Three-day and ten-day chemotherapy for urinary tract infections in general practice.

The length of a course of antibiotic treatment for urinary tract infection varies with the habits of the prescriber. Many patients do not complete a course of treatment once their symptoms have subsided. In uncomplicated urinary tract infection among women seen in general practice a three-day course of amoxycillin was as effective as a 10-day course of the same drug in the same dose. Relief of symptoms was equal in both groups and bacteriuria was eliminated equally successfully in both regimens. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidence of side effects from the drugs. The financial saving which could accrue from adopting this therapeutic regimen would be significant.     

Estimation of glucose and invertase activity in presence of thiols

The method of invertase assay used in this work separates the hydrolytic and oxidation stages. In our bands attempts to combine them in a single-step assay have invariably given invertase activities only about one-sixth those of the two-step assay. This is partly due to the time required for the three enzyme reactions involved to attain equal rates and partly to the pH of the single-step method being displaced from the optimum for invertase activity, particularly if thiol has to be removed by NEM which required a minimum pH of 6.5. The first point can be met by measuring glucose production over a period subsequent to establishment of equal reaction rates, but this involves two assays and the single-step method then has no advantage over a two-step method.