FortiColos - A multicentre study using bovine colostrum as a fortifier to human milk in very preterm infants:Study protocol for a randomised controlled pilot trial

SPIRIT Checklist for FortiColos: Recommended items to address in a clinical trial protocol and related documents. (DOCX 58 kb

Long-term management of GERD in the elderly with pantoprazole

The prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) increases with age and elderly are more likely to develop severe disease. Older patients often complain of less severe or frequent heartburn than younger patients and they may present with atypical symptoms such as dysphagia, weight loss, or extraesophageal symptoms. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are central in the management of GERD and are unchallenged with regards to their efficacy. They are considered safe and more effective than histamine receptor antagonists for healing esophagitis and for preventing its recurrence using a long term maintenance treatment. PPI have minimal side effects and few slight drug interactions and are considered safe for long term treatment. Pantoprazole is significantly effective both for acute and long-term treatment with excellent control of relapse and symptoms. It is well tolerated even for long-term therapy and its tolerability is optimal. Pantoprazole shows to have minimal interactions with other drugs because of a lower affinity for cytocrome P450 than older PPIs. Although the majority of elderly has concomitant illnesses and receive other drugs, this does not adversely effect the efficacy of pantoprazole because of its pharmacokinetics, which are independent of patient age. Clinical practice suggests that a low dose maintenance of PPIs should be used in older patients with GERD

High-Throughput and Time-Resolved Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction (EDXRD) Study of the Formation of CAU−1−(OH)2CAU-1-(OH)_2: Microwave and conventional heating

Aluminium dihydroxyterephthalate [Al(8)(OH)(4)(OCH(3))(8)(BDC(OH)(2))(6)]⋅x H(2)O (denoted CAU-1-(OH)(2)) was synthesized under solvothermal conditions and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, IR spectroscopy, sorption measurements, as well as thermogravimetric and elemental analysis. CAU-1-(OH)(2) is isoreticular to CAU-1 and its pores are lined with OH groups. It is stable under ambient conditions and in water, and it exhibits permanent porosity and two types of cavities with effective diameters of approximately 1 and 0.45 nm. The crystallization of CAU-1-(OH)(2) was studied by in situ energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXRD) experiments in the 120-145 °C temperature range. Two heating methods-conventional and microwave-were investigated. The latter leads to shorter induction periods as well as shorter reaction times. Whereas CAU-1-(OH)(2) is formed at all investigated temperatures using conventional heating, it is only observed below 130 °C using microwave heating. The calculation of the activation energy of the crystallization of CAU-1-(OH)(2) exhibits similar values for microwave and conventional synthesis