OBJECTIVE In this study, we measured the levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and interleukin (IL)-8 in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from patients with acute asthma and acute bronchiolitis, to determine any similarities or dissimilarities in the profiles of these biochemical markers in the two diseases. METHODS BAL fluids were obtained from children with acute asthma (n=16), infa...

PURPOSE The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) treatment in patients with steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (SR-aGVHD). METHODS An electronic search was carried out on the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index (SCI), and Cochrane Library databases. We included prospective clinical trials in SR-aGVHD tr...

Given a number of Extended Chebyshev (EC) spaces on adjacent intervals, all of the same dimension, we join them via convenient connection matrices without increasing the dimension. The global space is called a Piecewise Extended Chebyshev (PEC) Space. In such a space one can count the total number of zeroes of any non-zero element, exactly as in each ECsection-space. When this number is bounded...

Patients were eligible if they had the following: (1) a documented clinical history of acute asthma, (2) positive results for sIgE test (aeroand/or food allergens according to the ImmunoCAP test), and (3) elevated serum total IgE (tIgE) levels to confirm allergy. The exclusion criteria were as follows: (1) medication history including corticosteroids or histamine antagonists, (2) concurrent sys...

The Bangladesh Directorate of Family Planning in collaboration with the Population Council, Pathfinder International and John Snow, Inc. is conducting an operations research project to test the feasibility of introducing Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP) in the national family planning (FP) program and to answer several operational questions on how to implement the use of ECP efficiently. ECP...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether an enhanced compliance program (ECP) improves patient compliance with bismuth subsalicylate, metronidazole, and tetracycline hydrochloride (BMT) triple therapy for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection and to identify factors that affect compliance with therapy. DESIGN A randomized controlled trial conducted in 4 staff-model health centers of a health ...

Phlorotannins (marine algal polyphenols) have been reported to exhibit beneficial biological activities, serving as both antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents. Among marine algae, Ecklonia cava, a member of the Laminariaceae, is a very popular food regarded as healthy in Korea and Japan. Recently, benefits afforded by phlorotannins in the treatment of various clinical conditions have been r...

The article deals with the clinical value of monitoring serum eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) in patients with allergic diseases, especially bronchial asthma in paediatric practice. We confirmed the seasonal increase of serum ECP level in group of patients with bronchial asthma especially with higher total IgE level.

Protease and virulence of the extracellular products (ECP) of Vibrio carchariae strain EmI82KL, a causative agent of gastroenteritis in Epinephelus coioides, cultured on different media were studied. The bacteria grown on peptone agar, nutrient agar or brain heart infusion agar produced higher protease activities than that grown on tryptic soy agar (TSA) in terms of protein content. The additio...