In a randomised, double-blind, controlled study of the effect of prednisolone on the development of post-herpetic neuralgia 78 patients with herpes zoster whose pain and exanthema had been present for less than 96 h were given 800 mg acyclovir five times daily for 7 days and prednisolone in a total dose of 575 mg, starting with 40 mg daily in the first week and tapering off over the next 2 weeks. 18 (23%) of the patients had post-herpetic neuralgia at 6 months after the acute zoster, 9 (24.3%) having received prednisolone and 9 (22.5%) placebo. The 95% CI for the difference between the placebo and prednisolone groups in the proportion of patients having pain at 6 months was minus 17% to plus 20%. Prednisolone, however, relieved pain for the first 3 days. The 1-2 week interval between admission and reappearance of pain and development of triggered pain seems to be the time needed to establish neuralgia. Once established, the type and intensity of pain remained largely unaltered.

81 patients with chronic low back pain (average duration 10 years) were randomised to two treatment groups. 40 received an empirically devised regimen of forceful spinal manipulation and injections of a dextrose-glycerine-phenol ("proliferant") solution into soft-tissue structures, as part of a programme to decrease pain and disability. The other 41 patients received parallel treatment in which the main differences were less extensive initial local anaesthesia and manipulation, and substitution of saline for proliferant. Neither patients nor assessors knew which treatment had been given. When assessed by disability scores the experimental group had greater improvement than the control group at one (p less than 0.001), three (p less than 0.004), and six (p less than 0.001) months from the end of treatment; at six months an improvement of more than 50% was recorded in 35 of the experimental group versus 16 of the control group and the numbers free from disability were 15 and 4, respectively (p less than 0.003). Visual analogue pain scores and pain diagrams likewise showed significant advantages for the experimental regimen.

46 male chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers with active viral replication were randomised, with stratification for histology and sexual preference, to receive six months' lymphoblastoid interferon or no therapy. After nine to eighteen months' follow-up, HBeAg was no longer detectable and anti-HBe was present in 6 of the 23 treated patients. HBsAg was not detectable in 5 of these patients and 3 had anti-HBs. All of the controls remained positive for HBeAg and HBsAg. Seroconversion from HBeAg to anti-HBe was preceded in all cases by a pronounced increase in serum aspartate aminotransferase levels of more than ten times the upper limit of normal at eight to twelve weeks; this response was exclusively associated with interferon therapy. These results suggest that loss of HBsAg and a hepatitis-like illness in the third month of therapy are direct effects of interferon treatment.

Lipoprotein mass concentrations were measured by analytical ultracentrifugation in a subset of 57 hypercholesterolaemic male participants in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Type II Coronary Intervention Study. 2-year changes in levels of intermediate-density lipoproteins (IDL) of flotation rate 12-20 were strongly predictive of progression of coronary artery disease at 5 years. Changes in serum mass concentrations of low-density lipoproteins (LDL; flotation rate 0-12), very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL; flotation rate 20-400), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and the HDL2 and HDL3 subfractions did not differ significantly between men with and without definite progression of coronary artery disease. The relation of IDL mass to disease progression remained significant (p less than 0.05) after adjustment for group assignment to cholestyramine treatment or placebo and was only slightly reduced (p less than or equal to 0.06) by adjustment for changes in LDL mass concentrations. Changes in IDL mass and ratios of HDL-cholesterol to total-cholesterol or LDL-cholesterol were inversely correlated and had a similar ability to predict progression. The findings are consistent with earlier evidence that IDL are directly involved in the development of coronary artery disease and suggest that ratios of HDL-cholesterol to total-cholesterol or LDL-cholesterol may be indicators of coronary disease risk partly owing to relations with IDL metabolism.

Patients with biliary obstruction due to malignant disease, and judged unfit for open operation, were randomised to have a biliary stent inserted either endoscopically via the papilla of Vater or percutaneously. Analysis after 75 patients had been entered showed that the endoscopic method had a significantly higher success rate for relief of jaundice (81% versus 61%, p = 0.017) and a significantly lower 30-day mortality (15% versus 33%, p = 0.016). The higher mortality after percutaneous stents was due to complications associated with liver puncture (haemorrhage and bile leaks). When stenting is indicated in elderly and frail patients the endoscopic method should be tried first.

40 patients with American cutaneous leishmaniasis caused primarily by Leishmania braziliensis panamensis were treated with sodium stibogluconate in a double-blind, randomised controlled trial. Nine weeks after starting treatment, all 19 patients treated with 20 mg Sb/kg per day for twenty days were cured but 5 of 21 patients treated with 10 mg Sb/kg per day for twenty days had persistent active disease (p less than 0.05). Both treatment regimens were well tolerated and they were associated with a similar incidence of reversible toxic effects. Existing recommendations for therapy of American cutaneous leishmaniasis with sodium stibogluconate are inadequate for some patients, and higher doses are both safe and efficacious.

Twenty-four men who had stable claudication with long, collateralized femoropopliteal obstructions were treated by isovolaemic haemodilution and sham dilutions in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. 3 weeks of haemodilution lowered haematocrit and blood viscosity and increased resting blood flow and pain-free walking distance. Sham treatment produced no such favourable changes. It is concluded that haemodilution therapy can be clinically effective in patients with arterial obstructions in the legs. It seems particularly promising when the vascular obstructions are such that low average shear stresses act on the blood in multiple, long collaterals.

A randomised, controlled trial of bovine rotavirus vaccine was undertaken in Gambian infants. Three doses were administered, from the age of ten weeks, concurrently with oral or killed polio vaccine. Prevaccination rotavirus neutralising antibody levels were high. 84/185 infants (45%) showed an increase in neutralising antibody titre after receiving rotavirus vaccine, compared with 20/91 (22%) unvaccinated infants. Clinical rotavirus infection was detected in 24/78 (31%) children in the rotavirus/oral polio group, 34/83 (41%) children in the placebo/oral polio group, and 23/92 (25%) children in the rotavirus/killed polio group, giving an overall vaccine efficacy of 33% (95% CI 4-53%). RIT 4237 did not appear to reduce the severity of clinical infections. Most cases (92%) were caused by rotaviruses with short RNA electropherotypes. Serological responses to rotavirus vaccination appeared unaffected by the concurrent administration of oral polio vaccine. Lower types 1 and 3 polio antibody levels were found in children who received oral polio and rotavirus vaccines but the differences were not statistically significant.

188 schoolchildren aged 10-15 living in a malaria endemic area along the Thai-Burmese border were matched for age, splenomegaly, and weight and were then randomly assigned to receive either doxycycline (adult equivalent of 100 mg daily) or chloroquine (adult equivalent of 300 mg base weekly). All drugs were administered by the investigators and blood smears were done weekly. In 95 subjects taking doxycycline for 597 man-weeks there were 5 cases of falciparum malaria and in the 93 controls taking chloroquine for 488 man-weeks there were 31. Doxycycline was more effective than chloroquine in the prevention of falciparum malaria infections (p less than 0.0001). The doxycycline group did not have significantly more side-effects than the chloroquine group.