Singap Med J
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Clinical Trial
Combination chemotherapy (dacarbazine, carmustine, cisplastin, and tamoxifen) in advanced melanoma.
Melanoma is rare in Singapore with an age-standardised rate (ASR) of 0.4-0.8 per 100,000 per year. Thirteen patients with metastatic or locally advanced melanoma were referred to the Department of Medical Oncology, Singapore General Hospital between Feb 1991 and Nov 1993. Ten patients were given combination chemotherapy comprising carmustine (BCNU), cisplatin, dacarbazine (DTIC) and tamoxifen. ⋯ Two patients experienced delays of their subsequent cycles of treatment by 1-2 weeks due either to neutropenia and/or thrombocytopenia. This regimen is a fairly active combination against metastatic melanoma, particularly those with metastases to the nodes, skin and the lung. Those with involvement of other sites tend to respond poorly.
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Hepatitis B serological markers were investigated in 1,132 consecutive Singaporean HBV carriers. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) were found concurrently in 234 carriers (234/1132 or 21%). ⋯ There were no difference in HBeAg positive status, as well as HBV-DNA positive status in concurrent HBsAg/anti-HBs carriers compared to carriers without anti-HBs. Our results suggested that concurrent HBsAg and anti-HBs is a common serologic pattern in Singaporean HBV carriers.
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Childhood fever is a common symptom, reflective of multiple causes. As the child is often unable to express himself, the physician must rely on parents' observations and the physical examination. The majority of febrile children have non-bacterial upper respiratory tract infection and indiscriminate use of antibiotics is inappropriate, ineffective and leads to drug-resistance such as the emergence of Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. ⋯ Infants less than 3 months constitute a unique group as the fever may be related to perinatal events and as serious bacterial infections can still occur despite unremarkable physical findings. Management of fever needs to take into account the toxicity, immune status and age of the patients as well as the source of the infection. Zealous overprescription of antipyretics needs to be avoided with attention directed to the cause of the fever, the child's capacity to cope with the illness and parental education.
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To construct reference ranges for foetal biometry measurements of biparietal diameter (BPD), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), femur length (FL), humerus length (HL) and mandible length (ML) for the Asian population in Singapore. ⋯ These are the regressed reference charts from 6,374 Asian foetuses using parametric analysis of cross-sectional data. The authors encourage their use in Asian foetuses.
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We studied the efficacy of sequential intravenous-oral pefloxacin therapy in community-acquired lower respiratory tract infection in 24 patients with one or more underlying conditions. Twenty-eight patients were enrolled into the study but only 24 patients were evaluated. There were 16 males and 8 females with a mean age of 66.9 +/- 11.2 years (mean +/- SD, range 46 to 87 years). ⋯ Pefloxacin was well tolerated. There were few adverse effects and none of the patients required a change of antibiotic. Pefloxacin was an effective and well tolerated treatment for respiratory tract infection and had the advantage of broad in-vitro antibacterial activity, twice daily dosing and sequential availability in an intravenous and oral formulation.