Program for the Prevention of Smoking in Secondary School Students

Background and ObjectiveSchool smoking prevention programs have never yielded the expected results. The aim of this study was to analyze the efficacy of an intensive smoking prevention program created by the educational community in which it was to be applied.Population and MethodA 3-year smoking prevention program was carried out among the students of Fuentesaúco Secondary School in Zamora, Spain. The Babilafuente Secondary School in Salamanca, Spain was the control group. The program included both prevention and treatment activities. The former were carried out in the school, in out-of-school situations, and in the community. The questionnaire of the European Smoking Prevention Framework Approach was used.ResultsA total of 417 students aged 12 to 17 years participated in the study. Of these, 54.4% belonged to the intervention group and 45.6% to the control group. Smokers represented 36.7% of the population. After the intervention smokers represented 40.1% of the Fuentesaúco students compared with 46.1% of the Babilafuente students, though the difference was not statistically significant. With respect to the cognitive determinants of smoking behavior, after the intervention significant differences in favor of the intervention group were only observed in the subjects’ perception of the behavior of their siblings, peers, and teachers.ConclusionsThe use of smoking prevention programs in schools should be reconsidered, and their evaluation should be based on educational rather than clinical criteria. Proposed changes in the program include decreasing its intensity, starting with students of an earlier age and seeking greater involvement of parents.     

Extent of law compliance and anti-smoking teaching at Spanish schools

OBJECTIVE: Knowing the degree of fulfillment of the anti tobacco legislation in Spanish schools and the influence that this has on the percentage of smoking pupils. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A survey was carried out among 3050 headmasters of Spanish schools, who were asked about different aspects of the fulfillment of the antitobacco laws in their schools and about the main characteristics of tobacco consumption in their centers. RESULTS: A 80.9% of the headmasters claim that the fulfillment of the legislation is demanded in their centers, and only a 64.9% of them have posters in theirs schools that warn people about smoking ban. Anti tobacco teachings are imparted in a 82.2% of the schools where laws is demanded and only in a 64.8% where is not demanded. The percentage of teachers who, smoke in the presence of the pupils is of a 5.9% in the schools where anti tobacco legislation is demanded and a 12.9% where is not demanded. In the schools where anti tobacco teachings are imparted, a 29% of the pupils have tried tobacco, opposite a 31% who have tried in the schools where these teachings are not imparted. CONCLUSIONS: The, headmasters of the schools, as people in charge of watching over the fulfillment of the anti tobacco legislation in theirs schools, must demand the fulfillment of this one, because this measure is effective in order to improve the global functioning of the schools and to reduce the percentages of smoking pupils and teachers.     

AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma: a phase II study of liposomal doxorubicin. The TLC D-99 Study Group.

TLC D-99 is a unique liposomal formulation of doxorubicin that consists of phosphatidyl choline/cholesterol. The objectives of the study were to evaluate safety and efficacy of two doses of TLC D-99 in the treatment of patients with AIDS-related Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS). Forty HIV-infected persons with biopsy-proven KS were randomized to receive TLC D-99 at doses of either 10 (low) or 20 (high) mg/m2 every 2 weeks. Patients assigned to the low-dose arm could be escalated to the high-dose arm if their KS progressed after 3 cycles of therapy. Median age was 35 years (range, 26-47) and median CD4 count was 13 (range, 0-440). Nineteen patients were assigned to receive the low dose, and 21 patients were assigned to the high dose. Partial response occurred in 15% (6 of 40) of the patients or in 5% (1 of 19) and 24% (5 of 21) in the low- and high-dose arms, respectively; stable disease was observed in 65% (26 of 40) or in 68% (13 of 19) and 62% (13 of 21) in the low and high doses, respectively. Neutropenia was the major toxicity and was observed in 68 and 81% of patients with the low- and high-dose arms, respectively; grade 4 neutropenia was observed in 16 and 14%, respectively. Mild alopecia was noted in only 8%. Therefore, TLC D-99 is active against AIDS-related KS, and the response is dose-dependent.     

