Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0013395 (dyspepsia)
 4,879 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Saquinavir is an HIV protease inhibitor which, formulated as a hard-gel capsule (HGC), was the first drug of its class to become available for the treatment of patients with HIV infection. Despite the beneficial effects that saquinavir HGC-containing combination regimens have shown in the treatment of patients with HIV infection, the HGC formulation has limited oral bioavailability and has shown only modest antiviral activity in vivo. To overcome this limitation (with the aim of improving antiviral efficacy), a soft-gel capsule (SGC) formulation of the drug has been developed. At the recommended dosage of 1200 mg 3 times daily, the SGC formulation of saquinavir achieves plasma concentrations > 8 times higher than those in patients receiving saquinavir HGC 600 mg 3 times daily. Initial results of trials evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of saquinavir SGC-containing combination therapy in patients with moderate to advanced HIV infection are promising. In patients who were previously antiretroviral therapy-naive or -experienced, short term (< or = 36 weeks) treatment with saquinavir SGC in combination with > or = 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), or nelfinavir, or 2 NRTIs plus nelfinavir led to marked improvements in virological and immunological markers of HIV disease. In comparative trials, saquinavir SGC showed improved antiviral activity compared with the HGC formulation in terms of reducing viral load. Furthermore, saquinavir SGC in combination with 2 NRTIs was as effective as indinavir plus 2 NRTIs in antiretroviral-naive or -experienced patients. Available data suggest that saquinavir SGC-containing combination therapy may be of greatest benefit in patients naive to previous antiretroviral therapy. The SGC formulation of saquinavir appears to be generally well tolerated by adults with HIV infection. Gastrointestinal adverse events, notably diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, nausea and dyspepsia, are the most common adverse events occurring during treatment with the drug. Initial results of several trials that used surrogate markers to assess treatment efficacy indicate that the SGC formulation of saquinavir, administered in combination with other antiretroviral drugs, is an effective and well-tolerated treatment for patients with moderate or advanced HIV infection. Although further data are required before definitive conclusions can be drawn regarding the comparative efficacy and tolerability of the SGC and HGC formulations, it appears likely that the SGC formulation will replace the conventional formulation as a component of combination regimens for the treatment of patients with HIV infection.
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PMID:Saquinavir soft-gel capsule formulation. A review of its use in patients with HIV infection. 953 May 49

The carbon-14 urea breath test (UBT) is a reliable and non-invasive technique for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection. In this study we evaluated the diagnostic performance of a new, practical and low-dose (14)C-UBT system for the diagnosis of HP and compared the results with those obtained using the standard method. Seventy-five patients (56 female, 19 male) with dyspepsia underwent (14)C-UBT and endoscopy with antral biopsies for histological analysis. The rapid urease test (CLO test) was applied to 50 of these patients. After a 6-h fasting period, a 37-kBq (14)C-urea capsule was swallowed for UBT. Breath samples were collected and counted using two different methods, the Heliprobe method and the standard method. In the Heliprobe method, patients exhaled into a special dry cartridge system (Heliprobe BreathCard) at 10 min. The activities of the cartridges were counted using a designated small GM counter system (Heliprobe analyser). Results were expressed both as counts per minute (HCPM) and as grade (0, not infected; 1, equivocal; 2, infected) according to the counts. In the standard method, breath samples were collected by trapping in a liquid CO(2) absorber. Radioactivity was counted as disintegrations per minute (SDPM) using a liquid scintillation counter after addition of a liquid scintillation cocktail. Histological examination was used as a gold standard. Two patients were excluded from the study because of inadequate biopsy sampling. Forty-eight patients (65%) were found to be HP positive on histology. The Heliprobe method correctly classified 48 of 48 HP-positive patients and 19 of 25 HP-negative patients (sensitivity 100%, specificity 76%, PPV 88%, NPV 100%, accuracy 91%). The standard method correctly classified 48 of 48 HP-positive patients and 20 of 25 HP-negative patients (sensitivity 100%, specificity 80%, PPV 90%, NPV 100%, accuracy 93%). On the other hand, the CLO test identified 26 of 32 HP-positive and 12 of 16 HP-negative patients (sensitivity 81%, specificity 75%, PPV 86%, NPV 66%, accuracy 79%). With the Heliprobe method, all of the positive results were grade 2, and all of the negative results were grade 0. No patients were defined as having grade 1 results. Counts allowed clear discrimination of HP-positive and -negative patients with both methods, the difference being statistically significant in each case ( P<0.001). A significant correlation was found between HCPM and SDPM ( r 0.863, P<0.001). According to the ROC analysis, the area under the curve was nearly the same with HCPM (AUC, 0.888; 95% CI, 0.785-0.992) and SDPM (AUC, 0.898; 95% CI, 0.802-0.994). In conclusion, the new (14)C-UBT system is a highly accurate method for the diagnosis of HP infection. It is rapid and practical, and therefore suitable for clinical and office practice.
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PMID:A new, practical, low-dose 14C-urea breath test for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection: clinical validation and comparison with the standard method. 1457 83

