Our aim was to test the hypothesis that the long-term efficacy of CAS is superior to that of PTA.

Methods At the University learn more Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, PTA was performed from 1990 to 1997 and CAS was performed from 1998 to 2006. All patients undergoing these procedures were symptomatic. Selection and follow-up examinations were performed by independent vascular neurologists. Follow-up terms were 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, then annually.

Results In the PTA group (n=71), 2.8% of the patients showed severe periinterventional complications (i.e. lasting neurological

deficits). Of these 71 patients, 57.7% were followed up for an average period of 51 months. Stenois > 70% was observed in 9.8% of the PTA patients, while 4.9% of the patients had ipsilateral occlusions. In the CAS group (n=354), 4.2% of the patients showed severe periinterventional complications. In total, 61% of the CAS patients were followed up for an average period of 25 months, of whom 4.6% showed stenosis of > 70% and 1.9% had ipsilateral occlusions. Periprocedural complications and new symptoms that appeared during follow-up occurred at a rate of 5.6% (PTA) and 5.9% (CAS). There was no difference in the rate of annual ipsilateral events

(1.1% in PTA vs. 1.3% in CAS, p=1.000)

Conclusion Overall, the use of stents, rather than PTA only, shows no beneficial clinical effect in the treatment of ICA stenosis. While the rate of restenosis may be significantly reduced, this merely 4��8C suggests that the impact of restenosis is less apparent than expected.”
“Purpose: see more A prospective, randomized, controlled trial was done to evaluate whether oral administration of a preparation of the probiotic agent Lactobacillus casei (Yakult Honsha, Tokyo, Japan) could enhance the prevention of recurrence by intravesical instillation of epirubicin after transurethral resection for superficial bladder cancer.

Materials and Methods: Between August 1999 and December 2002, 207 patients clinically diagnosed with superficial bladder cancer were included as study candidates and underwent transurethral resection, followed by intravesical instillation of 30 mg epirubicin/30 ml saline twice during I week. After histological

confirmation of superficial bladder cancer they were again included as study participants with 102 randomized to receive treatment with 6 additional intravesical instillations of epirubicin during the 3-month period after transurethral resection (epirubicin group) and 100 randomized to intravesical chemotherapy on the same schedule as the epirubicin group plus oral administration of 3 gm Lactobacillus casei preparation per day for 1 year (epirubicin plus Lactobacillus casei group). Patients were evaluated for intravesical recurrence, disease progression, prognosis and adverse drug reactions.

Results: The 3-year recurrence-free survival rate was significantly higher in the epirubicin plus Lactobacillus casei group than in the epirubicin group (74.6% vs 59.9%, p = 0.