Utilization of the intestinal tract as a delivery system for urogenital probiotics.

Orally consumed viable bacteria with proposed beneficial health effects, the so-called probiotics, are increasingly used to treat disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. It has been recently suggested that specifically selected lactobacilli could have a therapeutic role in female urogenital tract infections. It has been also suggested that some of these bacteria could be not intravaginally instilled, but also orally delivered.

Activity of high dose 24 hour 5-fluorouracil infusion plus L-leucovorin in advanced colorectal cancer.

Background: Modulation of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) by leucovorin (L-LV) in patients (pts) with advanced colorectal cancer has been demonstrated to produce a highly significant benefit over single-agent 5-FU in terms of tumor response rate, but this advantage does not translate into an evident improvement of overall survival. To improve the clinical efficacy of the 5-FU plus L-LV regimen a phase II study of weekly 24-hour high-dose 5-FU infusion with L-LV was undertaken.

Patients And Methods: Seventy advanced colorectal patients were enrolled and treated by a weekly outpatient combination regimen according to the following schedule: L-LV 100 mg/sqm by 4 hours i.

Serodiagnosis of Helicobacter pylori: evaluation of a rapid, miniaturized immunochromatographic test.

Diagnosis and successful eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection has been shown to be significantly related to symptom improvement in patients affected by chronic gastritis, duodenal and gastric ulcer. There is, therefore, an increasing need for the development of new, easy to use, reliable and non-invasive techniques to detect this organism. One such test is Flex-Sure (SmithKline Diagnostics Inc.