazole compared with ranitidine once daily in the treatment of duodenal ulcer.

A double-blind randomized study in 230 Malaysian patients with duodenal ulcer was conducted to compare the proton-pump inhibitor, omeprazole 20 mg, given once daily in the morning, with ranitidine 300 mg, administered once daily at night. After 2 and 4 weeks of treatment, 222 and 220 patients, respectively, were evaluable according to the study protocol. Omeprazole produced significantly higher healing rates than ranitidine at both 2 weeks (75% versus 46%, respectively, P less than 0.