Ranitidine versus anticholinergic/antacid for duodenal ulcer. A randomized, endoscopically controlled, single-blind multicentre trial.

One hundred and forty-nine patients with endoscopically documented duodenal or prepyloric ulcer were randomly allocated to treatment with ranitidine, 150 mg twice daily (75 patients), or glycopyrrobromide, 2 mg three times daily, and antacid suspension, 60 ml/day, with a buffering capacity of 480 mmol/day (74 patients). The patients underwent a thorough prestudy symptom analysis, and endoscopy was performed by an observer who was unaware of the treatment in use. After 4- and 8-week courses of treatment the patients were re-evaluated.

Sucralfate and alginate/antacid in reflux esophagitis.

The efficacy of sucralfate and of an alginate/antacid compound was compared in a randomized, double-blind 6-week trial in patients with symptomatic, endoscopically confirmed macroscopic reflux esophagitis. Of the 68 patients who completed the study, 36 received sucralfate and 32 alginate/antacid. Significant symptomatic improvement occurred in both treatment groups: almost 70% of the patients became symptom-free or improved.

Late effects of proximal gastric vagotomy compared with antrectomy and selective vagotomy for chronic duodenal ulcer. A randomized study with 5-year follow-up.

Twenty-three patients who had been given a proximal gastric vagotomy and 29 patients who had had an antrectomy were examined periodically for 5 years after their operations for duodenal ulcers. Five years after surgery, 83% of the proximal gastric vagotomy patients and 86% of the antrectomy and selective vagotomy patients were included in Visick grades I-II. We found 4/24 recurrent ulcers in the vagotomy group and 1/29 in the antrectomy group; in addition 3 of the antrectomy patients had to be reoperated.

Exercise capacity in subjects with high oxygen affinity.

Exercise capacity and hemodynamic parameters were measured in ten patients with a previously unpublished variant of hemoglobin (Hb-Linköping) and in ten age- and sex-matched controls. Bicycle ergometer test was almost maximal and the indices of working capacity and cardiac tolerance were similar in patients and controls. The hemoglobin dissociation curve was shifted to the left at rest and after exercise the shift to right was half of the corresponding shift in controls.

Estimation of parameters affecting the uptake of 99mTc-methylenediphosphonate in rat femur with model simulation.

The uptake of 99mTc-methylenediphosphonate (MDP) in different parts of rat femur was simulated using a local three-space model for tracer transfer. The model consisted of bone blood, bone ECF-space and space for tracer deposition. The measured 99mTc-MDP concentration in the systemic blood and the local bone blood flow measured by 131I-macroaggregated albumin microspheres were used as input parameters.

A randomized study of a semisynthetic heparin analogue and heparin in prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis.

The prophylactic effect of a semisynthetic heparin analogue (SSHA) on deep vein thrombosis was investigated in a prospective double-blind multicentre trial. 440 major general surgical and gynaecological patients were randomized to one of three treatment groups: 50 mg SSHA, 37.5 mg SSHA and 5000 units sodium heparin subcutaneously 12-hourly.

Mineral density of calcaneus in men at different ages: a population study with special reference to life-style factors.

The mineral density of the calcaneus was measured in representative samples of men, aged 31-35, 51-55, and 71-75 years, utilizing a 125I-gamma-ray attenuation method. There was a gradual decrease in bone mineral density from the youngest to the oldest age group. Those men who participated in regular physical activity or who were non-smokers showed higher values for bone mineral density when compared to sedentary men or smokers, respectively.

Abnormalities of chromosome 13 in myelofibrosis.

19 patients with myelofibrosis, primary or following polycythaemia vera were studied cytogenetically. Bone marrow cells, unstimulated and stimulated cells from peripheral blood were investigated. 7 patients were found to have clonal aberrations, 3 of whom had a structural rearrangement of chromosome 13.

Diabetes insipidus in preleukaemic phase of acute myeloid leukaemia in 2 patients with empty sella turcica. A report of 2 cases.

2 patients with diabetes insipidus established in the preleukaemic phase of acute myeloid leukaemia are described. Both patients had probably coincidentally an empty sella turcica showed by a computerized tomography. In one of them, leukaemia developed secondary to a cytostatic therapy for a vesical cancer.

Effect of ten different target tissues on nerve fibre outgrowth from rat sympathetic ganglia in organotypic co-cultures.

