A dose of 75 mg of azithromycin per kg of body weight per day combined with a dose of 2 micrograms of gamma interferon per day and administered for 10 days protected at least 40% of mice infected with a lethal inoculum of Toxoplasma gondii. Azithromycin administered alone protected less than 10% of the mice; gamma interferon had no protective effect.

Vitamin A (VA, retinol) has been shown to modulate cells of the immune system. When rats are pretreated with VA (75 mg/kg/day) for 7 days, there is greatly potentiated liver damage upon subsequent exposure to hepatotoxicants such as CCl4. This potentiated damage can be blocked by superoxide dismutase or catalase, suggesting that reactive oxygen species are playing a major role in the increased ...

Tamarind water extract has been shown to demonstrate an anti-obesity effect. In this research, long-term use of tamarind pulp water extract safety was evaluated. Tamarind pulp was extracted by reflux method, followed by freeze-drying to obtain dry extract. Wistar rats were divided into six groups, with 20 animals of each sex per group. The control group and satellite control group received carb...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a serious public health problem, since 80% to 85% of HCV carriers develop a persistent infection that can progress into liver cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma. Considering that the response of hepatitis C patients to combination therapy with interferon and ribavirin depends on HCV characteristics as well as on host features, we made a retrospective analysis of ...

A twenty-seven-year-old Saudi woman with a 10-year history of bipolar affective disorder required numerous hospitalizations. On her last admission, Olanzapine (15 mg q.i.d.) and Clonazepam (2 mg bid) were initiated. Before treatment with Olanzapine, she had normal random serum glucose levels. Her body weight was 75 kg, and her body mass index (BMI) was 33.3 kg/m. On discharge, controlled-releas...

BACKGROUND In Switzerland, socio-demographic and behavioural factors are associated with obesity, but no study ever assessed their impact on weight gain using prospective data. METHODS Data from 4,469 participants (53.0% women), aged 35 to 75 years at baseline and followed for 5.5 years. Weight gain was considered as a rate (kg/year) or as gaining ≥5 kg during the study period. RESULTS Rate...

The efficacies of orally (p.o.) dosed linezolid and intravenously (i.v.) dosed vancomycin against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in rabbits with experimental aortic-valve endocarditis were investigated. After endocarditis was established with a recent clinical MRSA isolate, rabbits were dosed for 5 days with linezolid (p.o., three times a day) at either 25, 50, or 75 mg/kg o...

This study analyses 127 communications from individuals self-reporting their weight change following adoption of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) eating plan. Total combined self-reported weight loss was 1 900 kg (range 5 kg gain to 84 kg loss). The mean ± standard deviation weight loss of 15 (±12) kg is among the largest yet described. Sixteen subjects reported the LCHF 'cured' (i.e. medica...

Weight loss is prevalent in the elderly population, with deleterious health consequences, notably loss of lean body mass and subsequent functional decline. Protein intake below the current RDA [0.8 g/(kg d)] is also common in older adults; however, the link between the 2 has received little attention. Our objective was to assess the relation between protein intake and incident 1-y weight loss $...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding in the management of morbid obesity in a cohort of Chinese patients. DESIGN. Cohort study. SETTING University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS From August 2002 to September 2003, 10 patients (6 male, 4 female) with a median age of 34 years (range, 23-48 years) underwent laparoscopic adjustable gastric bandin...