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Biomedical subjects

S Machado

Publications and source records attributed to S Machado.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Side-effects of subthalamic stimulation in Parkinson's disease: clinical evolution and predictive factors.

Chronic bilateral high-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is an alternative treatment for disabling forms of Parkinson's disease when on-off fluctuations and levodopa-induced dyskinesias compromise patients' quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess the evolution of side-effects during the first year of follow-up and search for clinical predictive factors accounting for their occurrence. We compared the frequency of side-effects at 3 and 12 months after surgery in a cohort of 44 patients. The off-medication scores of Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) II, III, axial symptoms, disease duration and age at surgery were retained for correlation analysis. Dysarthria/hypophonia, weight gain and postural instability were the most frequent chronic side-effects. Whereas dysarthria/hypophonia remained stable over time, weight gain and postural instability increased during the first year post-op. High axial and UPDRS II scores at surgery were predictive of dysarthria/hypophonia. Age and axial score at surgery were positively correlated with postural instability. Despite the occurrence of side-effects, the benefit/side-effects ratio of STN stimulation was largely positive during the first year of follow-up. Age, intensity of axial symptoms and UDPRS II off-medication score before surgery are predictive factors of dysarthria/hypophonia and postural instability after surgery.

Aged↗

One-week triple therapy with esomeprazole, clarithromycin and metronidazole provides effective eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection.

AIM: To compare the eradication rates of treatment with esomeprazole, metronidazole and clarithromycin (EMC) vs. omeprazole, metronidazole and clarithromycin (OMC), given for 7 days. OMC treatment was followed by 3 weeks of treatment with 20 mg omeprazole alone; the EMC group received placebo. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind, controlled study was conducted in 36 Canadian centres. Patients had a minimum 3-month history of dyspepsia, with or without a previous history of peptic ulcer disease, and were Helicobacter pylori positive by urea breath test. The eradication of H. pylori was determined by two negative breath tests performed at least 4 and 8 weeks following the completion of treatment. RESULTS: The intention-to-treat and per protocol populations consisted of 379 and 339 patients, respectively. The success rates of EMC/placebo were 76% (144/190) by intention-to-treat and 80% (138/172) by per protocol analysis; for OMC/omeprazole, the rates were 72% (137/189) and 75% (125/167), respectively. The difference between the two treatment groups was not significant. Treatment was well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: A 7-day regimen of esomeprazole, metronidazole and clarithromycin is effective and well tolerated for the eradication of H. pylori infection.

Adolescent↗

The Wada test with propofol in a patient with epilepsy.

The usual drug used in the Wada test is amobarbital, but it is not available in Brazil. Propofol was already used by Bazin et al. in 1998, and in their report the test resulted good in the absence of any adverse effect. We report the use of propofol as the anesthetic for the Wada test. The test was carried out in a 26 years old woman with temporal medial lobe epilepsy refractory to medical treatment. Language functions and memory were tested after injection in both hemispheres by three procedures (Seattle, Montreal and Interview procedures). Propofol showed to be good to carry on the Wada test.

Adult↗

Guess what! Porokeratosis of Mibelli.

A 72-year-old man had noticed, in his early forties, the appearance of well-defined papulous hyperkeratotic lesions, with increasing growth, located on both sides of his feet. After twenty-five years he consulted a dermatologist for the first time. Physical examination showed annular papules and rose-coloured plaques with atrophic centres, some of them hypopigmented, with higher and irregular borders, separated from the surrounding skin by longitudinal and well-defined furrows. The lesions presented variable sizes and shapes, some of them punctate, involving exclusively and in a bilateral form, both sides, back and sole of the feet (Figs. 1 and 2). The patient did not report any subjective symptoms. He was immunocompetent and did not remember that any relative had the same disease, nor had he been subjected to radiation treatment.

Aged↗

Population pharmacokinetics. A regulatory perspective.

