Paradoxical adverse events of anti-tumour necrosis factor therapy for spondyloarthropathies: a retrospective study.

Objectives: Several paradoxical adverse events (PAEs), e.g. IBDs, acute anterior uveitis (AAU) and psoriasis, have been described in patients taking anti-TNF drugs.

Restless legs syndrome--relevant aspects for internal medicine specialists.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS), also known as Ekbom's syndrome, is a fairly common complaint which is not widely recognised by medical professionals, although it seems to affect 1-10% of the population. Despite recent attempts to better characterize RLS, this neurologic disorder remains poorly understood. Idiopathic RLS frequently follows an autosomal dominant inheritance with a variable clinical expressivity of symptoms.

The effect of two antidiarrhoeal drugs on the psychosocial adjustment to illness in chronic functional diarrhoea.

Background: Chronic functional diarrhea is an embarrassing symptom, causing the impairment of the quality of life.

Aim: We looked for the effect of two antidiarrheal drugs, diosmectite and loperamide on the psychosocial adjustment to illness, a predictor for the health-related quality of life, in chronic functional diarrhea.

Methods: Prospective controlled randomized trial including 50 consecutive patients with chronic functional diarrhea.

Susceptibility testing of Streptococcus mitis group isolates.

Background & Objectives: Suppurative oral and maxillofacial infections are usually mixed infections due to aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, most frequently by oral streptococci and antimicrobial treatment is necessary for such infections. The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility of Streptococcus mitis group strains isolated from Romanian patients with different oral and maxillofacial infections.

Methods: Eighty-five isolates belonging to S.

Combined modality treatment for locally advanced breast cancer.

Purpose: To assess the value of aggressive loco-regional surgery in desperate situations with locally advanced breast cancer.

Methods: In this study there were considered 31 patients with locally advanced breast cancer who underwent surgery in a 5-year period. 10 of them received 3 cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy before surgical intervention; the rest of the 21 patients had systemic or local contra-indications for neo-adjuvant therapy.

Allergy as a systemic disease.

The prevalence of allergic diseases has shown an increase in the last few years. Allergic diseases develop in persons with a genetic background, this genetic trait being known as atopy. The main pathophysiological characteristic of allergy is inflammation.

Cardiac apoptosis: from organ failure to allograft rejection.

Cardiac myocyte apoptosis has been extensively studied in the last few years. Increased interest in the field stems from the hope that pharmacological manipulation of apoptosis may become a valuable tool for preventing excessive cell death observed in different pathological conditions. This paper is not intended as a comprehensive overview of current research about life and death in the cardiovascular system, but rather as a concise update on new developments in areas that were highlighted in a recent series of excellent reviews.

Vasorelaxant properties of brefeldin A in rat aorta.

The effects of brefeldin A, a putative specific agent that disassembles the Golgi apparatus were assessed on the contractility of de-endothelised rat aorta. Brefeldin A inhibited, either as pre- or as post-treatment, the contractions elicited by K+ (75 mM) or phenylephrine (10 microM), being significantly more potent upon the latter. The thapsigargin (1 microM)-induced rat aorta contraction was less sensitive to brefeldin A inhibition.

Modalities of compensation of cerebral circulation through the circle of Willis in stenoses and occlusions of extracranial arteries.

We have studied the intracranial cerebral circulation in 6 patients with bilateral ischaemic lesions of the internal carotid artery in the extracranial segment (2 significant bilateral stenosis cases; 1 case with bilateral thrombosis and 3 cases of unilateral thrombosis and significant contralateral stenosis). All the patients were males, their age being between the 5th and 8th decade. In a single case the neurological examination showed secondary left hemiplegia and recent right paresis of remittent type, while the other 5 patients had only transitory ischaemic attacks with hemiparesis or transitory aphasia.