Neutropenic enterocolitis. Clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Review of the consultation records of the Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology service at Roswell Park Memorial Institute from 1982 to 1987 revealed 22 patients with a clinical diagnosis of neutropenic enterocolitis. Ninety-one percent of the patients had hematologic malignancies, and 95% were receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy. Sixteen patients were treated nonsurgically; 11 died. Of those 11 cases, autopsies were performed in 9. At autopsy, the clinical diagnosis was confirmed in four cases; four cases were found to have normal intestinal tracts, and one case had a small bowel volvulus. In none of the four cases for which autopsy proved neutropenic enterocolitis was transmural bowel necrosis or perforation found. Laparotomy was performed in six patients; three survived. The clinical diagnosis was verified in four of the six patients. Neutropenic enterocolitis must be considered a diagnosis of exclusion. Care of these patients should be individualized. Nonoperative management with bowel rest, decompression, nutritional support, and broad spectrum antibiotics is recommended initially. Operative intervention is recommended for those with perforation or those whose condition deteriorates clinically during close, frequent observation.     

Effectiveness of two palliative support teams.

The palliative care of 227 consecutive patients by two support teams was measured according to 17 key indicators in the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS), an instrument previously developed and validated for use in these settings. Mean time in care was 71 days (range 1-547); 56 per cent of patients died at home, 26 per cent in hospital, 18 per cent in a hospice. Totalled ratings (sum of 15 items, excluding two items owing to missed ratings) improved in 83 per cent of cases, remained unchanged in 3 per cent and deteriorated in 13 per cent. The main problems which the STAS identified at referral were family anxiety, symptom control, patient anxiety and communication between patient and family. Fifteen of the 17 items showed significant improvements (Wilcoxon Z ranged from -3.18 to -8.20, p less than 0.00005) between referral ratings and ratings for the last week of the patient's life; family anxiety and spiritual needs did not. Patient anxiety and symptom control, although improved, also remained relatively severe at death. These results demonstrate the value of measuring key indicators and indicate areas where improvement in palliative care is needed.     

Minimally Invasive Axillary– Coronary Artery Bypass

Axillary artery-to-coronary artery bypass using reversed saphenous vein provides a simple method of applying the minimally invasive coronary bypass grafting procedure when the internal thoracic artery is not an adequate conduit. Although this may allow extended use of the minimally invasive coronary bypass procedure, the long-term patency of this technique is unknown.     

Age-related reference ranges: Significance tests for models and confidence intervals for centiles

A method of fitting age-related reference ranges using maximized likelihood is presented. The method is illustrated using CD4 counts of uninfected children born to HIV-1 infected women. The likelihood incorporates exponential functions to describe the Box-Cox transformation parameter that induces Normality and the mean and standard deviation of the transformed data, at all ages in the range. This guarantees that the centiles are asymptotic to notional adult values and avoids edge effects. Likelihood ratio tests were used to assess the significance of the model parameters, and profile likelihood confidence intervals were constructed around the fitted centiles. The asymptotes of the resulting CD4 reference range for the childhood dataset were compared with CD4 counts available from a group of uninfected adults. The proposed approach limits the need for arbitrary decisions about grouping of the data, degree of smoothing or choice of model.     

Acute peripheral arterial and graft occlusion: treatment with selective infusion of urokinase and lysyl plasminogen

Thirty-five patients hospitalized for recent angiographically documented arterial occlusion in the legs (27 femoropopliteal arteries and eight grafts) benefited from local fibrinolytic therapy delivered at the site of the occlusion with a 4- or 5-F catheter. This therapy combined a continuous urokinase (UK) infusion of 1,000 U/kg/hour and a lysyl plasminogen (LYS-PLG) infusion of 15 microkatals every 30 minutes. Angiographically confirmed lysis was obtained in 85% of the cases. Only 3% of the patients had major and 6% had minor groin hematomas. Only two patients had concentrations of fibrinogen as low as 100 mg/dl. Intravascular infusion of UK-LYS-PLG is as effective as streptokinase. Its excellent tolerance makes it a good alternative in the treatment of acute ischemia in the lower limbs.     

Comparative clinical trial of fenticonazole ovule (600 mg) versus clotrimazole vaginal tablet (500 mg) in the treatment of symptomatic vaginal candidiasis

A multi-centre, randomized, single-blind, parallel-group clinical trial was undertaken in 50 patients (26 fenticonazole, 24 clotrimazole) with symptomatic vaginal candidiasis to compare the antifungal efficacy and tolerability of single-dose intra-vaginal treatment with a fenticonazole ovule (600 mg) or a clotrimazole vaginal tablet (500 mg). Assessment was by laboratory mycological investigation and symptomatic assessments for a period of 3 weeks from the day of treatment. Of the 50 patients, 43 (23 fenticonazole, 20 clotrimazole) returned for assessment 1 week after drug administration and 32 (17 fenticonazole, 15 clotrimazole) were re-assessed 3 weeks after drug administration. Both treatments resulted in very similar and highly significant improvements in symptoms, associated with disappearance of detectable Candida in approximately 70% of patients. There were no significant differences between treatments and no appreciable incidence of relapse during the 3-week period of observation. At the end of this period, 10 (59%) of 17 fenticonazole patients were totally disease-free, as compared with 10 (67%) of 15 patients after clotrimazole treatment. The cure rate observed was somewhat less than that previously seen when intra-vaginal cream formulations of the same two drugs were given on a multiple-dose basis. Both drugs were very well tolerated, with no reports of appreciable local or systemic adverse reactions to either drug.     

Cognition in stroke

Introduction – Despite the current interest in criteria for vascular dementia, global, as opposed to focal, cognitive change after cerebral infarction has rarely been studied. Material and methods – We documented the neuropsychological changes one to three weeks and three months post infarct in 25 unselected patients with acute, first cerebral infarcts. Results – Improvements were seen in processes thought to have a large subcortical component and in those mediated in the right hemisphere. Memory was relatively lightly affected. Conclusion – The minimal deficits seen in memory and the predominance of subcortical changes are at variance with the currently suggested criteria for vascular dementia. Further data of this kind are needed before firm criteria can be proposed for the global pattern of cognitive changes expected in vascular dementia.     

Myeloradiculopathy associated with wasp sting

A 12-year-old girl developed a reversible myeloradiculopathy 1 week after a wasp sting. Delayed neurologic hypersensitivity reactions to Hymenopteran stings occur primarily in adults. Reactions involving both the peripheral and central nervous systems are extremely rare and have never been reported in a child. The mechanisms underlying this uncommon reaction may be related to age-dependent differences in immunologic responses.