Changes in breathing control and mechanics after laparoscopic vs open cholecystectomy.

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that there might be different effects on breathing control and respiratory mechanics after laparoscopic vs open cholecystectomy.

Design: Randomized clinical trial.

Setting: A general hospital in Greece.

Assessment of disease severity (in terms of function) using the internet.

Objective: To determine whether visual analog scales (VAS) can be used over the Internet to assess the patient with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) accurately or if the use of this different medium will affect the results.

Methods: Patients with AS (n = 50) attending a physiotherapy/educational course completed both an Internet based and a paper based version of the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) that uses VAS. The Internet version was completed twice to assess intrarespondent variation reliability and compared with the paper version to assess interrespondent variation reliability.

Postoperative changes on pulmonary function after laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy.

Background/aims: We examined 28 patients who underwent cholecystectomy for acute or chronic cholecystitis and/or cholelithiasis in order to evaluate the effect of surgical technique on respiratory functional parameters.

Methodology: We compared lung volume, flow parameters and blood gas indices in two groups of patients, eighteen of which underwent laparoscopic and ten of which open cholecystectomy, specifically on the 2nd and 8th postoperative day lung function indices were compared to preoperative values. The same anesthetic protocol was administered for all patients.

Theophylline induces a reduction in circulating interleukin-4 and interleukin-5 in atopic asthmatics.

Theophylline, a known phosphodiesterase inhibitor, has been widely used as an additional bronchodilator in asthmatic patients who are not adequately controlled on high-doses of inhaled steroids. However, there is growing evidence that theophylline may also have anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory effects in asthma. This study investigated whether theophylline administration has an impact on serum levels of interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-5 in asthmatic patients.

Decreased C4 complement component serum levels correlate with the degree of emphysema in patients with chronic bronchitis.

Patients with COPD who fulfill the diagnostic criteria of chronic bronchitis have been shown to exhibit lower serum levels of complement components C3 and C4 than healthy subjects, and this may indicate sustained complement activation as a result of recurrent respiratory tract infections. Since activation of complement leads to influx of inflammatory cells into the lung parenchyma with subsequent release of elastases and oxidants that cause damage to elastic lung tissue, we postulated that there might be a quantitative relationship between complement consumption and degree of elastic tissue destruction. In this study, we tried to investigate possible correlations between serum levels of C3 and C4 and degree of emphysema among patients with COPD of the bronchitic type.