A randomized trial of adoptive immunotherapy with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and interleukin-2 versus standard therapy in the postoperative treatment of resected nonsmall cell lung carcinoma.

Background: A previous pilot study from our group suggested that: (1) adoptive immunotherapy (A1) with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) may be applied with safety to more than 80% of the patients who had surgery for Stage III nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC); and (2) AI could be useful in patients with locally advanced disease. The present randomized study was planned to assess the efficacy of AI in the postoperative treatment of Stage II, IIIa, or IIIb NSCLC:

Methods: TIL were expanded in vitro from tissue samples obtained from the surgically removed specimens of 131 patients. Eighteen cultures yielded no growth of TIL.

Remifentanil reduces auditory and somatosensory evoked responses during isoflurane anaesthesia in a dose-dependent manner.

We studied 60 patients during stable isoflurane anaesthesia (0.4 MAC) after premedication with temazepam. Patients were allocated randomly to one of three dose regimens of remifentanil: 1 microgram kg-1 i.

Comparison of cervical magnetic stimulation and bilateral percutaneous electrical stimulation of the phrenic nerves in normal subjects.

Cervical magnetic stimulation is a new technique for stimulating the phrenic nerves, and may offer an alternative to percutaneous electrical stimulation for assessing diaphragmatic strength in normal subjects and patients in whom electrical stimulation is technically difficult or poorly tolerated. We compared cervical magnetic stimulation with conventional supramaximal bilateral percutaneous electrical stimulation in nine normal subjects. We measured oesophageal pressure (Poes), gastric pressure (Pgas) and transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi).

A comparison of different modes of noninvasive ventilatory support: effects on ventilation and inspiratory muscle effort.

The aims of noninvasive ventilation include the correction of hypoventilation and unloading of inspiratory muscles. Volume cycled flow generators, bi-level positive airway pressure and continuous positive airway pressure techniques have all been used with face and nasal masks. We have compared these modes of ventilatory support, administered by a nasal mask in stable, awake outpatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or neuromusculo-skeletal disease in respect of their effects on ventilation, inspiratory muscle effort and oxygen saturation.

Portable measurement of maximum mouth pressures.

We have compared a small portable mouth pressure meter (MPM) to our laboratory standard (LS) pressure recording equipment in order to evaluate this new device. The mouth pressure meter measures and displays as a digital read-out peak pressure for inspiratory and expiratory efforts. It samples the signal at 16 Hz, and an integral microprocessor is programmed to determine and display the maximum pressure averaged over one second both during inspiratory and expiratory manoeuvres (PImax and PEmax, respectively).