Articles: treatment.
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Many commissions and groups throughout the world have proposed clinical guidelines on the management of low back pain, spinal pain, and chronic pain. Practice guidelines are systematically developed statements to assist the practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate healthcare for specific clinical circumstances. The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians developed practice guidelines for interventional techniques which are professional practice recommendations for practices for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic painful disorders, and in some cases, disability management. ⋯ The results consistently showed decrease in number of visits from 1999 to 2000 and 2001 with 5.5 +/- 0.18, 5.1 +/- 0.17, and 4.3 +/- 0.15 respectively. The average expenditure also decreased from per visit of $872 in 1999 to $891 in 2000, to $810 to 2001. further, the average expenditure per year also decreased as expected due to decrease in frequency of visits, as well as the average expenditure per visit from $4751 +/- $231 in 1999 to $4505 +/- $214 in 2000 and to $3514 +/- $193 in 2001 even without consideration of inflation. Thus, it is concluded that guidelines describing the interventional techniques in the management of chronic pain are effective in reducing the cost and frequency of visits with improvement or at least maintenance of similar outcomes, physician decision making abilities, and patient preferences.
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The clinical introduction of cortisone in 1949 revolutionized medical care of patients with a host of diseases. Soon after that, the first use of steroids in epidural injections was described in 1952 and 1953. A variety of corticosteroid agents (hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone, triamcinolone, betamethasone) have been applied neuraxially to treat spinal pain and other types of painful conditions. ⋯ These include neural toxicity, separation of pituitary-adrenal axis, weight gain, osteoporosis, as well as many other complications. However, a review of the literature on epidural steroids or other types of neuraxial blockade mentions very few complications that can be directly attributed either to the chemistry or the pharmacology of the steroids, except for reports of adrenal suppression. This review describes various aspects of neuraxial steroids including historical concepts, mechanism of action, pharmacological aspects, side effects, complications and their role in treatment.
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About 1% of live born children have congenital heart defects (CHD). Knowledge of the true incidence of CHD is important because of the risk of bacterial endocarditis in patients with heart defects. This knowledge could also serve as a basis for research on the etiology of CHD. The aim of our study was to investigate the incidence of CHD in children born in Iceland during a ten year period, from 1990 to 1999. A similar study on CHD was carried out in Iceland for children born 1985-1989. The incidence of CHD in the present study was compared to the previous and to similar studies from other countries. ⋯ Between 1990 and 1999 there were 44,013 live births in Iceland, 740 children were diagnosed with a CHD or 1.7% of live born children. Yearly incidence varied from 1.04% of live births in 1991 to 2.34% in 1997. Male/female ratio was 1/1. The distribution of the defects was following: ventricular septal defect (VSD) 338 (45.7%), ASD 90 (12.2%), PDA 85 (11.5%), valvar pulmonal stenosis 48 (6.5%), BAV 38 (5.1%), coarctation of the aorta 28 (3.8%), tetrology of Fallot 22 (3.0%), transposition of the great arteries 14 (1.9%), aortic stenosis 11 (1.5%), common atrioventricular septal defect 10 (1.4%), mitral valve regurgitation 9 (1.2%), sub-aortic stenosis 7 (0.9%) and hypoplastic left heart syndrome 5 (0.7%). Other defects were less frequent. About 47% of children with CHD were diagnosed either before birth or before discharge from the delivery institution. A cardiac murmur on examination was the most common symptom leading to the diagnosis of CHD, 631 patients (85.3%). Extracardiac anomalies were seen in 89 patients (12.0%). Chromosomal abnormalities were seen in 36 patients of whom 28 had Down's syndrome. The majority or 499 patients have no symptoms but are still in follow-up, 20 patients have daily symptoms and/or receive medical treatment and 27 patients have died. Conslusions: Annual incidence of patients diagnosed with a CHD has increased during the study period. This is observed in minor CHD but the incidence of major defects does not alter. This yearly incidence (1.7%) is higher than in the previous study, where it was 1.1%. The difference can partly be explained by the BAVs, which were excluded in the 1985-1989 study. But the number of CHD diagnosed each year has increased, this being most pronounced in the last three years. The annual incidence in our study is also higher than in other population studies. The most likely explanation for the higher incidence in our study is the fact that access to pediatric cardiologists is very good in Iceland. Diagnosis, registration and follow-up is conducted by only a few cardiologists for the whole nation and takes place at a single pediatric cardiology center. Of 740 patients diagnosed with CHD in the study period 713 are alive. The outcome of the therapy is good and the majority of the patients has no symptoms.
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J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. · Apr 2002
The Lown Symposium: The Field of DNA Minor Groove Binders Celebrates the Career of Professor J. William Lown.
Abstract A symposium co-organized by Professor William H. Gmeiner of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Professor Moses Lee of Furman University was held March 30 and 31, 2001 on the campus of Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The Symposium was attended by many distinguished colleagues, friends and co-workers of Professor Lown who share his enthusiasm and passion for targeting DNA for treatment of human disease. The Symposium honored the formal "retirement" of Professor Lown who continues his active pursuit of scholarly activities and advancement of knowledge in a wide variety of intellectual interests.
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Serotonin syndrome, a triad of autonomic instability, altered mental status and neuromuscular abnormalities, is usually attributed to serotonergic overdoses. Moclobemide is a new selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) that generally causes mild, self-limited gastrointestinal and central nervous system effects after ingestion. We present a case of serotonin syndrome that occurred after moclobemide overdose, and discuss the recognition and treatment of this important condition. Serotonin syndrome may become increasingly common because of the liberal use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, new MAOIs and other agents such as codeine and meperidine, which have the potential for harmful interaction.