Fortschritte der Medizin
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Fortschritte der Medizin · Jun 1984
[The connections between smoking, mucociliary clearance and airway obstruction].
The connection between smoking habits (pack years, smoker and ex-smoker period), mucociliary clearance (mC) and the obstruction of the respiratory passages was investigated in 17 ex-smokers (7 without bronchitis; 10 with bronchitis) and 48 smokers (13 without bronchitis; 35 with bronchitis). The ex-smokers without chronic bronchitis showed the same clearing behaviour as the healthy non-smokers, but the non-smokers did not have the least obstruction of the respiratory system. ⋯ Furthermore, it was noticeable that the ex-smokers with persistent bronchitis showed the worst respiratory system obstructions, whilst the smokers with chronic bronchitis had the greatest restriction of the central mC (c-mC) with less respiratory system obstruction than the ex-smokers with chronic bronchitis. The smoking habits (pack years) correlated with the decrease of the mC (p less than 0,01) and the grade of the respiratory system obstruction (p less than 0,001).
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Fortschritte der Medizin · Mar 1984
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial[Flunarizine--a new agent for migraine prevention. Results of a double-blind comparison with placebo].
Seventeen patients with common or classical migraine were prophylactically treated with 10 mg flunarizine daily whereas 18 patients received a placebo during a 3-month randomized double-blind study. Globally, flunarizine was significantly superior to the placebo. Only three patients felt that flunarizine had been useless and the investigator also guessed the medication code correctly in all but these three cases. ⋯ The mean monthly number of attacks was respectively 3.3 and 3.8 before the study and 1.4 and 3.2 during the study. The limited scale of the trial precludes a judgment as to whether one type of migraine would respond better to flunarizine than the other. Side-effects were negligible, weight gain being considered rather a secondary gain than an untoward consequence of treatment.
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Fortschritte der Medizin · Jan 1984
[Microvascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve - a causal therapy of trigeminal neuralgia?].
Preliminary experiences with the microvascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve within the cerebello-pontine angle ("Jannetta's operation") in ten patients are reported. All nine patients with typical tic douloureux were found to have a cross-compression of the nerve by the superior cerebellar artery. This vessel was separated from the nerve and held in place by a piece of Gelfoam. ⋯ Microvascular decompression seems to be a causal therapy in trigeminal neuralgia and is a non-destructive operation. Although our period of postoperative observation is short (up to five months), the results are very promising and correspond to the experiences reported by other authors. Advantages and disadvantages compared to the radiofrequency lesion (electro- and thermocoagulation) of the trigeminal nerve are discussed.