The recent study by Dr. Meduri and colleagues (April 2007)1 regarding treatment of severe ARDS with steroids has critical flaws in the presentation and analysis of the data. The methylprednisolone and control groups differed significantly in the proportion of patients who had catecholamine-dependent shock (CDS) at baseline in the treatment group (15 of 63 patients, 23.8%) vs those in the contro...

Methylprednisolone induced arrhythmias, especially bradycardia, are well known. Most of the available reports suggest the occurrence of these arrhythmias with high dose intravenous therapy. We, hereby report a case of low dose methylprednisolone induced bradycardia.

The recent study by Dr. Meduri and colleagues (April 2007)1 regarding treatment of severe ARDS with steroids has critical flaws in the presentation and analysis of the data. The methylprednisolone and control groups differed significantly in the proportion of patients who had catecholamine-dependent shock (CDS) at baseline in the treatment group (15 of 63 patients, 23.8%) vs those in the contro...

COVER Confocal light microscopy image of a lateral root emerging from the main root (width: ~130 to 150 micrometers) of a young Arabidopsis thaliana plant (green, nuclei; red, cell walls). Lateral roots initiate deep within the primary (“mother”) root. Their emergence from the mother root is a highly regulated process requiring adjacent cells to shrink and make way for the developing lateral ro...

In a double-blind crossover study, 13 patients with pretreatment diastolic blood pressure between 95 and 109 mm Hg received nadolol, 80 mg/day, plus placebo of hydrochlorothiazide and nadolol, plus three different doses of active hydrochlorothiazide. Patients remained on each active regimen for 3 weeks, with an intervening placebo period of 2 to 4 weeks. With 12.5 mg of hydrochlorothiazide dail...

The question of whether very small doses of ionizing radiation really exert stochastic effects (i.e. induce harmful genetic effects, including cancer in a probablistic manner) has not been unequivocally settled. The much relied upon linear, no-threshold (LNT) hypothesis does not have convincing experimental evidence. As there are practical difficulties in generating data on genetic effects at v...