Camostate (FOY-305) improves the therapeutic effect of peritoneal lavage on taurocholate induced pancreatitis. (report on rodent experiment)

Article Abstract:

Pancreatitis is an inflammatory condition of the pancreas in which the digestive enzymes produced by this organ exert their destructive effects on the tissue of the pancreas itself, rather than passing to the small intestine for the processing of food. This is extremely painful, and fatal if not treated. One treatment strategy is peritoneal lavage, in which the abdominal cavity is repeatedly flushed with a dilute, physiologically neutral, salt solution. Recently it has been reported that the efficacy of peritoneal lavage can be enhanced by administration of protease inhibitors, which would theoretically block the actions of the pancreatic digestive enzymes. However, the currently available data are not sufficiently compelling to initiate a trial in humans. In order to replicate and further characterize this finding, a study was carried out in which experimental pancreatitis was induced in rats. Shortly after the induction of pancreatitis, peritoneal lavage was begun in combination with administration of camostate, a protease inhibitor. One group received intravenous camostate and a lavage not containing camostate, another received camostate intravenously as well as in the lavage medium, and a third group received only intravenous camostate in the absence of any lavage. In the group receiving camostate with no lavage, 88 percent of the animals died from pancreatitis. The best survival rate was seen in the group receiving intravenous camostate plus camostate in the lavage fluid (38 percent mortality). No effect on the severity of the pancreatitis (as determined microscopically) was observed, therefore, the effects of camostate are most likely mediated by protective influences on tissues other than the pancreas. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Care and treatment, Methods, Models, Protease inhibitors, Irrigation (Medicine)

---

Is tobacco a risk factor for chronic pancreatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis?

Article Abstract:

The role of excessive alcohol intake in the development of chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) has been recognized for over 100 years. Alcoholism is also known to be causally involved in the development of cirrhosis of the liver, a chronic degenerative disease of that organ. In recent years, it has also been suggested that cigarette smoking may have an independent causal action in pancreatitis, but the degree to which it is involved remains controversial. Because smoking and drinking frequently coexist as social behaviors, it is difficult to partition the independent risk associated with each behavior. To investigate the relative contributions of alcohol and tobacco as risk factors for cirrhosis of the liver and pancreatitis, a case control study was carried out. Subjects were 103 male patients suffering from alcoholic cirrhosis, 145 patients with chronic pancreatitis, and 264 healthy control patients. Patients with chronic pancreatitis were younger as a group than those with cirrhosis (42 versus 61 years). More of the patients with chronic pancreatitis (94 percent) than with cirrhosis (83 percent) were both drinkers and smokers. Using a multivariate statistical predictive tool (multiple logistic regression), it was determined that daily intake of alcohol is a significant risk factor for developing both pancreatitis and cirrhosis of the liver, whereas smoking is related to the development of pancreatitis, but not cirrhosis. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Causes of, Complications and side effects, Risk factors, Smoking, Alcoholism, Liver cirrhosis, Alcoholic myopathy

---

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis. Cancer of the pancreas. Hepatobiliary complications in chronic pancreatitis
• Abstracts: Emergence of recreational drug abuse as a major risk factor for stroke in young adults. Co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) and cytomegalovirus in two intravenous drug users
• Abstracts: Chronic renal failure in sickle cell disease: risk factors, clinical course, and mortality. Antithrombin III concentrate for treatment of chronic leg ulcers in sickle cell-beta thalassemia: a pilot study
• Abstracts: Pathogenesis of vertebral metastasis and epidural spinal cord compression. Mucin leakage into the cervical stroma may increase lymph node metastasis in mucin-producing cervical adenocarcinomas
• Abstracts: Antiproteinuric effect of captopril in a patient with lupus nephritis and intractable nephrotic syndrome. Effect of weather conditions on rheumatic patients

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.