Aims
To evaluate the effects of gender, food and grapefruit juice on the pharmacokinetics of primaquine in healthy subjects.
Methods
In a randomized, two‐phase cross‐over study, 10 male and 10 female ...healthy Vietnamese subjects were administered 30 mg primaquine in the fasting state or with food, followed by administration of primaquine with grapefruit juice.
Results
The pharmacokinetics of primaquine were comparable between male and female subjects, with geometric mean ratios of Cmax = 0.89 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65, 1.22 and AUC = 0.80 (95% CI 0.56, 1.15). The mean CL/F of primaquine was slightly higher in males than in females 0.52 l h−1 kg−1vs. 0.43 l h−1 kg−1, mean difference of 0.09 (95% CI –0.10, 0.28), P = 0.32. When compared with fasting state values, food increased the geometric mean Cmax of primaquine by 26% (95% CI 12, 40) and the AUC by 14% (95% CI 3, 27). Similarly, grapefruit juice increased the geometric mean Cmax by 23% (95% CI 4, 45) and the AUC by 19% (95% CI 4, 37).
Conclusions
The disposition of primaquine was comparable between genders, suggesting no need to modify the dose of primaquine for malaria treatment or prophylaxis. Food increased the oral bioavailability of primaquine, which may lead to higher antimalarial efficacy. Grapefruit juice increased the bioavailability of primaquine, with marked interindividual differences suggesting that people should not take primaquine with grapefruit juice.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The standard adult treatment regimen for
Plasmodium vivax malaria is chloroquine (1500
mg over 3 d) plus primaquine (15 or 30
mg daily for 14 d), but patient compliance tends to be poor with the ...lengthy course. Preliminary observations are reported on the efficacy of a shorter treatment course – artesunate (200
mg twice a day for 2 d) plus primaquine (22.5
mg base twice a day for 7 d) – given to 28 adult patients infected with
P. vivax in Viet Nam. All patients responded quickly to treatment with mean (SD) parasite and fever clearance times of 14.2 (4.0) and 18.6 (8.4) h, respectively. The high dose of primaquine was generally well tolerated, and only one patient (3.6%) had a recurrence of parasitaemia during 28 d of follow-up. As most patients infected with Southeast Asian strains of
P. vivax have their first relapse within 28 d after treatment with rapidly eliminated blood schizonticides, the absence of parasitaemia in the remaining 27 patients suggests that this drug regimen was active against both blood and liver stages. Further studies are needed to confirm that this rapidly acting, short artesunate–primaquine regimen can result in better patient compliance and treatment outcomes than the chloroquine–primaquine regimen.
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GEOZS, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPUK
Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are among the leading causes of hospitalization in children ≤5 years old. Rapid diagnostics of viral pathogens is essential to avoid unnecessary antibiotic ...treatment, thereby slowing down antibiotic-resistance. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of the Luminex xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel FAST v2 against viral specific PCR as reference assays for ARI in Vietnam.
Four hundred and forty two nose and throat swabs were collected in viral transport medium, and were tested with Luminex xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel FAST v2. Multiplex RT-PCR and single RT-PCR were used as references. Results: Overall, viral pathogens were detected in a total count of 270/294 (91.8%, 95% CI 88.1-94.7) by the Luminex among reference assays, whilst 112/6336 (1.8%, 95% CI, 1.4-2.1) of pathogens were detected by the Luminex, but not by reference assays. Frequency of pathogens detected by Luminex and reference assays was 379 and 292, respectively. The diagnostic yield was 66.7% (295/442, 95%CI 62.1-71.1%) for the Luminex assay and 54.1% (239/442, 95% CI, 49.3-58.8%) for reference assays. The Luminex kit had higher yields for all viruses except influenza B virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and human bocavirus. High agreements between both methods mean (range): 0.91 (0.83-1.00) were found for 10/15 viral agents.
The Luminex assay is a high throughput multiplex platform for rapid detection of common viral pathogens causing ARI. Although the current high cost may prevent Luminex assays from being widely used, especially in limited resource settings where ARI are felt most, its introduction in clinical diagnostics may help reduce unnecessary use of antibiotic prescription.
In order to investigate the relationship between occupational exposure to dust/chemicals (toxic gases/fumes) and chronic respiratory symptoms in Vietnam, the questionnaire standardized by the ...American Thoracic Society was applied to 368 subjects living in Ha Thai district of Vietnam. According to the results of multiple logistic regression analyses, the odds ratios of chronic respiratory symptoms by occupational exposure are over unity, except for the relationship between chronic cough and occupational exposure to chemicals. Especially for chronic breathlessness, significantly higher odds ratios are observed among people with a history of occupational exposure to dust or chemicals: 2.925 (95% CI: 1.130-7.574) for dust, and 3.721 (95% CI: 1.412-9.803) for chemicals. As for the interaction between occupational exposure to dust and cigarette smoking, it is considered that occupational exposure leads to an increase in chronic respiratory symptoms independent of the effects of cigarette smoking.
