Vaginal Infections and Metronidazole

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Summary of Metronidazole Article:
Bacterial vaginosis is one of the major contributors of vaginal infections during pregnancy and accounts for 40 percent of these cases. Generally, bacterial vaginosis is associated with several obstretic complications like pre-term labor and delivery, untimely rupture of membranes, postpartum endometrisis, and chorioamnionitis (Wang et. al., 2010, p.444). Metronidazole has traditionally been used as the drug of choice in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis because it is an agent of the nitroimidazole antibiotic family. This drug has been used for several decades because it efficiency in treating the condition ranges between 80 and 90 percent and can be administered across all pregnancy stages while tolerated by pregnant women. The ability of the drug to achieve the high levels of efficacy is attributed to the fact that it can be found in the cord blood, fetal tissue, and amniotic fluid in high concentrations.
The authors of the article reported the findings of two early studies conducted on the administration of the drug to pregnant women diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis. One of the studies was conducted during pregnancy after a single intravenous of the drug while the other was performed after single or multiple oral doses were administered between 8 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. Both studies demonstrated that pharmacokinetic stricture of the drug in pregnant women is similar to those of healthy volunteers. The analyses also showed that after nearly 34 weeks of gestation, pregnancy-induced increases in the plasma volume that could have an impact on metronidazole distribution reach their maximum.
In light of the findings of the study, the pharmacokinetic parameters of this drug would v...

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...ifiable in any patient with the disease, and provides special information associated with staging or anatomic disease extent. The other attribute that make the antigen an ideal tumor cell maker include the fact that it permits for earlier identification of treatment failure resulting in early salvage treatment.
Prostate-specific antigen is sensitive in determining persistent or recurrent disease after treatment and has had significant effect on every aspect of prostate-cancer patient care. The efficacy of the antigen as an ideal tumor cell maker is evident in the fact that there is currently no better technique than prostate-specific antigen for evaluating prostate cancer patients after treatment. Prostate-specific antigen is the ideal tumor cell maker despite its shortcomings and is commonly used to screen for cancer in general population (“Tumor Makers”, 2013).

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