ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Therapy systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been generally discouraging. Methyl-prednisolone pulse therapy has been used for various connective tissue disorders. We used intravenous dexamethasone cyclophosphamide pulse therapy to treat SLE. METHODS: Fourteen patients (10 females and 4 males) between the age of 15-48 years with definite or classical clinical criteria laid by American Rheumatism Association criteria were treated by Dexamethasone-Cyclophosphamide pulse (DCP) therapy at our center. RESULTS: It was possible to induce a complete clinical remission with DCP therapy in most of the patients thereby offering them life free from disease and drugs. The side effects commonly observed with conventional daily dose regimen of corticosteroids were not present or were mild. CONCLUSIONS: Almost all patients had good response after 3-4 pulses to allow them a normal life style. Fever, malar rash and oral ulceration responded early but photosensitivity, discoid rash, alopecia and joint pains took some more time.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Cyclophosphamide/administration & dosage , Dexamethasone/administration & dosage , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Drug Therapy, Combination , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , India , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/diagnosis , Male , Middle Aged , Prospective Studies , Pulse Therapy, Drug , Retrospective Studies , Risk Assessment , Severity of Illness Index , Treatment OutcomeSubject(s)
Leprosy/parasitology , Rats/genetics , Rats/microbiology , Rats/parasitology , Rats/virologyABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Oral azithromycin has been advocated by some in the treatment of acne. However, its efficacy has not been established. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This non-randomized controlled trial was conducted on 70 outpatients with acne vulgaris to compare the efficacy and safety of azithromycin and doxycycline in the treatment of inflammatory acne. In the first group, azithromycin was administered 500 mg daily before meals for 3 consecutive days in a 10-day cycle, with the remaining seven days in each cycle being drug-free days. The second group was given doxycycline 100 mg daily after meals. Topical erythromycin was prescribed to all patients. Clinical assessment was done at 10-day intervals for both the groups up to three months. We followed the severity index described by Michaelsson for assessment of outcome measures. RESULTS: There was 77.26% improvement in azithromycin treated group in comparison to 63.74% in the doxycycline treated group. There was a statistically significant reduction in severity in the azithromycin treated group. CONCLUSION: The study showed that a combination of azithromycin with topical erythromycin was significantly better than doxycycline with topical erythromycin in the treatment of acne vulgaris. The incidence and severity of side effects were also lower with azithromycin.
ABSTRACT
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium Leprae and is characterized by well-recognized pathological changes. But there are various disagreement in clinical type and histological finding of leprosy. We observed highest parity in LL and TT group followed by histoid, BT, BL, BB, & indeterminate respectively. There was 10% minor disagreement (difference of one group) and 5% major disagreement (difference of two or more group). Non-specific histological finding was present in 20% cases.