Prospective use of intramuscular triamcinolone acetonide in pseudogout.

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively assess the efficacy of intramuscular (i.m.) triamcinolone acetonide in the treatment of pseudogout. METHODS: Fourteen patients with crystal proven pseudogout presenting with an acute attack within 5 days of onset were treated with intramuscular triamcinolone acetonide 60 mg and followed for 30 days. Patients with inadequate response were eligible for a 2nd triamcinolone acetonide injection on Day 1-2. RESULTS: Twelve patients had contraindication to nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents (NSAID). Acute arthritis was monoarticular in 10 patients, and involved 2 or more joints in 4 patients. All patients had good clinical response to triamcinolone acetonide based on restoration of near baseline joint range of motion and joint circumference, and at least 50% improvement in patient and physician global assessment. Major clinical improvement occurred by Day 1-2 (2 patients), Day 3-4 (11 patients), and Day 10-14 (one patient). Six patients required a 2nd triamcinolone acetonide injection on Day 1-2. Toxicities were not observed. CONCLUSION: I.m. triamcinolone acetonide appears to be safe, well tolerated, and effective in the treatment of pseudogout. It may be a reasonable alternative therapy when NSAID are contraindicated, and for polyarticular attacks where intraarticular corticosteroids are impractical.

Abstract renders the summary superfluous.

By definition, an abstract and summary must contain much the same content, as it is the purpose of each to provide a synopsis of the study or review. The journal Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics requires both an abstract and a summary for its articles. We studied 83 reports from Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, reviewing the similarities and differences in the abstracts and summaries based on six objective criteria: the number of words, the number of sentences, the number of repetitious sentences, the clarity of the abstract or summary without having to refer to the body of the article, the expression of conclusions and the introduction of new material that is not mentioned within the body of the article. Our results showed that, although abstracts were nearly one-third longer than the summaries, almost one-third of the sentences were repetitious. On the other hand, in one-fifth of the instances, the important conclusions of the article were included in either the abstract or summary but not both. We conclude that the quantitative and structural attributes of the summary and abstract are sufficiently similar to warrant that the abstract mandated by many publications has rendered the summary superfluous. Furthermore, when both the abstract and summary are included within an article, the omission of important conclusions can occur in one or the other. We recommend to retain the abstract or the summary in the conventional format in the articles rather than to have both in entirety or an altered format.

Quantification of medically important Candida species and Torulopsis glabrata by a spiral inoculation system: correlation with pour plate and spread plate methods.

A new method of quantifying Candida spp. and Torulopsis glabrata suspensions, the spiral inoculation system, was studied to compare its accuracy, efficiency, and cost with the standard pour plating and spread plating methods. Concentrations of yeast suspensions ranging from 10(2) to 10(5) CFU were quantified simultaneously by the three methods. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the correlation between the spiral inoculation system and pour plating and between the spiral system and spread plating for Candida albicans, C. tropicalis, C. krusei, and T. glabrata. Spiral system and pour plating techniques correlated very well for all species, as did the spiral system and spread plating techniques (r greater than 0.95; P greater than 0.001).