SUMMARYBackground : Peptic ulcer patients need to be treated with antimicrobials to cure Helicobacter pylori infection. Seven-day quadruple therapy is the regimen with the highest cure rates. An ultra-short quadruple therapy was evaluated prospectively. Methods : Forty-six consecutive H. pylori positive patients (33 had proven ulcer disease) were prescribed lansoprazole 30 mg b.d. on days 1-4, and on day 4 they received in addition tripotassium dicitrato bismuthate 120 mg, tetracycline 250 mg and metronidazole 250 mg at 09

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The fluctuations of serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations within one cycle were studied both in women using and not using oral contraceptives. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased significantly from 1 47 mmol/l (57 mg/100 ml) to 1 30 mmol/l (50 mg/100 ml) during one contraceptive cycle in eight women and rose again to the initial value during the pill-free days. The mean concentration of total cholesterol also fell significantly as a result of the decrease of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and of a not significant decrease of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The mean serum triglyceride concentration did not change significantly. The fluctuations in the concentration of serum lipids and lipoproteins in 10 women not using oral contraceptives were smaller than in the women using oral contraceptives and no significant changes in the concentrations were found during one cycle.Thus, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration decreases during each contraceptive cycle. Since these concentrations are related to the risk of coronary heart disease,5 precise knowledge of the effect of oral contraceptives is of the utmost importance.The effect of oral contraceptives on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is a particularly controversial subject, probably because of the qualitative and quantitative differences between the many formulations of drug combinations in use.6 7 Moreover, in most of these studies blood samples were taken on random days of the contraceptive cycle. Furthermore, the concentrations of serum lipids and lipoproteins were assumed to be more or less constant during one cycle. This has, however, never been proved. We therefore studied possible changes in the concentrations of serum lipids and lipoproteins during one contraceptive cycle in women using oral contraceptives and also during one menstrual cycle in women not using them.

Feeding of a chemically standardized coarse wheat bran product in a dose of 0.5 g/kg body weight per day over a period of 4 weeks in young healthy male volunteers did cause a significant reduction in total serum cholesterol as well as in total serum triglycerides of 10 and 24%, respectively. Very low density lipoprotein-, high density lipoprotein-, and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels tended to diminish during bran feeding. The most marked reduction was observed in the high density lipoprotein- cholesterol fraction. Although the duration of this study was relatively short, it is concluded, that these results could have therapeutic consequences for the dietary management of hyperlipidemia. However, the lowering of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol could also be interpreted as unfavorable since an inverse relationship between high density lipoprotien-cholesterol levels and the occurrence of coronary heart disease has been established.

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