Battling hepatitis C.

Treatment for patients suffering from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) can slow and sometimes stop disease progression. However, about 60% of the nearly 4 million Americans suffering from HCV fail to clear the virus with standard therapy because side effects compel them to drop out. Here's what you can do to help your patient stick with treatment and win the battle against HCV.

Effect of systemic corticoid and antihistamine alone or in combination on elements of the response to a two dose nasal allergen challenge.

This study examined the effects of low dose systemic corticoid (methylprednisolone, MP), standard dose antihistamine (terfenadine, TF) or the combination on response to out-of-season acute allergen challenge. We feel that a single dose challenge delivered to the nose may represent real disease imperfectly and in this study used two doses given 1 hour apart, hoping to approximate better the circumstances of natural allergen stimulation. The study used clinical endpoints only: measured nasal airway resistance (NAR), sneeze count, and weight of blown nasal secretions. Subjects showed similar NAR, sneezing, and secretion response to both challenges. With placebo treatment, NAR rose after the first allergen provocation and returned to baseline about 30 minutes later. Antihistamine pretreatment appeared to delay but did not prevent this rise; low dose corticoid partially inhibited it, and the combination totally ablated the response. All active treatments suppressed sneezing and secretion better than placebo. Combination corticoid/antihistamine treatment showed no greater effect on sneeze/ secretion than did antihistamine alone; this differs from our findings in separate studies comparing analogous drug combinations in naturally-acquired ragweed hayfever.