Adhesion formation after laparoscopic surgery: what do we know about the role of the peritoneal environment?

In spite of the approaches that have been proposed to reduce postoperative peritoneal adhesions, they remain a major clinical problem because of the associated intestinal obstruction, chronic pelvic pain, female infertility and difficulties at the time of reoperation. The pathogenesis of the process have been focused almost exclusively on the local events induced by the surgical trauma, and the strategies for adhesion prevention thus focused on barriers to separate surgically denuded areas. The important role of the peritoneal cavity environment only recently became apparent and is not yet incorporated in adhesion reducing strategies.

Calcitonin gene-related peptide-induced vasodilation in the human forearm is antagonized by CGRP8-37: evaluation of a human in vivo pharmacodynamic model.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess the potential of CGRP8-37, the C-terminal fragment of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), to inhibit CGRP-induced vasodilation in the human forearm and to evaluate a pharmacodynamic model to aid the clinical development of novel CGRP-receptor antagonists.

Methods: Forearm blood flow (FBF) responses to intra-arterial CGRP infusions were measured via venous occlusion plethysmography in 21 healthy subjects. Dose response to CGRP was assessed during graded infusion of CGRP (1, 3, and 10 ng.

The East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey (EFPTS).

The East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey (EFPTS) is a registry of multiple births in the province of East-Flanders, Belgium. It has several unique features: it is population-based and prospective, with the possibility of long-term follow-up; the twins (and higher order multiple births) are ascertained at birth; basic perinatal data are recorded; chorion type and zygosity are established; and since 1969 placental biopsies have been taken and frozen at -20 degrees C for later determination of genetic markers. The EFPTS is the only large register that includes placental data and allows differentiation of three subtypes of monozygotic (MZ) twins based on the time of the initial zygotic division: the dichorionic-diamnionic pairs (early, before the fourth day after fertilisation), the monochorionic-diamnionic pairs (intermediate, between the fourth and the seventh day post fertilisation), and the monochorionic-monoamnionic pairs (late, after the eight day post fertilisation).

Assessment of vaginal lactobacillary flora in wet mount and fresh or delayed gram's stain.

Objective: The assessment of the vaginal lactobacillary flora helps to direct further diagnostic microbiologic investigations in genital infectious disease and seems to represent a powerful tool in predicting infectious morbidity and preterm labor during pregnancy. In the absence of a "gold standard," we studied the variations in assessing lactobacillary morphotypes according to the method used.

Methods: The lactobacillary flora from 183 pregnant women was classified according to 3 groups: normal, intermediate, and abnormal.

Pertrochanteric fractures in the elderly. Is the Belgian VDP prosthesis the best treatment for unstable fractures with severe comminution?

During a ten year period (1978-1988) 565 patients, aged 70 years and over, suffering a fresh pertrochanteric fracture have been treated in the Department of Traumatology at the University Hospitals of Leuven, Belgium. According to the system of Evans and Jensen, 388 fractures were classified as unstable. Special attention was given to the 324 cases of type I C and I D fractures.