Efficacy and tolerability of 20 mg pantoprazole versus 300 mg ranitidine in patients with mild reflux-oesophagitis: a randomized, double-blind, parallel, and multicentre study.

Background And Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and tolerability of low dose pantoprazole (20 mg) (a gastric proton pump inhibitor) with standard dose ranitidine (300 mg) (a histamine-receptor antagonist), in their ability to relieve symptoms and heal oesophageal lesions associated with gastrooesophageal reflux disease (GORD).

Methods: Patients with endoscopically established mild GORD (stage I, modified Savary-Miller classification) were enrolled into a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group comparison study (intention-to-treat population, n = 201; age range, 18-82 years). Patients took either oral pantoprazole 20 mg in the morning (n = 101) or ranitidine 300 mg in the evening (n = 100) once daily for 4 weeks or, if the healing was not complete, 8 weeks.

Screening for cervical neoplasia during pregnancy.

Objective: To evaluate cytology as a screening method for cervical neoplasia in pregnancy and to compare it with cervicography and the acetic acid test (AAT).

Methods: In a large antenatal clinic in South Africa, 842 women were screened utilizing cytology, cervicography and the acetic acid test simultaneously. The proportion of positive results of the different tests were compared and the agreement calculated by the kappa statistic.

Tyrosinase catalysed biphenyl construction from flavan-3-ol substrates.

Mushroom tyrosinase catalysed oxidation of three flavan-3-ols, viz. catechin, fisetinidol and mesquitol, was conducted to construct biphenyl bonds. Exposure of the flavan-3-ols to tyrosinase and subsequent trapping of the o-quinone intermediates resulted in the formation of novel flavan-3-ol derivatives, the structures of which were elucidated by mono- and two-dimensional 1H-NMR experiments.

The effect of monoclonal anti-human-platelet antibodies on platelet kinetics in a baboon model: IgG subclass dependency.

We assessed the in vivo effect of six intact anti-human antiplatelet antibodies of two major IgG subclasses on platelet kinetics in baboons. Five of the six antibodies tested caused thrombocytopenia of varying degree when injected at a precalculated threshold value. An agglutinating IgG1 antibody (MA-8L4A12) caused a long-lasting, mild thrombocytopenia with a predominant uptake of radiolabelled platelets in the spleen, while the four IgG2 antibodies tested (MA-13G8E1, MA-2M5A6, MA-21K2E8 and MA-22M10) caused a severe, transient thrombocytopenia with uptake of platelets in the liver.

Detection of Virulence to Wheat Stem Rust Resistance Gene Sr31 in Puccinia graminis. f. sp. tritici in Uganda.

In much of the world, resistance to stem rust in wheat, caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, is based at least in part on the gene Sr31.

Fusarium oxysporum and F. sambucinum Associated with Root Rot of Amaranthus hybridus in South Africa.

Amaranthus hybridus has been identified as an important alternative vegetable crop with potential for increased commercial production in South Africa (1). In summer 1999, severe losses occurred in a large plot of 2-month-old A. hybridus plants on an experimental farm near Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Description of the previously unknown male of Argulus kosus Avenant-Oldewage, 1994 (Crustacea : Branchiura).

Argulus kosus Avenant-Oldewage, 1994 was described from two females collected in Kosi Bay, South Africa. Individuals of both sexes have now been found associated with freshwater, estuarine and marine fishes in Lake St Lucia on the coast of northern KwaZulu/Natal. The male is described, and A.

Software for primary healthcare in a developing country. Background and problem statement.

Nurses in primary healthcare (PHC) clinics carry a heavy administrative burden, much of which can be computerized. Advantages and disadvantages of computerization and issues related to patient records and other requirements of computerized systems are well documented. However, not much attention has been given to users' needs in PHC environments in developing countries.

Gastro-intestinal parasites of cattle in the communal grazing system of Botshabelo in the Free State.

Twelve Bonsmara tracer calves (aged 6-12 months) were used to monitor helminth infections in the communal farming system of Botshabelo in the Free State. One calve was slaughtered each month from December 1995 to November 1996 and processed for helminth recovery. All the calves harboured worms, but the numbers were always low.

Assessment of cattle owner's perceptions and expectations, and identification of constraints on production in a peri-urban, resource-poor environment.

This questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 200 farmers in the resource-poor, urban and per-urban environments of Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu towns in the Free State Province of South Africa. The questionnaire was divided into seven sections, namely demography, livestock, cattle, parasites, parasite control, livestock diseases and problems experienced. A total of 87.

Could bats act as reservoir hosts for Rift Valley fever virus?

