Dan Med Bull
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Colorectal cancer is with more than 4000 new cases every year the third most common cancer in Denmark. Metastases are most often found in the liver, and 20-25% of the patients have synchronous metastases to the liver at time of primary diagnosis. Other frequent sites for metastases are lungs and lymph nodes. ⋯ The immunological analyses indicated that the treatment resulted in favourable anticancer responses in the patients' immune system in terms of polarisation towards a Th1 dominated response potentially directed against tumor cells. Since no partial or complete responses were observed and since the number of patients was relatively low these results have to be interpreted with caution. Moreover, phase II study designs do not lead to final conclusions regarding clinical efficacy, which must be validated in larger prospective, randomised and controlled studies.
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The treatment of primary breast cancer usually consists of surgery often followed by adjuvant therapy (radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal treatment, etc.) to reduce the risk of recurrence. The cancer diagnosis and the treatments may have significant impact on the patients' quality of life. This thesis deals with scientific aspects and clinical results of a study aimed at assessing the impact of breast cancer (and its treatment) on the patients' quality of life. ⋯ The study provided the most detailed description of HRQL during and after breast cancer adjuvant chemotherapy to date, and compared results of chemotherapy against ovarian ablation. It also provided controversial results concerning the prognostic value of HRQL data. The combination of a large empirical study and several methodological sub-studies thus proved useful and gave new results.
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Familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) is a rare, dominantly inherited subtype of migraine with aura, where hemiplegia occurs during the aura phase. Mutation screening of families with FHM has revealed a range of different mutations. The mutated FHM genes code for ion transport proteins. ⋯ The aims of the present thesis were to test the hypothesis that FHM mutations might be associated with hypersensitivity to known migraine triggers and, thereby, share pathophysiological pathways with the common types of migraine, but our results disprove this hypothesis. Thus, FHM seems very different from MO and MA, both genetically and pathophysiologically. The fact that FHM genes regulate ion homeostasis cannot be extrapolated to the common types of migraine.
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Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare, usually autosomal recessive inherited disorder, characterized by abnormalities in ciliary structure and/or function. Frequent, intermittent or chronic airway infections precipitated by impaired airway mucociliary clearance may cause permanent lung damage and reduced lung function. Early diagnosis is considered important for the prevention of lung damage, but diagnosis is probably often delayed or even missed since diagnosis of PCD is both complex and time consuming, and yet not always exact. ⋯ Nasal NO measurement demonstrated to have an obvious place as a first line test in the pathway of PCD investigation and PRMC as second line test as a supplement to ciliary function test and EM-test in cases of difficult diagnoses. Neither of these tests can stand alone in diagnosis or excluding of PCD. PCD remains to be a diagnosis that should be made at a tertiary PCD centre, as clinical evaluation of referred patients is crucial before excluding the disease.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Phenobarbital versus diazepam for delirium tremens--a retrospective study.
Delirium tremens (DT) is a severe and potentially fatal condition that may occur during withdrawal from chronic alcohol intoxication. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects and the rates of complications of phenobarbital and diazepam treatment in DT. ⋯ Phenobarbital is a safe alternative to diazepam in the treatment of DT.