BACKGROUND The current study was designed to determine if follitropin alfa (recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone; r-hFSH) and lutropin alfa (recombinant human luteinizing hormone; r-hLH) biopotencies were unchanged by reconstituting in sterile water for injection and mixing prior to injection. METHODS The biopotencies of r-hFSH and r-hLH were determined following injection of female...

BACKGROUND Anaemia is aggravated by the coexistence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Darbepoetin alfa effectively alleviates CKD-associated anaemia with less frequent dosing than recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO). The current study aimed to determine the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of darbepoetin alfa compared with er...

Treatment with polyethylene glycol-modified interferon alfa-2a (peginterferon) alone produces significantly higher sustained antiviral responses than treatment with interferon alfa-2a alone in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We compared the efficacy and safety of peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin, interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin, and peginterferon alfa-2a alone in ...

BACKGROUND Treatment with peginterferon alfa-2a alone produces significantly higher sustained virologic responses than treatment with interferon alfa-2a alone in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We compared the efficacy and safety of peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin, interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin, and peginterferon alfa-2a alone in the initial treatment of chroni...

INTRODUCTION The preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is optimal for identifying early pathophysiological events and developing prevention programs, which are shared aims of the ALFA project, including the ALFA registry and parent cohort and the nested ALFA+ cohort study. METHODS The ALFA parent cohort baseline visit included full cognitive evaluation, lifestyle habits questionnaires...

This international, randomized, active-controlled, parallel-group, double-blind dose-finding study compared peginterferon alfa-2b (PegIntron) to interferon alfa-2b for the initial treatment of compensated chronic hepatitis C. We randomly assigned 1,219 subjects to receive either the standard three-times-weekly (TIW) interferon alfa-2b dose (3 MIU) or the once-weekly (QW) peginterferon alfa-2b (...

BACKGROUND Treatment guidelines recommend the use of peginterferon alfa-2b or peginterferon alfa-2a in combination with ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, these regimens have not been adequately compared. METHODS At 118 sites, patients who had HCV genotype 1 infection and who had not previously been treated were randomly assigned to undergo 48 weeks of treatment...

Background. The Allergy Lateral Flow Assay (ALFA) is a novel rapid assay for the detection of sIgE to allergens. The objective of this study is the evaluation of ALFA for the detection of sIgE to bee venom (BV) and wasp venom (WV) in insect venom allergic patients. Methods. Specific IgE to BV and WV was analyzed by ALFA, ALLERG-O-LIQ, and ImmunoCAP in 80 insect venom allergic patients and 60 co...

PURPOSE We aimed to compare the rates of sustained virologic response (SVR) achieved with peginterferon (PEG-IFN) alfa-2a and alfa-2b in combination with ribavinin (RBV) for chronic hepatitis C, using a large database of hepatitis cases to improve the generalizability of these results. METHODS We identified patients with chronic hepatitis C who were treated with PEG-IFN alfa-2a or alfa-2b and...

BACKGROUND Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with cirrhosis is difficult to treat. In patients with chronic hepatitis C but without cirrhosis, once-weekly administration of interferon modified by the attachment of a 40-kd branched-chain polyethylene glycol moiety (peginterferon alfa-2a) is more efficacious than a regimen of unmodified interferon. We examined the efficacy and...