Reviews on Recent Clinical Trials - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2018

Background: Dyspnea is a very common and well-known symptom in patients with advanced cancer, but it is often neglected by physicians. Moreover, despite the high frequency of dyspnea, few controlled studies have been conducted on cancer patients. In most cases, this ‘awareness of breathing with difficulty’ and its severity can only be judged by the patient. Moderate or severe dyspnea is described in 20-80% of pati Read More

Background & Aims: Diverticular Disease (DD) is a common clinical condition with a dramatic increasing of the prevalence among industrialized countries. Based on the most used classification, DD may be divided into asymptomatic diverticulosis, symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease and complicated diverticular disease. Since recent studies pointed out the role of GUT microbiota imbalance in promoting diverti Read More

Background: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been used in the clinical arena for almost 35 years and it is now well-integrated in everyday hospital practice. Method: We conducted a systematic review of the available English-language articles. Objective: The purpose of this review is to summarize the relevant applications of operative EUS. Results: More than 5000 scientific papers published in the literature have demons Read More

Background: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by chronic inflammation, which can result in a multitude of systemic or organ-limited manifestations, including the skin, lungs, heart, and kidney. SLE nephritis is present in an average of 38% of patients at the time of diagnosis, and may occur as the initial presentation of disease with progression to End-Stage Renal Disease (ESR Read More

Background: Metadoxine is composed of pyroglutamic acid and vitamin B6. Administrations of metadoxine are indicated in cases of acute alcohol intoxication or in chronic alcoholism. Objectives: To reference all available clinical trials investigating the effects of metadoxine on humans. A focus was put on alcohol intoxication and chronic alcoholism, alcohol abstinence and survival rates. Adverse events were also taken into consi Read More

Background: The outcome of bone and soft tissue sarcomas (BST) after relapse has very poor prognosis with survival rates less than 39%. Unfortunately there are not many treatment options, but promising responses have been reported with ifosfamide, etoposide and carboplatin (ICE). Objective: Therefore, we planned a study for children with recurrent/refractory BST treated with ICE regimen to evaluate their demogra Read More

Objective: Oxidative stress and Overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines are contributed in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) pathogenesis. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is an antioxidant and antiinflammatory agent which demonstrated analgesic effects in some studies. This study is designed to assess the effects of oral NAC as an adjuvant therapy on the clinical outcomes of patients with active RA. Methods: In this randomized cli Read More

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the United States, with a large proportion of patients presenting with metastatic disease or developing a recurrence. Systemic chemotherapy is the mainstay of therapy in this setting. There is a clear benefit in the addition of bevacizumab or cetuximab (for rat sarcoma [RAS] wild type tumors) to oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based regimens which can Read More

Background: To evaluate the usefulness of Arnica compositum (AC) + Acidum nitricum (AN) + Hekla lava (HL) ointment in Emergency Medicine Department (EMD) as alternative nonpharmacological local treatment of patients with symptomatic calcific periarthritis of the shoulder (CPS) and to compare the effectiveness of this mixture against AC ointment alone. Methods: A series of 41 consecutive patients (20 women, 19 me Read More

Background: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a serious complication of diabetes seen commonly in autoimmune Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), however patients with Type 2 diabetes are also at risk. Diabetic ketoacidosis may be precipitated by the catabolic stress of acute illness such as trauma, surgery, or infections. Recent studies have suggested that sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors precipitate DKA in Read More