No abstract

The efficacy of systemic lidocaine in nonneuropathic pain remains uncertain. This study investigates the effect of systemic lidocaine on experimental-induced hyperalgesia in 25 volunteers. Hyperalgesia was induced by using an experimental pain model that uses heat and capsaicin in combination. Systemic lidocaine showed a selective effect on secondary hyperalgesia.

The prevalence of COPD in Denmark is among the highest in the world. It is closely correlated to smoking and age. It is accompanied by substantial co-morbidity and it is grossly under treated.

This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of once-a-day terazosin (10 mg/day) in ambulatory patients (n = 57) with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). After a 4-week placebo lead-in and a 24-week treatment period with terazosin (both single-blind), 30 patients who responded to terazosin were randomly assigned to either the terazosin or placebo treatment group for 12 weeks.During the single-blind treatment period, the peak urine flow rate increased 54% from a baseline average of 7.76 ml/sec to 11.92 mYsec after terazosin; the mean flow rate increased 55% from a baseline of 4.90 ml/sec to 7.59 ml/sec; and the residual volume decreased 56% from 93.1 ml to 40.7 ml. The mean obstructive symptom score, irritative symptom score and physician's global assessment score improved by 68%. 34% and 27%, respectively. All these changes were significant (P < 0.05) when compared to baseline values.During the double-blind period, the improvement in all the variables was sustained in the terazosin group but not in the placebo group. Peak and mean urinary flow rates, and physician's global assessment showed significant ( P 5 0.05) differences at the end of the double-blind period. Adverse events occurred only during the single-blind period. The most frequent were headache (n = 6), asthenia (n = 3), and hypotension (n = 3).In summary, terazosin administered once-a-day improved the obstructive and irritative symptoms of BPH, urine flow rates and residual volume. Terazosin was well tolerated.

Recently CYFRA 21-1, a new tumor marker measuring a fragment of cytokeratin 19, was introduced and proved to be suitable for therapy monitoring and follow-up of non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC), in particular squamous cell carcinomas. Besides CYFRA 21-1 there are two other tumor markers, tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and tissue polypeptide-specific antigen (TPS), which also measure various cytokeratins in serum. In a retrospective study we investigated the clinical significance of these three cytokeratin markers in lung cancer and in carcinoma of the urinary bladder. For this purpose we investigated the sera of 50 healthy persons, 273 patients with various benign diseases, 218 patients with histologically proven lung cancer and 88 patients with carcinoma of the urinary bladder. In a first step the specificity was established for the different reference groups and the cutoff values were fixed at a specificity of 95%. In lung cancer the single and combined sensitivities were calculated versus benign lung diseases (n = 58) as reference group. With single determinations CYFRA 21-1 proved to have the highest sensitivity in lung cancer in general (61%), in non-small cell lung carcinomas (64%), in squamous cell carcinomas (79%), in adenocarcinomas (54%) and in large cell carcinomas (65%). In small cell lung carcinomas (SCLC) NSE was confirmed to be the marker of choice (55%). With combined determinations a clear increase in sensitivity could only be reached in large cell carcinomas (CYFRA 21-1 + TPA: 77%) and in small cell carcinomas (CYFRA 21-1 + NSE: 62%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)