PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Cyr

Publications and source records attributed to M Cyr.

44 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Gold sodium thiomalate compared to low dose methotrexate in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis--a randomized, double blind 26-week trial.

Thirty-five patients with definite or classic rheumatoid arthritis (RA) entered a prospective, double blind, randomized study of 26 weeks duration. All patients had active RA that was unresponsive to greater than or equal to 2 nonsteroidal antiinflammatory medications and/or antimalarials. Eighteen patients were randomized to receive methotrexate (MTX) 12.5 mg weekly (oral and noncycled) + placebo, and 17 patients to gold sodium thiomalate (GSTM) 50 mg IM weekly + placebo (schedule I) after initial test dose of 10 and 25 mg. Dose reductions from Schedule I to Schedule II (i.e. MTX 5.0 mg and GSTM 25 mg) were permitted at Weeks 6 and 12. The GSTM group showed statistically significant improvement at Week 26 compared with baseline status in all of the clinical efficacy variables and the MTX group in 7. There were no statistically significant differences in these outcome variables between the 2 groups at Week 26. However, this small sample size may not have detected a clinically significant difference between treatment groups (alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.20). Two of the 18 patients treated with MTX and 6 of the 17 patients treated with gold withdrew because of drug toxicity, but this difference was not statistically significant. In conclusion, GSTM and MTX are similarly efficacious in the short term treatment of RA.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1989

Toxicity of methotrexate compared with azathioprine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A case-control study of 131 patients.

One hundred thirty-one patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with either azathioprine sodium (n = 37, 102.7 +/- 32.9 mg/d) or methotrexate sodium (n = 94, 8.4 +/- 3.0 mg/wk) were followed up for 38 +/- 23.3 months to determine the nature, frequency, and potential predictors of "major" toxic reactions. Thirty-one methotrexate-treated patients (33%) and 11 patients (30%) receiving azathioprine experienced a major toxic reaction during the study period. With the case-control method, no predictors of major toxic reactions secondary to azathioprine therapy were found. Sex, drug dosage, response to prior slow-acting antirheumatic drug therapy, concurrent use of salicylates, and age did not predict major toxic reactions secondary to methotrexate treatment, but the methotrexate-treated patients who experienced a major toxic reaction had a significantly greater mean level of blood urea nitrogen at the time of their reaction compared with the control group. Life-table analysis suggested toxic reactions posed a greater risk of treatment termination in methotrexate-treated patients compared with the lack or loss of efficacy. This trend was not apparent in the azathioprine group. The majority of patients in each treatment group (79 for methotrexate and 29 for azathioprine) experienced one or more "minor" toxic reactions during the follow-up period.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1988

The history of lupus erythematosus. From Hippocrates to Osler.

Hippocrates (460-375 BC) was the first to describe cutaneous ulcers under the heading of herpes esthiomenos. From what we can tell, Herbernus of Tours was the first to apply the term lupus to a skin disease in 916 AD. Following this, a number of terms including lupus, noli me tangere, and herpes esthiomenos were used to describe cutaneous ulcers. Willan (1757-1812) expanded the classification of skin diseases using the term herpes for vesicular diseases and lupus for destructive and ulcerative diseases of the face. The first clear description of lupus erythematosus was by Biett and was reported by his student Cazenave under the term erythema centrifugum in 1833. In 1846 Hebra, under the name of Seborrhea Congestiva described disc-shaped patches and introduced the butterfly simile for the malar rash. In 1851 Cazenave renamed erythema centrifugum, calling it lupus erythematosus and gave a classic description of discoid lupus erythematosus. In 1872 Kaposi subdivided lupus into the discoid and systemic forms and introduced the concept of systemic disease with a potentially fatal outcome. Hutchinson alluded to the photosensitive nature of the rash and may have provided the earliest description of what is now called annular subacute cutaneous lupus. In 1894 Payne used quinine in the treatment of patients with LE and postulated the presence of a vascular disturbance. In 1902, Sequira and Balean published a large series of patients with discoid and systemic LE and provided clinical and pathologic details of a young woman who died of glomerulonephritis. In 1904, Jadassohn published an exhaustive review of discoid and systemic LE, including clinical features and pathologic findings. Between 1895 and 1904 Sir William Osler published 29 cases of what was termed the erythema group of diseases. Perhaps his major contribution was to show that skin diseases could be accompanied by a variety of systemic manifestations. In retrospect most of his patients suffered from diseases other than SLE and it was only in his 1904 paper that two cases with SLE were described. He did not acknowledge this diagnosis in his cases and we share the viewpoint that his contribution to the study of SLE has been overemphasized.

