The colorectal cancer ranks high among the malignant tumours in incidence and mortality and irinotecan is standardly used in palliative treatment of metastatic disease in every therapeutic line. Unfortunately, the treatment with irinotecan is often associated with severe toxicities, especially neutropenia and diarrhea. The majority of the toxic manifestation is caused by the insufficient deactivation (glucuronidation) of irinotecan active metabolite SN-38 by UGT1A enzyme. The elevated SN-38 plasma concentration is responsible for the hematological and gastrointestinal toxicity that can become life-threatening. The patients carrying the mutation of the gene encoding UGT1A enzyme lack the ability of bilirubin glucuronidation, and suffer from the inherited un-conjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Gilbert syndrome, Crigler-Najjar type 1 and 2 syndrome). The mutations in other enzyme systems also play role in the etiopathogenesis of the irinotecan toxicity: CYP3A (cytochrome P-450), ABC family of transmembrane transporters (adenosine-triphosphate binding cassette). The goal of the contemporary research is to determine the predictive factors that will enable the individual adjustment of the individual drug dosage while minimising the adverse effects and maintaining the treatment benefit. and A. Paulík, J. Grim, S. Filip
INTRODUCTION: Annually more than 27,000 persons die of cancer in the Czech Republic and the overall incidence of malignancies is still increasing. These data shows the need for affordable and good follow-up care especially for patients without any cancer treatment due to irreversible progression of tumor. Currently the outpatient palliative cancer care gets more into the forefront. Prerequisite for a well working outpatient palliative care is cooperation with general practitioners and home health care agencies. The purpose of the so called program of palliative cancer care is to guide a patient in palliative cancer care and to improve the cooperation among health care providers. METHODS: During the period from January 2008 to October 2010 we evaluated in patient without any oncology treatment due to irreversible progression of tumor. RESULTS: In palliative outpatient clinic we treated 446 patients, 119 of them received home care services with average length of 27.8 days. 77 patients died at home, 51 in health facilities and 41 in inpatient hospice care. CONCLUSION: We present pilot study focusing on outpatient palliative cancer care which shows the real benefit from early indication of palliative cancer care. This type of care allows patients to stay as long as possible at home among their close relatives. and I. Slánská, J. Kopecký, S. Filip
The clinical outcome of 153 Graves' disease patients treated with a wide dose range of radioactive iodine-131 (RAI) was analyzed retrospectively. Six to nine months after the first dose of RAI 60 patients (39%) were hypothyroid (or rather thyroxine-substituted) and 26 (17%) were euthyroid, while 67 patients (44%) did not respond properly: in 32 (21%) their antithyroid drug (ATD) dose could be reduced but not withdrawn (partial response) and 35 (23%) remained hyperthyroid or the same dose of ATD was necessary (no response). The outcome did not correspond significantly to the administered activity of RAI (medians 259, 259, 222, and 259 MBq for hypothyroid, euthyroid, partial, and no response subgroups, respectively), or the activity retained in the gland at 24 h (medians 127, 105, 143, and 152 MBq). The effect was, however, clearly, and in a stepwise pattern, dependent on initial thyroid volume (17, 26, 33 and 35 ml, P < 0.001) or activity per gram tissue retained at 24 h (6.02, 4.95, 4.75, and 4.44 MBq/g, P = 0.002). Also, higher residual level of thyrotoxicosis at the time of RAI treatment was connected with worse outcome. The dose-dependency of outcome was further analyzed. When our sample was divided into tertiles, according to the adjusted dose, the same modest success rates (47%) were seen in the lower and middle tertiles. However, doses higher than 5.88 MBq/g (the upper tertile) resulted in success rate of 75%. Finer division into decils has shown a threshold-like increase in cure rate between the 7th and the 8th decil. In the first 7 decils (doses ≤ 6 MBq/g) the complete response rate was 45 to 50%, in the 8th decil (6.0 to 7.8~MBq/g) it rose to 80% and was not further increased with increasing dose. Direct comparison of higher (> 6 MBq/g, cure rate 80%) and lower (≤ 6 MBq/g, cure rate 46%) doses gave highly significant difference (P < 0.001). With our dosing range we found a dose-dependent clinical outcome that suggests an optimum delivered dose near 6.5 MBq/g, resulting in successful treatment of ca 80% patients. and J. Čepková, J. Horáček, J. Vižďa, J. Doležal
Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) is a disorder characterized by recurrent, stereotypic episodes of nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms, separated by intervals of comparative wellness. These episodes carry on for hours or days. The patient is healthy between the episodes and has no clinical finding. For the treatment of the CVS, antiemetic, antimigraine and sedative medications were used. However, in some cases CVS treatment is very difficult. We report about a young patient, who did not respond to many agents, but was succesfully treated with chlorpomazine. and H. H. Ozdemir, S. Bulut, M. S. Berilgen, O. Kapan, M. Balduz, C. F. Demir
Periprosthetic fractures are the third most common reason for revision total hip arthroplasty. Surgical treatment of periprosthetic fractures belongs to the most difficult procedures due to the extensive surgery, elderly polymorbid patients and the high frequency of other complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of operatively treated periprosthetic femoral fractures after total hip arthroplasty. We evaluated 47 periprosthetic fractures in 40 patients (18 men and 22 women) operated on between January 2004 and December 2010. The mean follow-up period was 27 months (within a range of 12-45 months). For the clinical evaluation, we used modified Merle d'Aubigné scoring system. In group of Vancouver A fractures, 3 patients were treated with a mean score of 15.7 points (good result). We recorded a mean score of 14.2 points (fair result) in 6 patients with Vancouver B1 fractures, 12.4 points (fair result) in 24 patients with Vancouver B2 fractures and 12.7 points (fair result) in 7 patients with Vancouver B3 fractures. In group of Vancouver C fractures, we found a mean score of 16.2 points (good result) in 7 patients. Therapeutic algorithm based on the Vancouver classification system is, in our opinion, satisfactory. Accurate differentiation of B1 and B2 type of fractures is essential. Preoperative radiographic images may not be reliable. If in doubt, checking the stability of the prosthesis fixation during surgery should be performed. and M. Korbel, P. Sponer, T. Kucera, E. Procházka, T. Procek
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vitro sealing ability of three repair materials. Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA; Group A), calcium phosphate cement (CPC; Group B), and light cured glass ionomer cement (GIC; Group C) when used to repair the perforation created in the pulpal floor of fifty extracted human permanent molars. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Preparation of access openings and furcation perforations were done, and the teeth divided into five experimental groups (A, B, C) including two controls (D, E) with ten samples in each group randomly. Following the repair procedure, the pulp chambers and access openings were filled with composite resin and immersed in 2% methylene blue solution for 48 hours. The teeth were sectioned longitudinally and the linear dye penetration measured under a stereomicroscope. RESULTS: The comparison of the linear length of micro-leakage (mm) among the experimental groups revealed no significant difference (p = 0.332). On calculating the percentage of depth of leakage to the total length of the perforation, it was observed that the mean leakage was 35.5% in Group A, 53.6% in Group B and the highest, 87.5% in Group C. The mean of leakage percentage was statistically significant by Kruskal-Wallis test (p = 0.003). The results indicated that the dye penetration used as furcation perforation repair material was least with mineral trioxide aggregate. Comparing the depth of penetration of dye, 50% of the Group A samples showed less than 25% of depth penetration. While 40% of Group B cases had more than 50% dye penetration. In our study, all Group C teeth had > or = 50% dye penetration. CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicated that GIC had the greatest dye penetration followed by CPC and MTA. Mineral trioxide aggregate and calcium phosphate cement had comparatively better sealing ability than glass ionomer cement. and P. Singh, J. Paul, AA. Al-Khuraif, S. Vellappally, HS. Halawany, M. Hashim, NB. Abraham, V. Jacob, R. Thavarajah
