A randomized trial comparing standard outcomes in two treatment models for substance users with tuberculosis.

SETTING: Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), TB Control Program. OBJECTIVES: To compare anti-tuberculosis treatment outcomes using two different types of directly observed therapy (DOT) outreach workers. METHODS: Substance users diagnosed with TB from October 1996 to July 2000 were randomized to DOT administered by either 1) CDPH personnel (standard arm) or 2) previous substance-using human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune-deficiency syndrome outreach workers (enhanced arm). Treatment completion was physician-determined, and adherence was estimated based on risk of missed DOT appointments. RESULTS: Of 94 patients, 46 were randomized to the standard and 48 to the enhanced arm. The standard arm had a significantly higher risk of non-completion of treatment (39% vs. 15%, RR 2.7, 95%CI 1.2-5.8), and a significantly higher risk of missing DOT appointments (RR 2.6, 95%CI 1.4-4.8). For both outcomes, housing instability was a significant predictor in multivariate analyses. CONCLUSIONS: TB treatment completion and adherence among substance users was improved by the enhanced intervention; the familiarity of enhanced-arm DOT workers with the patients' social norms due to their own previous substance use may have made them more effective. Successful DOT in hard-to-reach populations may require strategies that directly address the population's circumstances and utilize DOT workers who are intimately familiar with patients' life situations.

Extensive small bowel resection in the rat: lack of effect on serum proteins.

Rats were subjected to serial venesections 3 days prior to and then sequentially for 4 weeks after surgical removal of either the proximal or distal half of the small bowel. Total serum protein concentration and protein electrophoretic patterns were determined on these sera. Both sham-operated and unoperated animals served as controls. The data showed differences in serum proteins in the first week after operation between the three groups of operated rats and the unoperated controls. However, there were no significant differences in serum proteins between the sham-operated and the two types of resected animals. This indicates that the combined effects of laparotomy, anesthesia, pre- and postoperative fasting outweighed any additional early effects of loss of 50% small bowel on serum proteins. The study also demonstrates the necessity of having both unoperated and sham-operated control groups in designing experiments involving surgical extirpation of intestine.

Change in the force-summed pressure measurements of the upper esophageal sphincter prelaryngectomy and postlaryngectomy.

The pharyngoesophageal high pressure zone (PE-HPZ) was measured prelaryngectomy and postlaryngectomy with a new force-summing probe that accounts for sphincter pressure asymmetry. A total of 31 patients were studied six times each. Postoperatively, pressures dropped from 130+/-24 mm Hg to 66+/-9 mm Hg. After a standardized, intensive laryngectomy rehabilitation program, 12 of 19 postoperative patients acquired acceptable esophageal speech and 7 did not. Speakers and nonspeakers were found to have nearly identical PE-HPZ pressures (speakers = 70+/-10 mm Hg, nonspeakers = 59+/-18 mm Hg). Differences in sphincter length or relaxation likewise did not discriminate between these two groups. We conclude that PE-HPZ pressure is not a critical determinant of the acquisition of esophageal speech.

Manometry of the normal upper esophageal sphincter and its alterations in laryngectomy.

Rapid pull-through pressure profiles of the normal human upper esophageal sphincter (UES) were simultaneously studied with a conventional three-orifice Honeywell solid-state probe, an eight lumen radially perfused (RP) probe, and a circumferentially sensitive (CS) probe designed to measure UES pressure (UESP) without regard to probe orientation. Pressure curves were digitized and analyzed by computer. The Honeywell probe recorded significantly lower peak pressures than the other two methods, and had wide intrasubject pressure variations (average coefficient of variation, 53%). In contrast, UESP measured with the CS probe was constant for each subject (mean peak UESP, 121 mm Hg; average coefficient of variation, 15%). Anteroposterior RP probe UESP were identical to CS probe pressures. Thus, peak perfused anteroposterior UESP correlates with circumferentially measured sphincter squeeze.Computer programs were written that allowed RP probe pressures to be mapped in three dimensions. Normal three-dimensional maps were characterized by anteroposterior accentuation of peak pressures and also by consistent axial asymmetry with anterior peak pressures occurring 0.8+/-0.2 cm closer to the pharynx. After defining the normal two- and three-dimensional UESP configuration, patients who had undergone laryngectomy were studied. Peak pressures measured with the RP probe decreased to congruent with50 mm Hg and radial pressure asymmetry vanished. Like normals, CS probe pressures corresponded to peak RP probe pressures. UES length did not change significantly. Three-dimensional mapping showed that axial asymmetry also vanished. It therefore appears that the anatomic alterations produced by laryngectomy abolishes UESP asymmetry.