Recombinant human growth hormone treatment in children with thalassemia major

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the growth hormone reserve and the growth hormone response to recombinant human growth hormone (GH) in prepubertal thalassemic children with growth retardation. METHODS: Twenty thalassemic patients with short stature and delayed bone age were studied. Patients were randomized into GH-treated (n = 10) and non-GH treated (control; n = 10) groups. The GH-treated group received recombinant human (rh)-GH (Genotropin) at the dose of 0.7 IU/kg per week for 12 months. RESULTS: There was a significant discordance between GH response to pharmacologic stimuli and physiological secretion of GH/GHRH testing. Following the administration of rhGH, growth velocity increased from 2.47 +/- 0.48 cm/year to 6.27 +/- 0.76 cm/year (P = 0.005), whereas there was not a similar change in the non-GH-treated group. The height velocities of the two groups during the 1 year follow-up period were significantly different (6.27 +/- 0.76 vs 3.99 +/- 0.34 cm/year; P = 0.025). There were significant differences between the height velocity improvements and height velocity standard deviation scores of the two groups as well. CONCLUSION: The present study has demonstrated that rhGH is a safe and efficacious mode of treatment in thalassemic children.     

Noise level evaluation of dental handpieces

We evaluated the noise level of fourteen air-driven handpieces, six low speed (less than 20,000 rev/min) and eight high speed (greater than 160,000 rev/min), with respect to a three-directional co-ordinate system and distances of 6, 12 and 18 in. in each chosen direction. A two-way analysis of variance of the noise level between handpieces and positions indicates that large significant differences exist amongst handpieces and in different positions, and that interaction is just barely significant. The ranking and least significant differences for the mean of all handpieces v. position and for the mean of all positions v. handpiece were compared with the results for the ranking and significances from the one-way ANOVAS for each handpiece v. position and for each position v. handpiece. A trend exists with some of the handpieces of straight design (all low speed) for increased noise levels in a direction perpendicular to the handpieces and decreased levels in a direction parallel to the handpieces. For handpieces of angled design (all high speed) both directions parallel and perpendicular (the perpendicular to the longitudinal turbine axis) to the rotor axis indicate increased noise levels. The parallel direction includes the exiting air from the exhaust port. The perpendicular direction can be indicative of an aerodynamic factor associated with the established air flow patterns. The extremes in noise level were 56.8 dBA for a low-speed handpiece of straight design at the 18 in. distance in a direction parallel to the handpiece, and 87.3 dBA for a high speed handpiece at the 6 in. distance in a perpendicular direction.     

A DOUBLE-BLIND COMPARISON OF NIFLUMIC ACID WITH PHENYLBUTAZONE, OXYPHENYLBUTAZONE AND PLACEBO IN THE TREATMENT OF OSTEOARTHROSIS

In this double-blind trial, 42 patients received niflumic acid,20 phenylbutazone, and 21 oxy-phenylbutazone while 17 were onplacebo for eight weeks. All patients (100 cases) had osteoarthrosisof hips and/or knees. Subjective manifestations (overall effectiveness, improvementof pain and joint mobility), as well as objective signs (maximumintermalleolar distance and range of knee-joint flexion), showedsignificant improvement in those receiving any of the threedrugs compared with those on placebo, but there was no significantdifference between the therapeutic efficacy of the three drugs. Of the three drugs, niflumic acid produced the least numberof side-effects. No significant change occurred in the laboratory data exceptthat occult blood in stools became positive in one patient onphenylbutazone and three on oxyphenylbutazone. One of the lattergroup developed frank melaena.