I analyze the relationship between health care institutions and the utilization of outpatient services by individuals aged 50 and above. I use cross-sectional micro data from thirteen European countries. I focus on the out-of-pocket costs of health care utilization, the gatekeeper role of general practitioners, and how these institutional settings are related to public and private care utilizat...

1Pulmonary Section, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. 2Memon Diabetic and Diagnostic Centre, Karachi, Pakistan. 3World Health Organization, Pakistan. ABSTRACT In a densely populated urban area of Karachi, Pakistan, a questionnaire survey was made of the knowledge and practices of 120 private general practitioners about the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). The majority knew th...

BACKGROUND There is concern regarding the irrational production, prescription and use of drugs in India. This study aimed to describe the quality of prescriptions by medical practitioners, including both the layout of the prescription and the type and number of drugs prescribed. MATERIALS AND METHODS A survey of all prescriptions dispensed at a busy pharmacy in the state of Goa, India, was ca...

Background: Tramadol is an opioid analgesic indicated for the management of moderate and severe pains. Its side effects, in parts are due to the activation of µ receptors and in parts to increasing central catecholamine and serotonin levels. In the case of long administration, tramadol has a potential to cause dependency, tolerance and also drug abuse. After prohibition of injective diclofenac,...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Peyer's patches (PPs) are aggregates of lymphoid follicles that are mainly located in the distal ileum; they play a major role in mucosal immunity. We recently reported that patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) have alterations in PPs that can be detected using narrow-band imaging with magnifying endoscopy (NBI-ME). However, the usefulness of NBI-ME in UC treatment as a whole i...

We analyzed individual motor units of the sternohyoid muscle with the aim of characterizing their minimum and maximum discharge rates and their variability in discharge during voluntary contractions. Surface EMG signals were recorded with an array of eight electrodes from the sternohyoid muscle of seven healthy men (age: 30.2+/-3.5 yr). The multichannel surface EMG signals were displayed as fee...

HIV-1 Tat protein, released from HIV-infected cells, may act as a pleiotropic heparin-binding growth factor. From this observation, extracellular Tat has been implicated in the pathogenesis of AIDS and of AIDS-associated pathologies. Here we demonstrate that the heparin analog pentosan polysulfate (PPS) inhibits the interaction of glutathione S-transferase (GST)-Tat protein with heparin immobil...

Jerebtsova M, Wong E, Przygodzki R, Tang P, Ray PE. A novel role of fibroblast growth factor-2 and pentosan polysulfate in the pathogenesis of intestinal bleeding in mice. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 292: H743–H750, 2007. First published October 27, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00969.2006.—Pentosan polysulfate (PPS) is a heparin-like polysaccharide that can affect the binding interactions of ...

The parapharyngeal space (PPS) is an inverted pyramid-shaped deep space in the head and neck region, and a variety of tumors, such as salivary gland tumors, neurogenic tumors, nasopharyngeal carcinomas with parapharyngeal invasion, and lymphomas, can be found in this space. The differential diagnosis of PPS tumors remains challenging for radiologists. This study aimed to develop and test a modi...

Peri-personal space (PPS) is defined as the space immediately surrounding our bodies, which is critical in the adaptation of our social behavior. As a space of interaction with the external world, PPS is involved in the control of motor action as well as in the protection of the body. The boundaries of this PPS are known to be flexible but so far, little is known about how PPS boundaries are in...