BACKGROUND With the Convulsive Status Guidelines due for renewal, we wondered if a phenytoin dose of '20 mg/kg' would be easier to calculate correctly and therefore safer than the current '18 mg/kg'. An educational exercise in dose calculation was therefore undertaken to assess ease of calculation. METHOD A standard question paper was prepared, comprising five clinical scenarios with children...

Monitoring of nitrate (NO(3)(-)) and nitrite (NO(2)(-)) content in agricultural products in Slovenia has been carried out since 1996. The results of monitoring over the period 1996-2002 are presented. During this time 924 samples of 14 different agricultural products (potato, lettuce, apples, carrot, silage maize, cabbage, grapes, peaches, string beans, cereals, pears, cucumbers, strawberries a...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE PartySmart is a herbal preparation intended for the management of alcohol hangover and other related toxic effects in clinical situation. The present study was designed to investigate the pharmacodynamics and oral toxicity of PartySmart, a herbal formulation in rats. METHODS Effect of PartySmart on blood acetaldehyde and alcohol levels was evaluated at doses of 125, 250...

"Ethnopharmacological" use of roots of Boerhaavia diffusa (B. diffusa) in the treatment of epilepsy in Nigerian folk medicine and reports showing the presence of a calcium channel antagonistic compound "liriodendrin" in its roots, led us to undertake the present study. The study was designed to investigate the methanolic root extract of B. diffusa and its different fractions including liriodend...

Sir, Studies in vitro and in animals have shown that killing of bacteria by -lactams is time dependent and maximal at relatively low concentrations, indicating optimal administration by continuous infusion. Continuous infusion of ceftazidime was recently reported to be well tolerated by children with cystic fibrosis. On the other hand, the bactericidal activity of aminoglycosides is concentrati...

BACKGROUND Standard treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Suriname entails three injections of pentamidine isethionate (PI) 4 mg/kg per injection in 7 days (7 day regimen). Compliance to treatment is low and may contribute to increasing therapy failure. A 3 day regimen, including 2 injections of 7 mg/kg in 3 days may increase compliance. METHODS In a randomized, single-blinded non-infe...