The inter-epizootic reservoir host of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) remains unknown, although the namaqua rock rat, Aethomys namaquensis, as well as bats have been implicated. Bats can be asymptomatically infected with rabies, as well as several arboviruses; the possibility that they can act as host for RVFV therefore exists. To examine this possibility, 350 different samples (brain, liver, salivary glands and brown fat) obtained from 150 bats (comprising seven species) were tested for RVFV antigen using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Vaginitis, cervicitis, and cervical length in pregnancy.

Objective: We sought to determine the possible association among vaginitis, cervicitis, and cervical length in pregnancy.

Study Design: Primigravid volunteers, between 20 and 36 weeks' gestation (n = 210), were examined. Vaginitis was diagnosed by pH determination and wet mount smear, cervicitis was diagnosed by cervicography, and cervical length was diagnosed by vaginal ultrasonographic measurement.

Biodistribution and absorbed radiation dose estimates of 99mTc-labeled dimercaptopropionyl human serum albumin.

Unlabelled: The use of 99mTc-labeled red blood cells (RBC) for the evaluation of left ventricular function using equilibrium-gated blood-pool imaging suffers from several problems and potential risks. In this study, we estimated the absorbed radiation dose of 99mTc-labeled dimercaptopropionyl human serum albumin (DMP-HSA) as a potential alternative to 99mTc-RBC.

Methods: After the administration of 99mTc-DMP-HSA, whole-body imaging was performed up to 48 h after injection in five volunteers.

First Report of Alternaria tenuissima as a Leaf Pathogen of Amaranthus hybridus.

Amaranthus hybridus is an important alternative leafy-vegetable crop with the potential for increased commercial production in southern Africa and other semi-arid regions of the world (2). In May 1998, extensive leaf spotting was observed on A. hybridus at Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Pharmacokinetics of clenbuterol in the ostrich.

The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of clenbuterol in the ostrich as no such data is available. Clenbuterol (2 mg) was given as a single oral dose to nine ostriches. Blood samples were collected over a period of 96 h after administration and urine for a period of 5 d.

An acetylsalicylic acid-sensitive aggregation phenomenon in Dipodascopsis uninucleata.

Aggregation of ascospores has been discovered in the yeast Dipodascopsis uninucleata. When this yeast is cultivated to reach the sexual reproductive stage, small ascospores are individually released from the tip of a sac-like ascus which then aggregate in orderly clusters. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) inhibited ascospore release and subsequent ordered aggregation process.

An isolation procedure for arachidonic acid producing Mortierella species.

Malt extract agar and an incubation temperature of 5 degrees C were used to selectively isolate representatives of the genus Mortierella from soil. Fungi in a soil sample from mountain grassland able to grow under these conditions, amounted to a total of 2640 colony forming units per gram soil. Circa 94% of the total fungal isolates represented Mortierella subgenus Mortierella.

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination with amperometric detection of piroxicam in human plasma and tissues.

After repeated topical application of a piroxicam gel preparation to the knee, piroxicam was quantified in plasma, subcutaneous tissue, synovial capsule and synovial fluid, using specimens obtained during knee surgery. Electrochemical detection was used and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.72 ng/ml in plasma at a signal-to-noise ratio of 10:1.

Four new species in Lipomyces.

For new species in Lipomyces are described. In terms of nuclear genome comparison the genus Lipomyces comprises three species-clusters. A key to the nine species now assigned to the genus, is given.

Kinetics of indium-111-labelled platelets in HIV-infected patients with and without associated thrombocytopaenia.

Seven to 12% of HIV-infected patients have thrombocytopaenia. The pathophysiology of the thrombocytopaenia is not clear. It has been variously suggested that it may be caused by an increased peripheral platelet destruction, a defect in platelet production, or by a combination of these.

A New Pathotype of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici on Wheat in South Africa.

Following the detection of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici for the first time on wheat (Triticum aestivum) in the Western Cape in August 1996, stripe rust has spread to all the important wheat production areas in South Africa.

Sites of elimination and pharmacokinetics of recombinant [131I]lepirudin in baboons.

Lepirudin has a short half-life, and only 50-60% of the intravenously administered dose is excreted by the kidneys. The fate of the remainder is unknown. We designed a study to determine the fate of this lepirudin.

Different signalling pathways contribute to the control of GPD1 gene expression by osmotic stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Yeast cells respond to a shift to higher osmolarity by increasing the cellular content of the osmolyte glycerol. This response is accompanied by a stimulation of the expression of genes encoding enzymes in the glycerol production pathway. In this study the osmotic induction of one of those genes, GPD1, which encodes glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, was monitored in time course experiments.

The challenge of pollen analysis in palaeoenvironmental studies of hominid beds: the record from Sterkfontein caves.

The search for pollen in carbonate-rich sediments from the hominid site Sterkfontein has been justified because previous investigations suggested that although pollen contamination is a problem, speleothems (e.g. travertines and stalagmites) are most likely to contain reliable assemblages.