Lancet
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Comparative Study
Reduction of premature mortality by high physical activity: a 20-year follow-up of middle-aged Finnish men.
The association of physical activity level with the risk of death was analysed for a cohort of 636 healthy Finnish men aged 45-64 years followed up for 20 years. 39% of the cohort were classed as highly active physically at baseline in 1964. Up to 1984 there were 287 deaths, 106 of them due to coronary heart disease (CHD). During the first-two thirds of the follow-up, men with high physical activity had a lower risk of death than did men with low physical activity. ⋯ This difference was due mainly to fewer CHD deaths among the highly active group. Low physical activity was clearly weaker than smoking as a predictor of risk of death. High physical activity may thus independently prevent premature death among middle-aged men, but it probably does not prolong the maximum achievable life-span.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Trial of an attenuated bovine rotavirus vaccine (RIT 4237) in Gambian infants.
A randomised, controlled trial of bovine rotavirus vaccine was undertaken in Gambian infants. Three doses were administered, from the age of ten weeks, concurrently with oral or killed polio vaccine. Prevaccination rotavirus neutralising antibody levels were high. 84/185 infants (45%) showed an increase in neutralising antibody titre after receiving rotavirus vaccine, compared with 20/91 (22%) unvaccinated infants. ⋯ Most cases (92%) were caused by rotaviruses with short RNA electropherotypes. Serological responses to rotavirus vaccination appeared unaffected by the concurrent administration of oral polio vaccine. Lower types 1 and 3 polio antibody levels were found in children who received oral polio and rotavirus vaccines but the differences were not statistically significant.
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Subcutaneous desferrioxamine, though effective in preventing or reducing iron overload in transfusion-dependent refractory anaemia, is expensive and inconvenient. One potentially cheaper and orally active alternative is 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxypyrid-4-one (L1). This drug has been tested in three multiply transfused patients with myelodysplasia. ⋯ Urinary iron excretion increased substantially in all three patients and in the one tested was equal to that achieved with comparable doses of subcutaneous desferrioxamine. The amounts of iron excreted were related to the dose of L1 administered and the iron load of the patients. The urinary excretion of zinc, magnesium, and calcium did not increase, and the drug was well tolerated.