The application of population approaches to drug development is recommended in several US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance documents. Population pharmacokinetic (and pharmacodynamic) techniques enable identification of the sources of inter- and intra-individual variability that impinge upon drug safety and efficacy. This article briefly discusses the 2-stage approach to the estimation of population pharmacokinetic parameters, which requires serial multiple measurements on each participant, and comprehensively reviews the nonlinear mixed-effects modelling approach, which can be applied in situations where extensive sampling is not done on all or any of the participants. Certain preliminary information, such as the compartment model used in describing the pharmacokinetics of the drug, is required for a population pharmacokinetic study. The practical design considerations of the location of sampling times, number of samples/participants and the need to sample an individual more than once should be borne in mind. Simulation may be useful for choosing the study design that will best meet study objectives. The objectives of the population pharmacokinetic study can be secondary to the objectives of the primary clinical study (in which case an add-on population pharmacokinetic protocol may be needed) or primary (when a stand-alone protocol is required). Having protocols for population pharmacokinetic studies is an integral part of 'good pharmacometric practice'. Real-time data assembly and analysis permit an ongoing evaluation of site compliance with the study protocol and provide the opportunity to correct violations of study procedures. Adequate policies and procedures should be in place for study blind maintenance. Real-time data assembly creates the opportunity for detecting and correcting errors in concentration-time data, drug administration history and covariate data. Population pharmacokinetic analyses may be undertaken in 3 interwoven steps: exploratory data analysis, model development and model validation (i.e. predictive performance). Documentation for regulatory purposes should include a complete inventory of key runs in the analyses undertaken (with flow diagrams if possible), accompanied by articulation of objectives, assumptions and hypotheses. Use of diagnostic analyses of goodness of fit as evidence of reliability of results is advised. Finally, the use of stability testing or model validation may be warranted to support label claims. The opinions expressed in this article were revised by incorporating comments from various sources and published by the FDA as 'Guidance for Industry: Population Pharmacokinetics' (see the FDA home page http:/(/)www.fda.gov for further information).

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗

[Epilepsy and arteriovenous malformations].

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of the patients with epilepsy, associated to arteriovenous malformation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We introduced 11 patients assisted in 1997, at University Cajuru Hospital, with arteriovenous malformation associated to refractory epileptic seizures. RESULTS: Six men and five women, with age between 12 and 40 years old (27 years in mean), were interned with epileptic crises, 4 generalized tonic-clonic, 3 partial simple secondarily generalized, one with complex partial and one with simple partial that the complex developed with secondary generalization. CT showed temporal lesion in 3 patients, parietal in 3 patient, ventricular in 3, parietal fose and temporoparietal on one patient, respectively. MRI was accomplished in 5 patients presenting temporal lesion in 3 and temporo-parietal in 2. It was possible to accomplish the EEG in 8 patients, all with epileptiform activity. The arteriography showed arteriovenous malformations in all the patients, 3 of the which died. Eight patients were guided for surgical treatment evidencing cavernous angioma in 6 patient and hemangioma in 2. CONCLUSIONS: We observed that cortical and not cortical arteriovenous malformation associates to epileptic seizures and in the cases in which it is possible, the surgical treatment favors the control of the seizures.

Adolescent↗

[Epilepsy and cerebral tumor].

OBJECTIVE: To determine clinical and pathological features with seizures associated brain tumors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective study through of an Epilepsy Program Protocol where we studied fifty patients admitted at Hospital Universitário Cajuru of Curitiba, Brazil, in 1996-1997. RESULTS: We studied 36 males and 14 females, aged 6 and 81 years old (mean 40.5). Twenty six patients had tonic-clonic seizures, 13 had simple partial secondarily generalized, 8 had simple partial, 2 complex partial and one with simple partial progressing to complex partial seizure. CT showed parietal expansive lesion on 14 cases, frontal expansive lesion on 14 cases, frontoparietal on 5; intraventricular tumor, sella turcica, temporal temporoparietal and fronto-temporo-parietal expansive lesion 2 on each case, and suprasellar lesion, centrum semiovale, cerebello-pontine angle, ventricular trigone, fronto-naso-etmoidal and brain stem 1 on each case. All patients were submitted to a biopsy and/or resection of the lesion. The principal brain tumors were meningioma in 30%, astrocytoma in 22%, glioblastoma multiform in 14%, oligodendroglioma in 4% and pituitary adenoma in 4%.

Adolescent↗

Cutaneous necrobiotic xanthogranuloma (NXG)--successfully treated with low dose chlorambucil.

We report a case of necrobiotic xanthogranuloma in a 51 year-old white male patient presenting with a 6-year history of multiple indurated violaceous nodules and plaques involving the eyelids, trunk and extremities. He had an associated paraproteinemia (Ig G lambda), elevated sedimentation rate, cryoglobulinemia and hypocomplementemia. No extracutaneous involvement was detected. He was successfully treated with chlorambucil (2 mg/d for 7 months), leading to disappearance of all skin lesions.

Adult↗