Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics
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Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. · Apr 2006
Risk factors, sequential organ failure assessment and model for end-stage liver disease scores for predicting short term mortality in cirrhotic patients admitted to intensive care unit.
Prognostic scores in an intensive care unit (ICU) evaluate outcomes, but derive from cohorts containing few cirrhotic patients. ⋯ Cirrhotics admitted to ICU with > or =3 failing organ systems have 90% mortality. The Royal Free model discriminated well and contained key variables of organ function. SOFA and MELD were better predictors than APACHE II or Child-Pugh scores.
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Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. · Mar 2006
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyClinical and laboratory studies of the antacid and raft-forming properties of Rennie alginate suspension.
Acid pockets at the gastro-oesophageal junction escape buffering from meals in the stomach. Combining high-dose antacid with alginate may therefore be of benefit in gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. ⋯ The dual mode of action of Rennie alginate offers an effective treatment option for mild symptomatic gastro-oesophageal reflux disease particularly considering recent findings regarding 'acid pockets'.
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Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. · Mar 2006
Multicenter StudyPredictive factors of irritable bowel syndrome improvement: 1-year prospective evaluation in 400 patients.
The natural history of the irritable bowel syndrome is poorly understood. ⋯ At 1-year follow-up, half the patients and their physicians considered the irritable bowel syndrome to have had some improvement but, symptom diaries demonstrated that improvement was small and heterogeneous. Severe basal symptoms and improvement at 3 months were related to better prognosis.
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Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. · Mar 2006
Multicenter StudyRecurrence of Helicobacter pylori infection after several eradication therapies: long-term follow-up of 1000 patients.
To study the incidence of Helicobacter pylori recurrence, its chronological aspects, and the variables that might influence it. ⋯ Risk of posteradication H. pylori recurrence is higher during the first year, which suggests that most recurrences during this period are recrudescence and not true reinfections. H. pylori recurrence is more frequent in younger patients and in those treated with low efficacy therapies, but is exceptional if high efficacy therapies are used, in which case post-therapy eradication can be safely confirmed at 4 weeks with 13C-urea-breath-test.
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Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. · Mar 2006
Patients with irritable bowel syndrome in primary care appear not to be heavy healthcare utilizers.
Irritable bowel syndrome is a frequently diagnosed gastrointestinal condition in general practice. Managing this chronic condition requires a co-ordinated effort between patient and doctor. ⋯ Irritable bowel syndrome patients appear not to be heavy utilizers of primary care and, of those who attend, the majority are managed by their General Practitioner.