Second-Line Bismuth-Containing Quadruple Therapy for Helicobacterpylori Infection: A 12-Year Study of Annual Eradication Rates.

BACKGROUND: Bismuth-containing quadruple therapy (BQT) consisting of a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI), bismuth, metronidazole and tetracycline is recommended as a second-line treatment for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection when PPI-based standard triple therapy (STT) consisting of a PPI, amoxicillin and clarithromycin is unsuccessful. The purpose of this study was to analyze the long-term results of BQT as a second-line therapy to determine its effectiveness. METHODS: This study included 643 subjects who failed first-line STT and received 7 or 10-14 days of BQT as a second-line therapy. We retrospectively analyzed the annual H. pylori eradication rates, demographic factors and adverse events. RESULTS: The overall eradication rates by intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses were 80.7% (519/643) and 93.3% (519/556), respectively. By PP analysis, the eradication rates for 2008-2011, 2012-2015, and 2016-2019 were 93.3%, 91.0%, and 96.4%, respectively (p = 0.145). There were no significant differences between the 7-day group and the 10-14-day group in both the ITT (79.7% vs. 86.0%, p = 0.148) and the PP analyses (92.7% vs. 96.6%, p = 0.187). A multivariate analysis showed that current smoking was associated with eradication failure. Eighty-nine subjects (16.0%) suffered adverse events, mainly gastrointestinal symptoms, but only six cases were severe. CONCLUSIONS: BQT as a second-line therapy is an effective treatment for H. pylori. Treatment for 10-14 days showed a higher eradication rate compared with a 7-day regimen, but not significantly.

Enhanced switching behavior of iron oxide nanoparticle-doped liquid-crystal display.

It is well known that doping nanoparticles (NPs) in liquid crystals (LCs) can easily change the physical and electro-optical properties of LC mixture. In this paper, we demonstrate homogeneous, aligned nematic LC (N-LC) system dispersed in iron oxide (Fe2O3) NPs. The prepared Fe2O3 NPs have an average particle size of 50 nm. By changing the doping concentration of Fe2O3 NPs, we observed the characteristics of LC systems. Electrooptical (EO) characteristics included faster rising and falling times (2.14 ms and 10.24 ms, respectively) and lower driving voltage (1.45 V) compared with a pure N-LC cell. We demonstrated these results via the relationship between dielectric con- stant and LC device properties. The results were verified by software simulation based on general physical properties. Moreover, we observed that LC system with Fe2O3 NPs could be accomplished without capacitance hysteresis by capturing charged impurities. Superior performance of LC cell with Fe2O3 NPs indicates that the proposed LC system have strong potential for use in the production of advanced LC displays.