Artemether in moderate to severe malaria: a multicenter trial in India.

154 patients suffering from acute attack of moderate to severe malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum were treated with 480 mg artemether, administered intramuscularly (i.m.) in six equally divided doses at 12 hour intervals. Results showed a rapid parasite clearance. Mean parasite clearance time (PCT) was found to be 23.65 +/- 1.57 hours. Mean fever clearance time (FCT) was 35.28 +/- 1.7 hours. Adverse drug events (ADE) were mild and self-limiting. Recrudescence rate (RR) among the patients followed up was 4.55%. We conclude that artemether is a safe and effective anti-malarial agent for the treatment of moderate and severe cases of P. falciparum malaria.

Immunoglobulins and allergy mediators in bronchial asthma.

Seventy four young asthmatics were evaluated to establish the role of immunoglobulins and allergy mediators in clinical asthma. They were categorized into Group I (n = 38) or Group II (n = 36) when having mild or severe bronchospasm respectively. In some patients, reversibility of bronchospasm (n = 35), exercise challenge (n = 24) and intradermal allergy testing (n = 24) were also studied. Seventy subjects had raised IgE levels (greater than 100 KU/L) but these did not correlate with the severity of clinical or exercise induced asthma or with reversibility of bronchospasm. An IgE level greater than 1000 KU/L was associated with more number of positive skin tests. Group II subjects had a shorter blood recalcification time (p less than 0.01) and higher levels of IgG, histamine and serotonin (p less than 0.001). It appears that severe asthma is associated with activation of blood coagulation, and release of allergy mediators contributes to the evolution of bronchospasm. Total IgE predicts the utility of skin testing in asthma.