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Biomedical subjects

J M Falaiye

Publications and source records attributed to J M Falaiye.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Acupuncture and gastric acid studies.

The effects of therapeutic acupuncture on gastric acid secretion on pain relief in chronic duodenal ulcer patients were studied. Ten adult Nigerian patients with clinical, endoscopic as well as radiological evidence of duodenal ulcer constituted the "Ulcer Group." Four other patients who gave history of dyspepsia formed the "Dyspeptic Group." Pentagastrin stimulation test was performed on all subjects pre- and post-acupuncture therapy. The classical Chinese acupuncture loci were employed. The mean Basal Acid Output (BAO) in the duodenal ulcer group was markedly reduced from 4.04 +/- 1.01 mMols/hour to 1.05 +/- 2.5 mMols/hour. The mean Maximal Acid Output (MAO) was lowered from 34.72 +/- 13.81 mMols/hour to 15.34 +/- 4.01 mMols/hour. The difference was statistically significant (P less than 0.001). It is more probable, therefore, that the relief of pain is attributable to the therapeutic inhibition of gastric hyperacidity in our patients. Thus, though pain relief has been previously demonstrated in response to acupuncture, the results of this investigation have gone further to show that acupunture achieves symptomatic relief through therapeutic gastric depression in duodenal ulcer patients.

Acupuncture Therapy

The dietary fibre theory and bile salt pattern in Nigerians.

The results of bile analysis showed differences in the bile salt pattern of Caucasians and Nigerians, whose dietary habits differ mainly in dietary fibre composition. The Nigerian bile appears to contain less deoxycholate, but more cholate and a larger total pool of bile salts. These findings would seem to lend biochemical support for the epidemiological evidence concerning the uncommon occurrence of cholesterol gallstones and large bowel cancer in Nigeria as, indeed, in the less economically developed contries, where the dietary habits have not undergone comparable revolutionary changes of Western civilization, which have removed cellulose fibre from the diet in the process of industrial refinery.

Adult

The economic potential and the role of aspirin and alcohol ingestion in relation to haematemesis and meleana.

The economic potential and the role of aspirin and alcohol ingestion have been explored in relation to acute upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage complicating duodenal ulcer disease or portal hypertension. Of special interest in the study was the clear indication of the relevance of socioeconomic impact in the haemorrhage patients, the majority of whom were found to belong to the class of unskilled wage earners. Though a history of regular ingestion of salicylate compounds and alcohol was commonly obtained on specific questioning, only in six of the thirty-one patients could the onset of the overt haemorrhage be attributed to adverse synergism between these two groups of drugs.

Adult

A review of laboratory tests of intestinal absorption in the tropics.

The intestinal absorptive capacity for xylose and folic acid has frequently been found to be defective in apparently normal asymptomatic residents of the tropics. This suggests the presence among the natives of the tropics of appreciable, yet asymptomatic jejunal functional incompetence which is not seen in the temperate countries. Further, structural abnormalities in the villi which are non-specific occur in varying degrees of severity in the tropics both in health and in disease. These tropical peculiarities raise obvious doubts as to the diagnostic usefulness of these laboratory tests in the evaluation of disorders of absorption in tropical practice. In this review, experiences from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital had shown that the faecal fat analysis for the detection of steatorrhoea is the most dependable single diagnostic and in studies of overt malabsorption in Niageria.

Feces

A double-blind comparative study of cimetidine and placebo in adult Nigerian duodenal ulcer patients with special reference to gastroduodenal mucosal morphology and intestinal bacterial activity.

Twenty-seven adult Nigerian patients with endoscopically proven active duodenal ulcers have received in a double-blind trial either the histamine H2 - receptor antagonist cimetidine 1g daily or placebo tablets of identical appearance for 4 weeks. Fifty-six per cent of the cimetidine patients and 18% of those receiving placebo had endoscopically completely healed ulcers and total pain relief at the completion of trial. This response amounted to clinical cure. An additional 19% of patients in the cimetidine group experienced clinical improvement either in endoscopic or symptomatic reassessment but not in both, thus leading to a disparity between clinical cure rate (56%), healing rate (69%), and pain relief (64%). Though therefore significantly better than placebo, this less favourable response to cimetidine in this study may be due to the short trial period, the disparity between healing and pain relief rates or to co-existing and persistent antroduodenitis in ulcer patients as shown on gastroduodenal mucosal biopsies taken at the time of the clinical investigation. There were no untoward clinical laboratory side effects with the exception of the one cimetidine patient who experienced diarrhoea and a small number who showed slight, asymptomatic rise in plasma creatinine level. Of particular interest to the reported occurrence of diarrhoea with cimetidine therapy is the finding in the bacteriological studies of intestinal aspirates and biochemistry estimations for indicanuria in the consenting patients which showed that orally administered cimetidine 1g daily for 4 weeks neither produced demonstratable alterations in the bacterial content of the small bowel not pathological indicanuria, thereby excluding bacterial overgrowth syndrome as a therapeutic hazard in the clinical application of cimetidine.

Adult