Sympathetic thoracic chain ganglia of 3-day-old rats were cultured in collagen gel medium for 24 hours together with explants from heart atrium, liver, kidney, cornea, iris, lung, adrenal cortex, adrenal medulla, skeletal muscle, or vas deferens. The extent of nerve fibre growth was estimated by counting the number of fibres crossing each arc of a sector drawn in the ocular. The various tissues stimulated nerve fibre growth to distinctly different extents.

Increased bone marrow blood flow in polycythemia vera.

Bone marrow blood flow was measured in polycythemia vera, in compensatory and in relative polycythemia with a 133Xe washout method. In the treated polycythemia vera bone marrow blood flow was significantly increased compared with the age-matched controls. The fraction of blood flow entering the bone and flowing through the hematopoietic marrow was markedly increased in both the untreated and the treated polycythemia vera.

Cerebral blood flow in polycythaemia vera.

Haematological variables, cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cardiac index were investigated in 14 patients with polycythaemia vera undergoing venesections. The most important determinant of the CBF was the age of the patients (r = 0.52, p less than 0.

Sucralfate, and cimetidine for gastric ulcer.

Eighty consecutive patients with endoscopically proven gastric ulcer were randomly assigned to treatment with sucralfate, 1 g four times daily, or cimetidine, 200 mg three times daily and 400 mg at night. The patients were endoscoped after four and eight weeks by an examiner who was unaware of the treatment in use. Of the 40 patients assigned to each treatment group, 2 in the sucralfate and 4 in the cimetidine group were withdrawn due to the finding of gastric cancer in the biopsies.

Intraosseous fat in 133Xe bone circulation measurements.

The amount of intraosseous fat in the proximal femur is exponentially dependent on a coefficient that has been formulated from the bone attenuation curve using 241Am bone mineral absorptiometry of the distal radius in the same subject. The coefficient enables estimation of the 133Xe partition coefficient between blood and nonhematopoietic tissues of bone. Bone circulation can then be measured in the proximal femur in diseases that affect the whole skeleton.

Nerve fibre outgrowth from sympathetic ganglia of the newborn rat in organotypic cultures: effect of heart auricle co-cultures, fetal calf serum and collagen.

Sympathetic thoracic chain ganglia of 3-day-old rats were cultured for 24 hours alone or together with heart atrium explants in collagen gel media containing supplemented Medium 199 with no, 1% or 20% fetal calf serum. The amount of nerve fibres growth was estimated by counting the number of intersections of the fibres and a line ladder in the ocular. In the presence of serum the nerve fibre outgrowth in all directions was greatly stimulated by atrium co-cultures.

Bone and bone-marrow blood flow in chronic granulocytic leukemia and primary myelofibrosis.

Blood flow in hematopoietic bone marrow and in nonhematopoietic bone has been measured with a Xe-133 washout method in 20 patients with chronic granulocytic leukemia (CGL) and in seven with primary myelofibrosis. Age-matched healthy persons served as controls. Bone-marrow blood flow in CGL was dependent upon the phase of the disease.

Non-invasive evaluation of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in man.

Measurements of radionuclide first-pass left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEFrn) were carried out in 37 patients receiving doxorubicin and/or daunorubicin treatment for their malignant disease. The validity of the systolic time intervals (STI) and echocardiography (ECHO) in the detection of left ventricular dysfunction was evaluated using LVEFrn as reference method. LVEFrn showed a significant decrease in left ventricular function with cumulative anthracycline doses inpatients with and without previous clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease.

The Finnish leukaemia group: levamisole in maintenance therapy of acute myeloid leukemia in adults.

The Finnish Leukaemia Group has carried out a randomized, multicenter trial to study the effect of levamisole on the remission maintained with 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate in acute myeloid leukaemia in adults. Levamisole was given on 3 consecutive days every 2 weeks. Twenty-five patients received only chemotherapy, while 26 patients received levamisole as well.

Thoracic epidural analgesia and deep vein thrombosis in cholecystectomized patients.

The effect of continuous thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) on the occurrence of postoperative deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was studied with the [125I]-fibrinogen uptake test in patients undergoing elective gallbladder surgery. The 98 patients were randomly allocated to three groups, viz. TEA for 24 hours, TEA plus general anesthesia with intermittent positive-pressure ventilation (IPPV) and general anaesthesia with IPPV but no TEA.