Souichi Tachikawa

Usefulness of Sparfloxacin against Chlamydia pneumoniae Infection in Patients with Bronchial Asthma

The efficacy of Sparfloxacin (SPFX) for the control of bronchial asthma was evaluated in 26 patients with suspected Chlamydia pneumoniae infection. Patients were randomly allocated to receive SPFX 200 mg/day (n = 14) or control treatment (n = 12) for 21 days. Significant improvements in serum C-reactive protein levels, and significant decreases in peripheral eosinophil counts, serum eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and sputum ECP were observed in the SPFX-treated group at day 21. SPFX-treated patients also had a significantly reduced frequency of asthma symptoms, reduced inhalant β2-stimulant use, and significant increases in morning peak expiratory flow. At the end of the study, C. pneumoniae was undetectable in two SPFX-treated patients who underwent polymerase chain reaction testing, but one control patient who was tested still had detectable levels of C. pneumoniae. These results suggest that SPFX could be used to control bronchial asthma in patients with suspected persistent C. pneumoniae infection.

Clinical significance of serum basic fetoprotein and various tumor markers in primary lung cancer

BackgroundTo investigate the clinical significance of basic fetoprotein in lung cancer, serum basic fetoprotein was measured in 81 patients with primary lung cancer and 40 patients with other nonmalignant pulmonary diseases.MethodsFor comparison, various tumor markers such as carcinoembryonic antigen, sialyl Lewisx-1 (SLX), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), tissue polypeptide antigen, squamous cell carcinoma related antigen (SCC), and neuron specific enolase were also measured.ResultsFifty-nine percent of the patients with primary lung cancer had a positive basic fetoprotein level. This rate was higher than that for carcinoembryonic antigen and tissue polypeptide antigen, but lower than that for SLX. Histologic classification showed that basic fetoprotein occurred more frequently in small cell and large cell carcinomas. Carcinoembryonic antigen and SLX showed high specificity in adenocarcinoma, and SCC and neuron specific enolase showed high specificity in squamous cell and small cell carcinoma, respectively. Basic fetoprotein levels tended to be higher in the advanced stages of disease, and the change of basic fetoprotein levels was related to chemotherapeutic response. However, this tendency was not observed in patients who did not respond to chemotherapy; this was particularly pronounced in those with small cell carcinoma. In the study of various tumor markers, a correlation was observed only between basic fetoprotein and neuron specific enolase, which suggests that these 2 tumor markers are valuable in a combination assay.ConclusionThe measurement of basic fetoprotein is a useful method for monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in primary lung cancer.