The aim was to study the actual situation of subjective fatigue among the Vietnamese workers in factories with newly imported technology. A cross-sectional study concerning working conditions and the ...fatigue complaints of 389 workers who are employed in 10 Vietnamese factories with newly imported technology, was conducted from August to September 1994. About 60% of the workers were satisfied with their current working conditions. Regarding occupational risks at the workplace, heat, dust and noise were identified as the three most dangerous risks. About 46% of the workers complained about the incompatibility of the machines and equipment they were using, which are too large for Vietnamese workers. One third of all workers felt that the work pace is too rapid. Seventeen percent of the workers considered their working conditions monotonous. Finally, among 150 female workers under 40 years old, 45 workers (30.0%) complained of irregularity of menstruation. Generally these problems were more common among workers in textile factories. The prevalence rate of subjective fatigue complaints was significantly increased after work in all 30 items. The fatigue level were substantially high among workers in textile factories. Female workers in this sector had a high prevalence rate of irregularity of menstruation. There were many problems observed in the Vietnamese factories with newly imported technology. Special consideration is required to improve the working conditions of female workers in the textile industry. Both the Vietnamese government and donor countries have to give special attention to the transfer of worker-friendly technology to Vietnam, in order to achieve sound economic development.
A cross-sectional study concerning working conditions and the fatigue complaints of assembly line workers employed in two different electronic factories (A and B) in Vietnam was conducted from August ...to September 1994. While general working conditions, such as noise, dust, heat and lighting, were worse in Factory B, the prevalence rate of the subjective fatigue after working time was significantly higher among workers in Factory A. Fatigue symptoms in category I (Drowsiness and dullness) were particularly apparent among workers in Factory A. More interestingly, one-third of workers in Factory A complained of stiff shoulders and low back pain. Our field observation results suggest that the ergonomic inappropriateness of the assembly line in Factory A, may be causing a high rate of subjective fatigue among workers.
With substantial improvements in analytic techniques over the past decade, it has become possible to measure polychlorinated dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) in human tissue in a ...congener-specific fashion down to the low parts per trillion level. This paper reviews findings using these new techniques from a number of recent medical and environmental case studies. These studies include those of workers exposed to a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) transformer fire in the United States, German chemical workers exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodicain (2,3,7,8-TCDD) while cleaning up after an explosion, workers at a municipal incinerator in New York City, a chemist exposed to brominated and chlorinated dioxins, U.S. veterans and also Vietnamese civilians exposed to Agent Orange contaminated with TCDD in Vietnam, and victims of the polychlorinated dibenzofuran and PCB contaminated rice oil (Yusho) incident in Japan.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Gene regulatory activity prediction problem is one of the important steps to understand the significant factors for gene regulation in biology. The advents of recent sequencing technologies allow us ...to deal with this task efficiently. Amongst these, Support Vector Machine (SVM) has been applied successfully up to more than 80% accuracy in the case of predicting gene regulatory activity in Drosophila embryonic development. In this paper, we introduce a metaheuristic based on genetic algorithm (GA) to select the best parameters for regulatory prediction from transcriptional factor binding profiles. Our approach helps to improve more than 10% accuracy compared to the traditional grid search. The improvements are also significantly supported by biological experimental data. Thus, the proposed method helps boosting not only the prediction performance but also the potentially biological insights.
The objective of this study was to quantitate and characterize the variants of bombesin-like immunoreactivity in the alimentary canal of the rat, rabbit, hawk, owl, dog, monkey and human. ...Bombesin-like immunoreactivity was found throughout the entire gastrointestinal tract of all species studied. In the rat, the highest concentration of bombesin-like immunoreactivity was found in the colon. Gel chromatography showed that bombesin-like immunoreactivity corresponded to gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP-27) and GRP-10. In the dog, the greatest concentration of bombesin-like immunoreactivity was observed in the mucosal layer of the fundus, whereas the concentration of bombesin-like immunoreactivity in the muscle layer of the dog did not vary significantly from region to region. Gel chromatography showed that bombesin-like immunoreactivity in the dog corresponded to GRP-27, bombesin, GRP-10, and a smaller fragment. In the human, the concentration of bombesin-like immunoreactivity did not vary significantly from region to region in the mucosal and muscular layers. Gel chromatography of human fundal mucosa showed that bombesin-like immunoreactivity peaks occur in the regions of GRP-27, bombesin and GRP-10. These findings substantiate the observation that bombesin-like peptides play a variety of roles in the regulation of gut function.