Ancient coins: cluster analysis applied to find a correlation between corrosion process and burial soil characteristics

Although it is well known that any material degrades faster when exposed to an aggressive environment as well as that "aggressive" cannot be univocally defined as depending also on the chemical-physical characteristics of material, few researches on the identification of the most significant parameters influencing the corrosion of metallic object are available

Studies on the Effects of Betamethasone, L-Carnitine, and Betamethasone-L-Carnitine Combinations on the Dipalmitoyl Phosphatidylcholine Content and Phosphatidylcholine Species Composition in Foetal Rat Lungs

Peer Reviewe

L-Carnitine-Betamethasone Combination Vs Betamethasone for Prevention of Respiratory-Distress Syndrome

In this prospective randomised study the effects of antenatal treatment with a low dose betamethasone (2 mg/1 day) - L-carnitine (4 g/5 days) combination were compared with those of a high dose betamethasone, given alone (8 mg/2 days) on the prevention of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and mortality in preterm infants. One-hundred women entering the trial gave birth to 109 liveborn infants, 55 in the betamethasone group (A), 54 in the betamethasone-L-carnitine combination group (B). Eight of the 55 (14.5%) infants in group A developed RDS, four of the 54 (7.3%) in group B, which was significantly more (p < 0.05), although in group B the betamethasone dose was dramatically reduced. The mortality also was significantly lower after treatment with a betamethasone-L-carnitine combination compared to betamethasone alone (4 of 55 infants or 7.3% in group A versus 1 of 54 infants or 1.8% in group B, p < 0.05). The present results demonstrate that in combination with L-carnitine, the betamethasone dose is markedly reducible with a concommitant significant reduction of the incidence of RDS and mortality of premature newborns