Articles: human.
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Iodine-131 labelled anti L1-CAM antibody mAb chCE7 was compared with the effective neuroblastoma-seeking agent (131)I-labelled metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) with regard to (a) its therapeutic efficacy in treating nude mice with neuroblastoma xenografts and (b) its tumour targetting ability in neuroblastoma patients. The SK-N-SH tumour cells used in the mouse experiments show good MIBG uptake and provide a relatively low number of 6,300 binding sites/cell for mAb chCE7. Tumours were treated with single injections of (131)I-MIBG (110 MBq) and with (131)I-labelled mAb chCE7 (17 MBq) and both agents showed antitumour activity. ⋯ Results showed a strong reaction with normal human brain tissue and weak but detectable binding to normal adult kidney sections. Seven patients with recurrent neuroblastoma were sequentially imaged with (131)I-MIBG and (131)I-chCE7. The results underlined the heterogeneity of neuroblastoma and showed the two imaging modalities to be complementary. (131)I-chCE7 scintigraphy may have clinical utility in detecting metastases which do not accumulate (131)I-MIBG, and the antibody may hold potential for radioimmunotherapy, either by itself or in combination with (131)I-MIBG.
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During the last 25 years, there have been substantial advances in our understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of pain. The development of animal models that more closely mimic clinical pain in humans has helped elucidate the putative mechanisms by which chronic pain develops and is maintained. However, our increased understanding of the neurobiology of pain has not translated into breakthrough treatments for pain management. ⋯ This retrospective validation of "novel" analgesics in animal models of pain raises a question of the predictive validity of these models. This article reviews the use of several adjuvant and standard analgesics currently used to treat difficult-to-manage pain. What can these drugs teach us about the development of novel pain medicines? Within this context, the use of animal models of pain to predict analgesic efficacy in clinical pain conditions is considered.
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Undergraduate and postgraduate emergency medicine (EM) education has developed rapidly over the last 20 years. Our objective was to establish a national educational inventory, cataloguing the human and financial resources provided to EM programs by Canadian faculties of medicine. ⋯ Despite major teaching and clinical responsibilities within the faculties of medicine, Canadian EM programs are poorly supported. Further investment of human and financial and human resources is required.
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The therapeutic aspects and future prospects of the new iron chelating drug deferiprone are reviewed, with an emphasis on its clinical use in thalassemia and other conditions of iron overload, imbalance and toxicity, as well as its possible use in other metal toxicity conditions. Orally administered deferiprone appears to be as effective as subcutaneous deferoxamine in the removal of iron in transfused iron loaded patients, with an equivalent therapeutic index profile in both animals and humans. Only about 10% of patients requiring iron chelation therapy worldwide receive deferoxamine mainly because of its high cost, toxicity and low compliance with subcutaneous administration. ⋯ The suggestion that deferiprone therapy may cause liver fibrosis has not been confirmed. New therapeutic protocols for maximizing the efficacy and minimizing the toxicity of deferiprone are being considered based on new findings in relation to its metal chelation, pharmacological, toxicological and metabolic properties. (c) 2001 Prous Science. All rights reserved.
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It has been hypothesized that serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (ADs) are only weakly antinociceptive but augment noradrenergic (NA) antinociception. Thus, ADs with combined serotonergic (SN) and NA activity, (i.e., the serotonergic/noradrenergic (SN/NA) ADs) should have greater antinociceptive activity versus the NA ADs, which in turn should have more antinociceptive activity than the SN ADs. The objective of this structured review was to test this hypothesis by reviewing relevant basic science literature on the treatment of experimental pain with the above different types of ADs. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, OUTCOME, MEASURES: Animal or human experimental AD pain treatment studies were located by the usual search methods. For animal studies only placebo-controlled studies were included for review. For human studies only double blind placebo-controlled studies were selected for review. The animal and human studies were then sorted according to the pain model represented, e.g., neuropathic pain model. Studies were then characterized according to the type of AD utilized, and the antinociceptive outcome of the AD trial. ⋯ Overall, the results of this structured review support the above hypothesis.