Italian guidelines for primary headaches: 2012 revised version

The first edition of the Italian diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for primary headaches in adults was published in J Headache Pain 2(Suppl. 1):105–190 (2001). Ten years later, the guideline committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches (SISC) decided it was time to update therapeutic guidelines. A literature search was carried out on Medline database, and all articles on primary headache treatments in English, German, French and Italian published from February 2001 to December 2011 were taken into account. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analyses were analysed for each drug. If RCT were lacking, open studies and case series were also examined. According to the previous edition, four levels of recommendation were defined on the basis of levels of evidence, scientific strength of evidence and clinical effectiveness. Recommendations for symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine and cluster headache were therefore revised with respect to previous 2001 guidelines and a section was dedicated to non-pharmacological treatment. This article reports a summary of the revised version published in extenso in an Italian version

MITOXANTRONE AND CYTOSINE-ARABINOSIDE AS 1ST-LINE INDUCTION THERAPY IN NEWLY-DIAGNOSED ACUTE NONLYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA

Thirty-three patients (22 men and 11 women; median age, 44 years) with newly diagnosed acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) were treated with a combination of mitoxantrone, an anthracenedione derivative, 10 mg/m2/d for 3 days, plus cytosine arabinoside (ara-c), 100 mg/m2/d for 7 days. Patients not responding after two courses of therapy were considered treatment failures. Responding patients received two consolidation courses. Complete remission was achieved in 24 patients (73%) half of whom responded after a single course of therapy. Two patients were refractory and 7 died due to bone marrow depression. The median disease-free survival was 390 days, and the median overall survival was 450 days; 2 patients were still alive after 979 and 1166 days, respectively. Apart from hematologic findings, the most commonly observed toxicities were nausea/vomiting, alopecia, and infection. Mitoxantrone combined with ara-c is an effective and safe combination in the treatment of newly diagnosed ANLL

In vitro comparative assessment of beta-lactamase inhibitors and their penicillin combinations against selected enterobacteria

A comparative in vitro assessment of the inhibitory activity of clavulanate, sulbactam and tazobactam against the most frequent beta-lactamases found in enterobacteria isolated in Greek hospitals, has been performed. Tazobactam and clavulanate were potent inhibitors of TEM-1, SHV-1, SHV-2 and SHV-5 while sulbactam was less effective. In addition, tazobactam exerted a moderate inhibitory activity against AmpC-type beta-lactamases. In contrast with clavulanate, tazobactam could not cause significant induction of chromosomal cephalosporinases. Potentiation of the activity of penicillins (amoxycillin, ampicillin, ticarcillin and piperacillin), when combined with the inhibitors, has also been evaluated using a sample of recently isolated enterobacteria with beta-lactamase-mediated resistance. The results showed that the most effective among the commercially available combinations, is piperacillin/tazobactam followed by ticarcillin/clavulanate. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V