Biomedical subjects

Irini Savidou

Publications and source records attributed to Irini Savidou.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Detection of malignant haematopoietic cells in the cerebrospinal fluid by conventional cytology and flow cytometry.

Morphological evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples by light microscopy is the method of choice for the detection of central nervous system involvement in patients with haematological malignancies. In this retrospective study, we assessed the value of three-colour immunophenotyping by flow cytometry in addition to conventional cytology in 28 patients with and 17 patients without pre-existent haematological malignancy in whom CSF analysis was performed because of neurological abnormalities (n = 37) or as part of routine staging procedures (n = 8). Four samples could not be analysed by flow cytometry because of insufficient cell numbers. CSF involvement was detected in a total of 18 patients, in 12 by both cytology and flow cytometry, and in three each by either cytology or flow cytometry alone. Discordant results were particularly frequent in patients with low CSF cell numbers and B cell neoplasms. When combined with conventional cytology, flow cytometric analysis improves the detection rate of CSF involvement in patients with haematological malignancies. It is particularly useful in B cell neoplasms with low CSF cell numbers.

Flow Cytometry↗

PubMed2005

Medication-overuse headache.

Medication-overuse headache (MOH) can be caused by almost all anti-headache drugs including analgesics, ergots, triptans, and combined preparations The prevalence of chronic daily headache (CDH) appears to be between 2% and 4% in the general population. Current epidemiologic studies suggest that MOH accounts for approximately 50% of these cases. The pathophysiology of MOH remains unclear. The only therapy is withdrawal from the overused substances. Prednisone decreases the duration of headache in the first days of withdrawal therapy. The only strategy to reduce the prevalence of MOH is to prevent the development of MOH in the first place by restriction of anti-headache drugs and constant education of patients.

Analgesics↗

PubMed2005

Evidence-based medicine in migraine prevention.

Migraine headache is a chronic, painful, disabling and potentially progressive, condition primarily occurring in early and middle adulthood. For many patients, daily activities are impaired by the sudden and unpredictable occurrence of migraine attacks. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the field of migraine treatment. For the acute treatment of migraine attacks, 5-hydroxytryptophan(1B/D) agonists (so called triptans), were the most innovative development, successfully aborting attacks in less than 1 h. The search for innovative drugs usable for migraine prevention, however, was less successful, mainly due to the lack of reliable and predictive animal models. Recently, neuromodulators such as valproic acid and topiramate, initially developed as anticonvulsants, have been shown in large clinical trials to be effective in the prevention of migraine. As for the acute treatment of migraine attacks more than 10 years ago, large clinical trial programs are now setting new standards for evidence-based medicine in migraine prevention. This review summarizes the current options in migraine prevention with special emphasis on clinical trial design and new developments such as topiramate.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