Pulse therapy combined with oral corticosteroids in the management of severe rheumatic carditis and rebound.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to describe the clinical course, laboratory tests, and the cardiac involvement in rheumatic carditis patients in functional class III and IV, submitted to pulse therapy combined with oral prednisone.

Methods: A total of 120 patients with severe carditis due to acute rheumatic fever were treatment with three cycles of pulse therapy combined with oral corticosteroids. The patients were followed up from the hospital admission until the end of the treatment and returned after 30, 60, and 90 days to control.

Use of clobetasol in lacquer for plaque psoriasis treatment.

Clobetasol benefits to control psoriasis lesions are well defined, but there were not studies about its action when used in lacquer vehicle to control skin lesions. A double-blind study was conducted with 40 patients that utilized clobetasol 0.05% in one hemibody and just the vehicle in the other hemibody.

Dysfunction of Neurovascular/Metabolic Coupling in Chronic Focal Epilepsy.

Goal: We aim to evaluate the mechanisms underlying the neurovascular/metabolic coupling in the epileptogenic cortices of rats with chronic focal epilepsy.

Methods: We performed and analyzed intracranial recordings obtained from the seizure-onset zones during ictal periods on epileptic rats, and then, used these data to fit a metabolically coupled balloon model. Normal rats undergoing forepaw stimulation were used as control.

Comparison of quality of life questionnaires and their correlation with the clinical course of patients with psoriasis.

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory dermatosis characterized by erythematous, scaly lesions covering extensive areas of the skin and negatively affecting patients' quality of life by interfering in their personal life, social relationships and routine activities. Treatment offers reasonable control of the condition; however, little importance is generally given to the patient's impression.

Objectives: To evaluate the quality of life of patients with psoriasis, to verify whether there is a correlation between quality of life and clinical improvement and to compare two quality of life questionnaires and evaluate their equivalence.

Risperidone in the treatment of delirium: results from a prospective open-label trial.

Background: Effective treatment is necessary to reverse delirium and prevent potentially serious consequences.

Method: Patients were identified for screening by initial chart review of all consecutive admissions to the general medical or surgical wards at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, between November 2000 and April 2002. Medically ill patients with delirium defined by DSM-IV criteria and a Delirium Rating Scale (DRS) score of >or= 13 were given risperidone, 0.

Exacerbation of psychosis by misinterpretation of physical symptoms.

Impaired processing of perceptual information is often a prominent aspect of psychotic disorders. Physical symptoms such as pain or discomfort may be either incorrectly perceived or misinterpreted by psychotic patients. Presented here is a series of cases in which somatic symptoms occurred in psychotic patients and worsened their psychotic states but only later were recognized as physical problems.

Orally disintegrating olanzapine for the treatment of psychotic and behavioral disturbances associated with dementia.

Orally disintegrating olanzapine is a recently marketed form of olanzapine that dissolves rapidly on contact with saliva. We describe six demented patients resistant to treatment with common oral antipsychotic medications who were successfully treated with the formulation. The importance of these case reports is to make physicians aware that orally disintegrating olanzapine may be useful for the management of psychobehavioral disturbances in demented patients who resist or have difficulty taking standard oral medications.