Browsing by Author "Bouic, P. J. D."
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemAberrant in vitro HLA-DR expression in patients with chronic fatigue(Health and Medical Publishing Group (HMPG), 1990-08) Van Greune, C. H. J.; Bouic, P. J. D.To the Editor: The chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a clinical entity characterised by chronic fluctuating fatigue associated-with a multitude of related symptoms, which may vary between patients. It is of unknown causation, but usually follows a presumed acute viral infection.
- ItemA phase I trial of hypoxoside as an oral prodrug for cancer therapy : absence of toxicity(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 1995) Smit, B. J.; Albrecht, C. F.; Liebenberg, R. W.; Kruger, P. B.; Freestone, M.; Gouws, L.; Theron, E.; Bouic, P. J. D.; Etsebeth, S.; Van Jaarsveld, P. P.Objective. To assess the toxicity of hypoxoside taken orally by 24 patients with lung cancer. Design. Open study with patients taking 1 200 - 3 200 mg standardised Hypoxis plant extract (200 mg capsules) per day divided in 3 doses in order to maintain metabolite blood levels near 100 μg/ml. Participants and setting. Patients with histologically proven squamous, large-cell or adenocarcinoma were hospitalised initially at the radiation oncology ward, Karl Bremer Hospital, Bellville, W. Cape. Thereafter they returned every 2 weeks for full clinical examinations. Methods. Routine biochemical and haematological measurements were done. Patients underwent regular full clinical examinations including radiographs and computed tomography scanning according to the discretion of the principal investigator. Results. Nineteen patients on hypoxoside therapy survived for an average of 4 months with progression of their primary tumours and metastases, while 5 survived for more than a year. One of them survived for 5 years and histological examination of the primary lesion showed absence of cancer. No toxic effects, in clinical examinations or biochemical or haematological measurements, were found that could be ascribed to the ingestion of hypoxoside. Only one occasion of possible drug intolerance, with anxiety, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, was noted. Conclusion. The absence of toxicity warrants further investigation of hypoxoside as an oral prodrug, especially in patients with slow-growing necrotising tumours that are inoperable and have high concentrations of β-glucuronidase and sulphatase as high sensitivity for rooperol.
- ItemPlant sterol/sterolin supplement use in a cohort of South African HIV-infected patients : effects on immunological and virological surrogate markers(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2001) Bouic, P. J. D.; Clark, A.; Brittle, W.; Lamprecht, J. H.; Freestone, M.; Liebenberg, R. W.It has been demonstrated that micronutrient supplementation may be an important prophylactic and therapeutic measure for HIV-1-infected patients, and is possibly one of the few potential interventions for low-income countries.' In sub-Saharan countries facing the bulk of new infections worldwide, the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is out of reach of most patients because of the cost in the private sector and the lack of provision of any therapies by the health departments of these countries. In recent years many groups have investigated the outcomes of this infection in patients supplemented with vitamin B2 or multivitamin supplementation including/excluding vitamin A during pregnancy.' Some studies have shown that high doses of vitamin B6 supplements were associated with improved survival of patients, while zinc supplementation was associated with poorer survival.'
- ItemPlasma sarcosine does not distinguish early and advanced stages of prostate cancer(Health and Medical Publishing Group (HMPG), 2012-08) Bohm, L.; Serafin, A. M.; Fernandez, P.; Van der Watt, G.; Bouic, P. J. D.; Harvey, J.Introduction. Diagnosis of prostate cancer by prostate specific antigen (PSA) is error-prone and cannot distinguish benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) from malignant disease, nor identify aggressive and indolent types. Methods. We determined serum sarcosine (N-methylglycine) in 328 cancer patients by gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectroscopy (MS) and searched for correlations with early (stage T1/T2) and advanced (stage T3/T4) disease. Results. Serum sarcosine of male control patients ranged from 1.7 μmol/l to 4.8 μmol/l. In prostate cancer patients, sarcosine ranged from 2.8 μmol/l to 20.1 μmol/l. Expressed as the sarcosine/alanine ratio, serum control values were 9.4±5.5x10 -3 (mean±SD) compared with 21.6±9.0; 28.5±16.6; 22.7±7.7 and 22.2±11.0 for patients diagnosed with T1, T2, T3 and T4 prostate tumours, respectively. The small differences between T1, T2, T3 and T4 patients were not statistically significant (p=0.51). However, the conventional PSA marker significantly correlated with T stage in these patients (r=0.63; p<0.009). Conclusions. The median sarcosine/alanine ratios among patients with early and advanced prostatic cancer ranged from 21.6±9.0 to 28.5±16.6 and were fairly constant, showing no statistically significant differences between T-stages. The results are consistent with published data in urine and serum which find differences between controls and patients with metastatic prostate cancer to be small and sarcosine to be uninformative regarding prostate cancer progression. By multi-comparison of PSA with T-stages in the same group of patients, we found significant correlations confirming the well-known merits and limitations of this marker.