International validation of the low anterior resection syndrome score.

Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the convergent and discriminative validity and reliability of the low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) score in an international setting.

Background: The LARS score is a simple self-administered questionnaire measuring bowel dysfunction after rectal cancer surgery. The score is intended to be commonly used in international research and clinical practice in the future.

Pankiller effect of prolonged exposure to menadione on glioma cells: potentiation by vitamin C.

Menadione (Vitamin K3) has anti-tumoral effects against a wide range of cancer cells. Its potential toxicity to normal cells and narrow therapeutic range limit its use as single agent but in combination with radiation or other anti-neoplastic agents can be of therapeutic use. In this paper, we first evaluated the early (within 3 h) effect of menadione on ongoing DNA replication.

Preserved vasodilatory response to nitroglycerin in saphenous vein bypass grafts.

Background: Uncertainty exists regarding the effects of nitroglycerin on atherosclerotic segments of coronary arteries, and information on vasoreactivity of saphenous vein bypass grafts is sparse. Intravascular ultrasound enables identification of atherosclerosis in angiographically normal segments and allows continuous determination of alterations in cross-sectional lumen areas.

Methods And Results: Patients with documented coronary atherosclerosis were studied.

The use of a water extract from the bark of Choerospondias axillaris in the treatment of second degree burns.

Burns are common in Vietnam, and because of economic constraints and limited resources for the import of appropriate treatments, the health authorities are obliged to rely on traditional herbal remedies. It is therefore essential to evaluate current drugs, one of which is the water extract of the bark of the tree Choerospondias axillaris. It has been used for many years in the Vietnam-Sweden hospital at Uong Bi in northern Vietnam.

Studies on the individual and combined diuretic effects of four Vietnamese traditional herbal remedies (Zea mays, Imperata cylindrica, Plantago major and Orthosiphon stamineus).

Herbal remedies are widely used in Vietnam alongside modern drugs. We assessed the diuretic effect of four traditional Vietnamese herbal remedies from Zea mays, Imperata cylindrica, Plantago major and Orthosiphon stamineus, all claimed to produce an increase of diuresis. No influence was recorded for the 12- and 24-h urine output or on the sodium excretion for any of the drugs when tested under standardized conditions in a placebo controlled double-blind crossover model.

Relation of sedation and amnesia to plasma concentrations of midazolam in surgical patients.

The kinetics and dynamics of midazolam were investigated in 20 female patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery. The relation between the plasma concentrations of midazolam and pharmacokinetic end points was evaluated after an intravenous infusion regimen in 10 patients given an epidural anesthetic. The remaining 10 patients were anesthetized with a totally intravenous anesthetic technique with midazolam and alfentanil.

Postoperative demand for analgesics in relation to individual levels of endorphins and substance P in cerebrospinal fluid.

Fourteen adult patients were allowed to self-administer small intravenous doses of pethidine to relieve postoperative pain. Thirteen of the patients obtained subjectively satisfactory analgesia while establishing steady-state levels of pethidine in plasma. The individual demand for pethidine was related to individual levels of fraction I endorphins and substance P-like immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).