History, 15th Century↗
PubMed1985

Response to treatment and its influence on survival in metastatic breast cancer.

The clinical response to first systemic therapy of 381 patients with metastatic breast cancer was assessed; the influence of the category of this first response on eventual survival from diagnosis of first distant metastasis was analyzed. Survival from diagnosis of first distant metastasis was found to be similar whether the patient had a complete response, a partial response, or stable disease; only when progressive disease occurred with first systemic treatment was survival significantly shortened. This similarity in survival whatever the category of response from diagnosis of first distant metastases was found whether the patient received chemotherapy or hormone therapy as first systemic treatment, and whether the patient was premenopausal or postmenopausal; there was some suggestion on analysis of premenopausal patients treated with hormone therapy as first systemic therapy that a complete response conferred a survival advantage, but the numbers were small in this group. When complete responders to first systemic therapy as well as any other subsequent systemic therapy were analyzed for survival from diagnosis of first distant metastasis, again, no survival advantage could be found compared to the other response categories, but the complete response rate was low owing to the unselected nature of this group of study patients. It is concluded that the categories of complete, partial, or stable response to therapy have no great significance in terms of survival; the category of progressive disease to first systemic therapy is, however, associated with a shorter survival in all the analyses performed. We suggest that assessment of a treatment's worth should be based as much on the patient's subjective feeling of well-being as on the magnitude of the tumor response, since with currently available therapies, provided some form of response is obtained, the magnitude of the response does not appear to translate into any major survival advantage. This study points up the disparity between research-oriented criteria of response (survival, response rate, and its magnitude) and patient care criteria of response (survival and quality of life).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Benign breast disease in systemic sclerosis (SSc). A case-control study.

We hypothesized that Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) may affect the breast in the form of Benign Breast Disease (BBD). For the purpose of this study BBD was defined as breast symptoms either detected by the patient resulting in physician consultation, or detected by a physician during the course of a routine consultation, or detected by a physician during the course of a routine physical exam. Forty-one of 47 women with SSc were matched to case controls from two disease groups (RA and OA). Case matching was done for age (+/- 5 years), disease duration (+/- 3 years) and gender. A structured telephone interview was administered to all subjects and controls to determine the frequency of BBD and associated risk factors. The SSc group had a higher prevalence of BBD compared to the RA group (12/41 versus 4/41, p less than 0.04). However, a similar proportion of the SSc patients and OA case controls had BBD (7/28 versus 9/28). These differences could not be attributed to any of the evaluated risk factors. The RA group had a higher frequency and longer duration of NSAID use, suggesting that the increased use of NSAIDs in the RA patients may account for the lower prevalence of BBD, although genetic, hormonal or undetermined factors may be operative. Without an age-matched, "healthy" general population control group it is impossible to determine if the observed difference in prevalence of BBD represents a less than normal prevalence in RA or a greater than normal prevalence in SSc and OA.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Training of interviewers in the utilization of standardized questionnaires in psychiatry: studies realized with the Present State Examination (PSE)].

Interview questionnaires offer more validity than self-administered format in exploring psychopathological or psychosocial phenomena of interest in psychiatric research. If used, special care needs to be paid to interviewers' training and ensuring that they maintain their reliability. No widespread training standards exist and each schedule may carry its own procedure. Our aims are to indicate how we trained interviewers with the French version of the Present State Examination (Wing, Cooper and Sartorius, 1974) and how we checked and kept acceptable interraters reliability during one study. We will provide data on the interraters reliability during the training and the study, as well as the test-retest reliability. These results will be used to support some guidelines when using this sort of psychiatric research questionnaires in order to ensure comparability both within the study and between studies.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Methazolamide-induced delirium.

A 74-year-old man became delirious 2 days after beginning oral therapy with methazolamide. The delirium was manifested by intermittent psychosis, incontinence of bowel and bladder, lethargy, and disorientation. These symptoms continued for 25 days despite many changes in his drug regimen, and complete laboratory, urologic, and neurologic work-ups. The symptoms resolved completely within 1 week of discontinuing methazolamide. This is the first case reported of delirium associated with methazolamide not accompanied by a metabolic imbalance.

Aged↗