Primary tubal choriocarcinoma

Choriocarcinoma is one of the most serious forms of gestational trophoblastic tumor. It is a malignant tumor from the epithelium of the chorionic villi. The most frequent location site is the uterus. Associated with ectopic pregnancy, it is extremely rare and in general, very aggressive. In 75% of the cases, it items from distant metastasis; therefore, a histological examination of the tubes must be performed in all ectopic pregnancies. Our patient was a 33-year-old woman who was admitted to emergency room (ER) with an intense pain in the right, iliac cavity, and limited genital bleeding. During the exploration, there was abdominal pain, with doubtful signs of peritoneal irritation. The vaginal ultrasound offered an image that was compatible with an extra uterine pregnancy in the left appendages. At emergency, right salpingectomy was performed via laparotomy. The patient was treated with polychemotherapy and contraceptives for a year, with no recurrence of the disease. Control follow-up was performed using beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) testing on a weekly basis during the first month and then bi-monthly during the first year of follow-up.     

Frequency, nature and determinants of pharmaceutical consultations provided in private by Dutch community pharmacists

OBJECTIVE: According to a report published by the federation of Dutch patients' associations, patients would like to see a pharmacist, who acts more as a personal adviser. This raised the question, how often Dutch community pharmacists have personal consultations with their patients in daily practice, on which factors this depends, and what kind of topics are discussed during these meetings. SETTING: Community pharmacies in the Netherlands. METHOD: A questionnaire was distributed among 800 randomly selected pharmacies. Questions were restricted to consultations characterized by one-to-one contact, drug therapy related content, and adequate privacy. These consultations were labelled as pharmaceutical consultations in private to distinguish them from other contacts between pharmacists and patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Number, content, and character of consultations. RESULTS: 198 (24.8%) community pharmacies responded. The pharmacists provide an average of roughly 1.2 consultations in private per working day. The vast majority of respondents provided face-to-face and telephone consultations (94.4 and 91.9%, respectively), only a minority gave consultations by e-mail (30.8%). These consultations primarily dealt with topics related to medication safety. The mean overall time spent was 290 min per month. A relatively high frequency of personal consultations was significantly associated with the absolute number of full-time equivalent pharmacists in the pharmacy. CONCLUSION: The frequency of pharmaceutical consultations in private is low, but may be improved by reorganisation of the pharmacist's activities. The possibility of personal consultations by e-mail is not yet well-developed. Further research is needed to assess the patient's view of pharmaceutical consultations in private.     

Benign infantile seizures with mild gastroenteritis: Study of 22 patients

PurposeTo analyze the electroclinical features, aetiology and outcome in patients with normal neurological examination and psychomotor development who presented seizures during a mild gastroenteritis (MG).Patients and methodsEvaluation of the clinical charts of 22 patients who were assessed in the Neurology Department, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría Prof. Dr. JP Garrahan between 1999 and 2007.ResultsTwelve patients were boys and 10 were girls, the age of onset ranged from 5 to 26 months, and the median age was 10 months. Rotavirus antigen test in stool was positive in 9 of 18 studied patients. The seizures were brief, focal with secondary generalization in 15 patients (68.5%), apparently generalized in 5 (22.5%) and focal in two (9%). Seven of the patients (35%) had more than one seizure in 24 h. The interictal EEG was normal in all patients. Neuroradiological studies were performed in 19 patients with a normal result. No patient was put on long-term treatment with antiepileptic drugs. Four patients had subsequent mild gastroenteritis and two of them presented convulsions during the disease. After between 12 and 67 months of follow-up, all patients had normal psychomotor development and neurological examination.ConclusionsIn this study we confirmed the association of benign infantile seizures (BIS) and MG with or without rotavirus. The identification of this entity allows avoiding unnecessary complementary studies and treatment with antiepileptic drugs.     

Synthesis and antiviral activity evaluation of 3'-fluoro-3'-deoxyribonucleosides: broad-spectrum antiviral activity of 3'-fluoro-3'-deoxyadenosine

Five 3'-fluorinated ribonucleosides were prepared and evaluated for their inhibitory properties against different viruses. The synthesis of these compounds was achieved by treatment of 2',5'-di-O-tritylated nucleoside analogues possessing a xylo-configuration with diethylaminosulfur trifluoride, followed by deprotection. 3'-Fluoro-3'-deoxyadenosine was active against a broad range of viruses, encompassing both DNA viruses [pox (vaccinia)], single-stranded (+) RNA viruses [picorna (polio, Coxsackie B), toga (sindbis, Semliki Forest)] and double-stranded RNA viruses (reo). In its antiviral activity spectrum 3'-fluoro-3'-deoxyadenosine clearly differed from those adenosine analogues that are known as inhibitors of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase. 3'-Fluoro-3'-deoxyadenosine also proved effective in vivo, in inhibiting tail lesion formation in mice inoculated intravenously with vaccinia virus.     

Prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a retrospective multicentric study from the GIMEMA group

Clinical and biological data were evaluated using Desu univariate analyses or Cox multivariate analyses in a series of 1,777 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients from an Italian Cooperative Group. In univariate analyses, age and sex of patients, presence of bone marrow (BM; greater than or equal to 50%), and peripheral blood (PB; greater than or equal to 60,000/microL) lymphocytosis, anemia (hemoglobin [Hb] less than 11 g/dL), thrombocytopenia (less than 100,000/microL), direct Coombs' test positivity, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and extent of lymph node involvement were shown to be of significant prognostic value. Multivariate analyses, through a stepwise procedure, showed that the most important prognostic variables are Hb, hepatomegaly, lymph node involvement, PB lymphocytosis, and age and sex of patients. Further covariates would produce an improvement having a nonsignificant P value. Based on the results of multivariate analyses, a four-step staging using the significant variables of the Cox model is proposed.     

The importance of standardization of creatinine in the implementation of guidelines and recommendations for CKD: implications for CKD management programmes.

BACKGROUND: In an attempt to reduce late referral and to improve the care of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), different organizations have issued guidelines on when to refer patients to the nephrologist. Most suggest referral of patients with a GFR below 60 ml/min/1.73 m2, and demand referral if the GFR is below 30 ml/min/1.73 m2. It is recommended to use the abbreviated MDRD equation to estimate GFR. This formula is, however, sensitive to the creatinine assay methodology. In addition, the impact of the implementation of such guidelines on the nephrology practice has never been evaluated. This study (i) identifies the true burden of CKD in a population and simulates the effects of a 100% implementation of the guidelines on the nephrology work load, and (ii) evaluates the validity of the estimated GFR using the abbreviated MDRD formula when routinely provided. METHODS: Different laboratories (both hospital and private) in our region were asked to report on all the serum creatinine values performed during the first week of December 2004. If patients had more than one determination, only the lowest serum creatinine value was retained. Patients already known to a nephrology unit were not included. GFR was calculated using the abbreviated MDRD, using the serum creatinine as reported by these laboratories, or after correction to the MDRD-standard using different published equations. RESULTS: 20,108 patients, with a mean age of 53.4+/-16.2 years, 48% females, had at least one serum creatinine determination in the observation period. According to the K/DOQI CKD classification, 20.2, 1.6 and 0.8% of females and 13.3, 1.6 and 0.6% of males were in stage 3, 4 and 5, respectively, when the abbreviated MDRD formula was used with the serum creatinine value as reported by the laboratories. Important differences in classifications were obtained when the different correction formulae for creatinine were applied. According to the current recommendations, this would lead to a mandatory referral of 1650-2400 CKD stage 4 patients per 100 000 inhabitants and a suggested referral of another 4100-15 360 CKD stage 3 patients per 100,000 inhabitants to a nephrology unit. CONCLUSION: Implementation of the current guidelines for referral of CKD patients to nephrologists would lead to an overload of the nephrology care capacities. Large differences in estimated GFRs with different corrections for serum creatinine are observed, resulting in important CKD classification differences. Standardization of serum creatinine assays is mandatory before guidelines, and especially the routine provision of the estimated GFR by the abbreviated MDRD formula, can be implemented in clinical practice.     

Uveal melanoma radiation. 125I brachytherapy versus helium ion irradiation

The optimum radiation therapy for uveal melanoma is uncertain. Both helium ion irradiation and 125I brachytherapy have been used to treat this neoplasm. This investigation analyzed the control and complication rates of uveal melanomas treated with helium ions of 125I plaques. In both a retrospective and a prospective dynamically balanced study, the control rates appeared to be similar. There were more posterior segment complications after 125I plaques and more anterior segment complications, including neovascular glaucoma, after helium ion irradiation. The follow-up period is too short to draw definitive conclusions on the radiation complications. Overall, approximately 89% of eyes were retained and less than 4% of treated eyes were removed because of failure to control the tumor.