BACKGROUND: The male-female ratio at birth (M/F: male births divided by total births), which is anticipated to approximate 0.515, has been shown to exhibit latitude gradients and secular trends. METHODS: Annual national data for male and female live births for the 15 countries that comprise the former Soviet Union were obtained from the World Health Organisation for the period 1980-2009 (115,167,569 total live births) and analysed with contingency tables. Spearman correlation was also carried out to compare percentage annual gross domestic product growth (GDP%--downloaded from the World Bank) and M/F. In this context, GDP% is used as a measure for economic hardship or wellbeing within the populace. RESULTS: There have been overall highly significant secular increases in M/F (p < 0.0001) in the countries and regions investigated. M/F is significantly lower in the three more northern regions (Russian Federation, Baltic States and Central Asia. M/F 0.51324, 0.51335-0.51314) than the two more southern regions (Southern Caucasus and Eastern Europe. M/F 0.51654, 0.51635-0.51672). There was a male excess of 113,818 live births.There was a significant positive correlation between GDP% and M/F for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. There was a significant negative correlation in Estonia. CONCLUSION: Previous studies have shown that improving socioeconomic conditions increase M/F, and the converse has also been demonstrated. This is a potential influence in this geographical area since this region has relatively recently emerged from communist rule and experienced an overall economic upturn, but is only partially supported using GDP%. Another factor may be the selective termination of female pregnancies. The latitude gradient parallels that of neighbouring Europe but no theory has been put forward to convincingly explain this finding to date. and V. Grech
BACKGROUND: Latitude gradients and secular trends in Europe and North America have been found in the male-female ratio at birth (M/F: male births divided by total births) which approximates 0.515. METHODS: Annual national data for Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslavia States for male and female live births were obtained from the World Health Organisation and analysed with contingency tables. RESULTS: This study analysed 22,020,729 live births. There was a increasing trend in M/F prior to the breakup of the former Yugoslavia (1950-1990, p = 0.002), followed by a decreasing trend after 1990 (p = 0.02). A latitude gradient was also noted, with more males being born in southern, warmer latitudes (p < 0.0001). There was an overall excess of 42,753 male births based on an anticipated M/F of 0.515. CONCLUSION: M/F is decreasing in this region, similar to the rest of Europe and North America. A latitude gradient is also present with more males being born in warmer (more Southern) latitudes (p < 0.0001), even in this small region and over the short time-frame studied. and V. Grech
Behçet's disease is a multisystem chronic inflammatory disease generally presenting as recurrent oral-genital ulcers and uveitis. Vascular involvement is a common presentation. However, cardiac involvement is rare in this disorder. In this case report, we present a large right ventricular thrombus detected both in computed tomography and echocardiography in a 32 year-old male patient with complaints of fever, haemoptysis and weight loss. Intracardiac thrombus showed both clinical and radiological regression with oral anticoagulant and immunosuppressive therapy. and U. Canpolat, H. Yorgun, A. Akdoğan, K. Aytemir
Interventions of paediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome are complex, varied and multidisciplinary. The goal of the treatment is to restore optimal breathing during the night and to relieve associated symptoms. Evidence suggests that the surgical intervention with removal of the tonsils and adenoids will lead to significant improvements in the most incomplicated cases, as recently reported from a meta-analysis. However, post-operative persistence of this syndrome in paediatric population is more frequent than expected, which supports the idea of the complexity of this syndrome. Adenotomy alone may not be sufficient in children with OSAS, because it does not address oropharyngeal obstruction secondary to tonsillar hyperplasia. Continuous positive airway pressure can effectively treat this syndrome in selected groups of children, improving both nocturnal and daytime symptoms, but poor adherence is a limiting factor. For this reason, CPAP is not recommended as first-line therapy for OSAS when adenotonsillectomy is an option. It is now being investigated the incorporation of nonsurgical approaches for milder forms and for residual OSAS after surgical intervention. Althought adeno-tonsillar hypertrophy is the most common for OSAS in children; obesity is emerging as an equally important etiological factor. Therefore an intensive weight reduction program and adequate sleep hygiene are also important lifestyle changes that may be very effective in mitigating the symptoms of this syndrome. Pharmacological therapy (leukotriene antagonists, topical nasal steroids) is usually use for mild forms of OSAS and in children with associated allergic diseases. Special orthodontic treatment and oropharyngeal exercises are a relatively new and promising alternative therapeutic modality used in selected groups of children with OSAS. and A. Šujanská, P. Ďurdík, J. Rabasco, O. Vitelli, N. Pietropaoli, M. P. Villa