Systematic review of dexketoprofen in acute and chronic pain

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Dexketoprofen, an NSAID used in the management of acute and chronic pains, is licensed in several countries but has not previously been the subjected of a systematic review. We used published and unpublished information from randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of dexketoprofen in painful conditions to assess evidence on efficacy and harm. Methods: PubMed and Cochrane Central were searched for RCTs of dexketoprofen for pain of any aetiology. Reference lists of retrieved articles and reviews were also searched. Menarini Group produced copies of published and unpublished studies (clinical trial reports). Data were abstracted into a standard form. For studies reporting results of single dose administration, the number of patients with at least 50 % pain relief was derived and used to calculate the relative benefit (RB) and number-needed-to-treat (NNT) for one patient to achieve at least 50 % pain relief compared with placebo. Results: Thirty-five trials were found in acute pain and chronic pain; 6,380 patients were included, 3,381 receiving dexketoprofen. Information from 16 trials (almost half the total patients) wa

The discovery of endogenous retroviruses

When endogenous retroviruses (ERV) were discovered in the late 1960s, the Mendelian inheritance of retroviral genomes by their hosts was an entirely new concept. Indeed Howard M Temin's DNA provirus hypothesis enunciated in 1964 was not generally accepted, and reverse transcriptase was yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, the evidence that we accrued in the pre-molecular era has stood the test of time, and our hypothesis on ERV, which one reviewer described as 'impossible', proved to be correct. Here I recount some of the key observations in birds and mammals that led to the discovery of ERV, and comment on their evolution, cross-species dispersion, and what remains to be elucidated

Réflexions sur la pollution cancérigène par les rayonnements ionisants

Les effets des faibles doses de rayonnement sur un grand nombre d'individus relèvent du phénomène de la pollution. Ces effets sur l’homme ne sont pas accessibles directement. Il convient donc : 1° de considérer les études épidémiologiques (l’irradiation cosmique à haute altitude; la radioactivité dans les régions granitiques); 2° d’extrapoler à partir des résultats des fortes doses; 3° d’extrapoler à partir des résultats obtenus avec les faibles doses sur les micro-organismes ou les cellules de mammifères in vitro. On dispose également du schéma interpolation, d'ailleurs discuté, d’ABRAHAMSON et al., sur la mutagénèse. Le problème du seuil se situe encore à un niveau théorique, même si la carcinogénèse radio-induite se déroule souvent selon une relation dose-effet avec seuil. Il semble donc utile d'introduire la notion de seuil pratique. De même, c’est sur des considérations génétiques, en particulier, qu'ont été fixées par des organismes internationaux les doses admissibles. Dans le but d’établir des comparaisons quantitatives entre la pollution cancérigène chimique ou induite par les rayonnements ionisants, il serait intéressant d’utiliser la notion de rad-équivalents pour les principaux polluants chimiques mutagènes