ABSTRACT
The medical Internet is growing in paralell with the online information explotion. The aim of this study is to identify the online resources available to gastroenterologists, both in English and Spanish on the Internet.We searched the internet using the following resources: general and medical search engines, biomedical databases, books and listservs.We included for analisis the websites that fulfilled the following criteria: content, autorship, attribution, currency and disclosure.We identified 46 websites in Spanish and 104 in English that met the inclussion criteria. We further categorized these sites into six categories: digestive diseases search resources, professionals organizations, academic department sites, sites with focused areas of interest to gastroenterologists, on line journals and discussion groups (listservs).A variety of very useful web sites related to digestive diseases exist on the Internet, and their numbers are growing. Many of these sites have valuable information that can be used to improve patient care, promote medical education, and facilitate research. The Internet represents a useful source of information of increasing utility for daily gastroenterologic practice.
ABSTRACT
The effect of adding bromazepam to treatment of duodenal ulcer with ranitidine was investigated in 30 out-patients. Under double-blind conditions one group of 15 patients received, for 14 days, 300 mg ranitidine and 6 mg bromazepam in the evening as a single dose. The other group received the same dose of ranitidine together with placebo, also for 14 days. In addition to measurements of gastric acid secretion after fasting and following histamine provocation, psychological ratings (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and Zung Self-Assessment Scale for Anxiety) were carried out. Basal acid secretion was the same in both groups. During treatment, maximal acid output was significantly lower in the group of patients taking bromazepam than in those taking placebo. Similarly, significant differences were seen in favour of bromazepam in the psychological tests. It is concluded that these results confirm that bromazepam exerts a significant influence on acidity, over and above the effect of ranitidine. This effect, in all probability, is modulated by the emotional environment of individuals.