Usefulness of the Piko-6 Portable Device for Early COPD Detection in Primary Care

Introduction

COPD is a highly prevalent but underdiagnosed disease, due to the limited availability of forced spirometry (FS) in primary care (PC). Microspirometers are inexpensive, easy-to-use devices that can measure FEV₆ and FEV₁/FEV₆, and may help reduce underdiagnosis. The aim of this study was to validate the Piko-6 COPD screening device by demonstrating a good correlation with standard FS.

Benefit of brief interventions and pharmacotherapies for smoking cessation in teenagers

Management of smoking includes approaches such as health advice against smoking, brief or intensive interventions, and pharmacotherapy. However, we do not have enough information on the use of such approaches in teenagers. School programs aimed at children and adolescents are perhaps the most widely used intervention and the one for which we have the most experience. Such programs should meet a series of well-defined criteria, but in recent years their effectiveness has been questioned. Currently, information is lacking on how effective these interventions are in young smokers who wish to stop. Several clinical guidelines recommend advice and a brief intervention in adolescents but are less specific regarding pharmacotherapy. By integrating advice and a brief intervention into existing smoking prevention and control programs in schools, such approaches could be used to combat smoking in children and adolescents. However, the information available on the use of such interventions in children and adolescents is insufficient and more research needs to be done, particularly by health care professionals specialized in the identification of susceptible individuals and treatment of smoking.     

Proposed mechanism of therapeutic selectivity for 9-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl-2-fluoroadenine against murine leukemia based upon lower capacities for transport and phosphorylation in proliferative intestinal epithelium compared to tumor cells

Studies have examined transport and phosphorylation of 9-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl-2-fluoroadenine (F-Ara-A), a deaminase resistant adenosine analogue, as mechanisms that could mediate the observed therapeutic efficacy of this agent against murine tumor models. Earlier finds by Avramis and Plunkett (Cancer Res., 42: 2587-2591, 1982) showed markedly less accumulation in vivo of administered F-Ara-A as cytotoxic triphosphate in gastrointestinal mucosa and bone marrow compared to P388 cells. We have pursued the basis for this difference in vitro using L1210 ascites and proliferative epithelial cells (85-95% crypt cells) isolated from mouse small intestine as representative sample populations of drug-sensitive tumor and drug-limiting normal regenerative host tissue. Using a rapid sampling technique, linear initial rates of substrate uptake were established at 25 degrees C for radiolabeled F-Ara-A and adenosine at a concentration range of 1-1000 microM. The relationship between velocity of initial transport and substrate concentration is indicative of Michaelis-Menten saturation kinetics for both substrates. Competition studies between F-Ara-A and adenosine suggest a common route of entry for both substrates in crypt epithelial cells. Results from double-reciprocal analysis of the velocity versus concentration data are consistent with a simple carrier-mediated facilitated diffusion process with Km, V25max, and Ki values of 317 +/- 44 (SE) microM, 49 +/- 7 nmol/s/g dry weight, and 301 +/- 34 microM for F-Ara-A, and 264 +/- 14 microM, 44 +/- 5 nmol/s/g dry weight, and 225 +/- 44 microM for adenosine, respectively. The presence of a single low-affinity carrier in the proliferative epithelial cells contrasts sharply with the high affinity (Km, 68 +/- 14 microM; V25max, 48 +/- 4 nmol/s/g dry weight) and low-affinity (Km, 326 +/- 48 microM; V25max, 124 +/- 44 nmol/s/g dry weight) routes of entry documented for L1210 cells. This differential in transport kinetics conveys a 7- to 8-fold greater capacity to L1210 ascites compared with crypt epithelial cells for uptake of the antitumor agent F-Ara-A. At pharmacologically achievable concentrations of F-Ara-A and in view of this differential, influx of F-Ara-A would be more rate limiting to phosphorylation of F-Ara-A in epithelial cells than in L1210 cells. Metabolism studies with L1210 ascites and proliferative intestinal epithelial cells show that intracellular phosphorylation of F-Ara-A is also elevated in L1210 cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)