We performed a prospective clinical study to select cut-off points for total plasma protein (TPP) and plasma fibrinogen (PF) to differentiate between traumatic reticuloperitonitis (TRP) and other gastrointestinal diseases with similar clinical signs, and to estimate the dependence and accuracy of TPP and PF when used in series or in parallel. TPP and PF were estimated preoperatively by refractometry in 93 cattle with TRP and 65 cattle with gastrointestinal diseases such as vagus indigestion (n = 16), liver abscesses (n = 17), omasal impaction (n = 19) and Johne's disease (n = 13). Three different cut-off points were selected by two-graph receiver-operating characteristic (TG-ROC) analysis for TPP and PF. Conditional covariances were calculated as a measure of dependence between sensitivities and specificities of TPP and PF. The cut-off points of 7.22, 7.78 and 8.82g/dl for TPP and 622, 691 and 766mg/dl for PF were suggested by TG-ROC based on different requirements of test performances. There was moderate negative dependence between sensitivities of TPP and PF at the 8.82g/dl and 766mg/dl cut-off points, and mild negative dependence between their specificities at the 7.78g/dl and 691mg/dl cut-off points, respectively. Acceptable accuracy (98 or 86% specificity with 62 or 88% sensitivity, respectively) was obtained with serial interpretation of the tests.
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PMID:The sensitivities and specificities of total plasma protein and plasma fibrinogen for the diagnosis of traumatic reticuloperitonitis in cattle. 1545 22

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common condition, managed mostly in primary care practice. Heartburn and acid regurgitation are considered primary symptoms, and are usually highly specific. However, the symptom spectrum is much wider and in many cases it is difficult to determine whether the patient has GERD or dyspepsia from another origin. The aim of this study is to develop a symptom score and rule for the diagnosis of GERD, using data mining techniques, to provide a clinical diagnostic tool for primary care practitioners in the evaluation and management of upper gastrointestinal symptoms. A diagnostic symptom questionnaire consisting of 15 items and based on the current literature was designed to measure the presence and severity of reflux and dyspepsia symptoms using a 5-point Likert-type scale. A total of 132 subjects with uninvestigated upper abdominal symptoms were prospectively recruited for symptom evaluation. All patients were interviewed and examined, underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and completed the questionnaire. Based on endoscopic findings as well as the medical interview, the subjects were classified as having reflux disease (GERD) or non-reflux disease (non-GERD). Data mining models and algorithms (neural networks, decision trees, and logistic regression) were used to build a short and simple new discriminative questionnaire. The most relevant variables discriminating GERD from non-GERD patients were heartburn, regurgitation, clinical response to antacids, sour taste, and aggravation of symptoms after a heavy meal. The sensitivity and specificity of the new symptom score were 70%-75% and 63%-78%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve for logistic regression and neural networks were 0.783 and 0.787, respectively. We present a new validated discriminative GERD questionnaire using data mining techniques. The questionnaire is useful, friendly, and short, and therefore can be easily applied in clinical practice for choosing the appropriate diagnostic workup for patients with upper gastrointestinal complaints.
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PMID:Applying data mining techniques in the development of a diagnostics questionnaire for GERD. 1742 Sep 44