"After endoscopic treatment of bleeding peptic ulcers, a high-dose infusion of omeprazole substantially reduces the risk of recurrent bleeding."

Endoscopic treatments, such as epinephrine injections and thermocoagulation, are widely used to treat bleeding peptic ulcers. Bleeding recurs in 15 to 20 percent of patients, however. In this study, patients whose bleeding had been controlled endoscopically were randomly assigned to receive an intravenous infusion of high-dose omeprazole or placebo for three days after treatment. The omeprazole infusion substantially reduced the risk of recurrent bleeding.

The role of cholesterol-lowering therapy in reducing the risk of stroke is unknown. In this study, more than 9000 patients with coronary heart disease were randomly assigned to receive pravastatin or placebo. During a mean follow-up of six years, 3.7 percent of the patients who received pravastatin had a stroke, as compared with 4.5 percent of the patients who received placebo. This 19 percent reduction in the risk of stroke was due entirely to a lower risk of nonhemorrhagic stroke in the pravastatin group.

"The relation between the hepatic iron concentration and the total amount of stored iron in the body has been a missing link in our understanding of transfusion-related iron overload."

Bone marrow transplantation can cure thalassemia major, but iron overload from previous transfusions requires phlebotomy treatment in patients with this disorder. An analysis of the quantity of blood removed from such patients and the amount of iron in liver-biopsy specimens showed a strong correlation between the hepatic iron concentration and total body iron stores. Consideration of the hepatic iron concentration may be useful in planning treatment for iron overload.

Inhaled corticosteroids are effective medications to treat asthma. It is uncertain, however, whether their use can prevent death from asthma. This population-based study of deaths from asthma in Saskatchewan, Canada, between 1975 and 1991 found that regular use of inhaled corticosteroids was associated with a decreased risk of death from asthma. The rate of death from asthma decreased by 21 percent with each additional canister of inhaled corticosteroids used in the previous year.