Screening of non-asthmatic chronic chest troubles in the outpatient chest clinic in a six months period

This study was carried out on 120 children suffering from chronic pulmonary symptoms such as cough, expectoration, anorexia, fever, dyspnoea, chest pain, wheezing, etc. and lasting>3 weeks in a 6 months period starting from 1st of January 2007. Asthmatic patients were excluded. Diagnosis of patients was based upon full medical history, thorough clinical examination, specific laboratory and radiological examinations. Leading causes were tuberculosis [TB], suppurative lung syndromes, interstitial lung diseases, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease [GERD], foreign body aspiration, cystic fibrosis, immune and congenital defects. Early and proper diagnosis is crucial in preventing morbidity and chronicity

Effect of a novel antimalarial drug on different pathological and parasitological parameters in experimental intestinal giardiasis

Objectives the gold standard of this study, is to demonstrate the effect of the antimalarial drug Articulate in experimental intestinal Giardia lamblia infection. It aims at studying the pathological imprint of this drug on the duodenal mucosa of the studied infected hamsters

Methods: in this study, a group of fifteen Golden Syrian hamsters was used. This group was further subdivided into three small subgroups. Subgroup I: constituted control infected untreated hamsters. Infection was done by oral administration of 10,000 Giardia lamblia cysts through an esophageal tube. Subgroup II constituted infected animals, treated three weeks later with a single oral dose of Artesunate 100mg /Kgm body weight. Subgroup III included infected animals, given three weeks later two successive oral doses of Artesunate 100mg/Kgm body weight each, 24 hours appart. All animals were sacrificed two weeks post treatment. By faucal smear examination, it was noticed that the number of Giardia cysts was markedly reduced in the group given the single dose regimen. This number mostly vanished in the group given the double dose regimen when compared to the respective untreated control hamsters. Again, pathological examination of the upper third of the duodenum, revealed complete villus regeneration in the group given the double dose regimen, compared to the respective untreated control animals. This study could be of value un endemic areas where people tend to develop drug resistance to the commonly used antigiardial preparations