Comparison of three quantitative HCV RNA assays in samples from HCV genotype 1- or 4-infected patients treated with the NS3/4A protease inhibitor simeprevir.

Background: Monitoring HCV RNA levels during treatment is an important tool for managing protease-inhibitor-based regimens, and different assays used in clinical practice can impact treatment decisions.

Objectives: The concordance of three HCV RNA assays was determined, and their impact on treatment decisions assessed using samples from HCV genotype (GT) 1- and GT4-infected patients treated with the NS3/4A inhibitor simeprevir in combination with pegylated interferon-α/ribavirin.

Study Design: Plasma samples collected during the simeprevir Phase III studies QUEST-1 and QUEST-2 (GT1), and RESTORE (GT4) were analyzed with the Roche High-Pure-System COBAS(®) TaqMan(®) HCV v2.

Applying instance-based techniques to prediction of final outcome in acute stroke.

Objective: Acute cerebral stroke is a frequent cause of death and the major cause of adult neurological disability in the western world. Thrombolysis is the only established treatment of ischemic stroke; however, its use carries a substantial risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. A clinical tool to guide the use of thrombolysis would be very valuable.

Post-marketing cohort study comparing the safety and efficacy of flunarizine and propranolol in the prophylaxis of migraine.

A comparative post-marketing surveillance study of the safety and efficacy of flunarizine and propranolol in the treatment of migraine was carried out. General practitioners in Belgium and the Netherlands each recruited patients for whom they would prescribe one of the study medications in the normal course of their treatment and recorded all medical events on follow-up forms for up to 8 months. A total of 1601 migraine patients were enrolled; 838 in the flunarizine cohort and 763 in the propranolol cohort.

Postmarketing study of the use of flunarizine in vestibular vertigo and in migraine.

Objective: This international postmarketing observational study of flunarizine was designed to evaluate, in routine clinical practice, the risk/benefit ratio of flunarizine in its approved indications, namely prophylaxis of migraine and treatment of vertigo. Comparator drugs were propranolol in migraine and betahistine in vertigo. The study was carried out by 498 general practitioners in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, whose participation had been requested by mail.

[Morals and sex deviations].

Deviance is today more often recognized. It questions norms or established order. Sociology, medicine, law, moral, even if they use the same terms, such as deviance or normality, deal with these realities differentialy.