Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify active ingredients present in counterfeit drugs and pharmaceutical preparations seized from the black market among bodybuilders. Preparations in closed or sealed packaging with different batch numbers (n = 74) and two preparations without labels were analyzed. Methods: The identification scheme was based on reversed-phase liquid chromatography w...

The presence of steroid hormone receptors in the vasculature of male animals has been recognized for more than two decades,1,2 and the ability of vascular estrogen receptors (ERs) to activate gene expression in vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells from both sexes is now well established.3 We know now that normal ER function is required for skeletal development in the human male,4 male f...

This editorial comments on the manuscript reported by Bergqvist et al. [1] who have investigated real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and microarray-based RNA expression (RNA-EP) as alternative strategies to immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in situ hybridization (ISH) for HER-2 testing in breast cancer patients. Bergqvist et al. [1] have compared the performance of ÔstandardÕ and ÔnewÕ HER-2 testing tools in a...

OBJECTIVE This experimental study aims to investigate whether radiotherapy (RT) plus trastuzumab (T) followed by subsequent hormonotherapy increase the cumulative toxic effect on cardiac functions in rats. METHODS A total of 70 Wistar-Albino female rats with a mean weight 213 ± 27 g were randomly divided into equal seven groups. The first group (C) underwent no procedure. The second group (RT...

TOPIC: Pulmonary Vascular Disease TYPE: Medical Student/Resident Case Reports INTRODUCTION: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is an important cause of severe (PH) resulting from events with subsequent remodeling vasculature. As one the few forms PH potentially definitive management via thromboendarterectomy (PTE), it imperative that diagnosis CTEPH involves careful assessmen...

Male factor is the sole reason or a component for infertility in 20 and 30% of cases respectively. Medical treatment is preferred for patients with testicular failure due to endocrine or exocrine diseases. Although the infertility may be due to a pathology in the hypothalamic- pituitary axis, the majority of the cases occurs as results of testicular failure. In general medical treatment modalit...

Objective. To investigate the relationship between antiestrogen therapy in women with breast cancer and risk of autoimmune disease. Methods.We used a national database to assess the incidence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) following treatment with selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERM) or aromatase inhibitors (AI) in women with breast cancer. The tota...

Systemic anti-cancer therapies can produce acute and chronic organ damage. Ocular toxicity induced by anti-cancer chemotherapy is not uncommon, but underestimated and under-reported. The development of more aggressive regimens, use of newer agents and combination chemotherapies have resulted in a significant increase of reported cases of chemotherapies induced ocular side effects. Visual change...

Over the last 5 years, the results of several breast cancer prevention trials have demonstrated the usefulness of antiestrogen selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) for the prevention of breast cancer. The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) P-1 breast cancer prevention trial was the first trial to show a major benefit of a SERM: The anti-estrogen SERM tamoxifen...

Following surgery, the hormone dependence of breast tumors is exploited for therapy using antagonists such as tamoxifen, although occasional hormone-resistant clones do appear. Another chemotherapeutic strategy uses microtubule inhibitors such as taxanes. Unfortunately, these agents elicit toxicities such as leukocytopenia, diarrhea, alopecia, and peripheral neuropathies and are also associated...