Arterial pulse pressure has been widely used as surrogate of stroke volume, for example, in the guidance of fluid therapy. However, recent experimental investigations suggest that arterial pulse pressure is not linearly proportional to stroke volume. However, mechanisms underlying the relation between the two have not been clearly understood. The goal of this study was to elucidate how arterial...

BACKGROUND Adjuvant therapy is commonly used in pemphigus to mitigate the high morbidity and mortality associated with the use of corticosteroids and improve disease control. However, these adjuvant agents are not without adverse effects of their own, including an increased risk of malignancy with the use of oral immunosuppressives. Intravenous pulse cyclophosphamide, which may be more efficaci...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disorder with poor prognosis. Response to treatment is infrequent and the use of immunosuppressive agents other than corticosteroids is the subject of ongoing discussion because of uncertain efficacy and side-effects. To determine the efficacy and safety of cyclophosphamide pulse therapy in IPF, this study retrospectively analysed 18 patients...

The deleterious effects of corticosteroids (CS) on bone are well known, but probably differ depending on duration and dosage of CS therapy. Presently huge amounts of CS are given over a short period of time in different rheumatic conditions. Not much is known about the effect of this kind of CS treatment on bone metabolism. Twenty patients with persistently active rheumatoid arthritis were trea...

Fifty patients with pemphigus (45 pemphigus vulgaris, 5 pemphigus foliaceus) were treated with dexamethasone-cyclophosphamide pulse therapy. The pulse consisted of 136 mg dexamethasone dissolved in 5% dextrose given in a drip over a period of 1-2 hours on 3 consecutive days. In addition, 500 mg cyclophosphamide was added in the drip on the first day. Such pulses were given at monthly intervals....

Sir, There have been quite a few instances where the physician or may be even a dermatologist (mis) advices a patient having systemic sclerosis that there is no satisfactory treatment for this disease, as has also been done in the paper ‘Therapeutic trials for systemic sclerosis: An update’ by Sardana and Garg.[1] Such patients often feel frustrated and disappointed, till another dermatologist ...