The purpose of this study was to determine whether sonography provides additional clinical information in patients suspected of small bowel (SB) obstruction. During a period of 30 months, in a prospective setting, we evaluated with sonography 123 patients suspected of SB obstruction. Sonographic examinations of the entire abdomen were performed with state-of-the-art, real-time, grey-scale equipment. Fourteen patients were labelled 'gassy' and no added information was provided following abdominal ultrasound. Sonography confirmed the SB obstruction in 82 cases with 5 false positives, resulting in a specificity of 82.1 %. Sonographic examinations were negative in 27 cases with 4 false negatives and a sensitivity of 95 %. The accuracy was 91.7 % when the 'gassy' patients were excluded and 81.3 % overall. The aetiology of the ileus was detected by sonography in 13 cases of paralytic ileus (54.1 %) and in 57 cases of mechanical ileus (71.4 %). It is concluded that ultrasound, which is a non-invasive, portable and even bedside imaging procedure, appears accurate in confirming a SB obstruction and in determining the aetiology of SB obstruction.

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Guanine-rich DNA can form four-stranded structures called G-quadruplexes (G4s) that can regulate many biological processes. Metal complexes have shown high affinity and selectivity toward the quadruplex structure. Here, we report the comparison of a panel of platinum (II) complexes for quadruplex DNA selective recognition by exploring the aromatic core around terpyridine derivatives. Their affinity and selectivity towards G4 structures of various topologies have been evaluated by FRET-melting (Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfert-melting) and Fluorescent Intercalator Displacement (FID) assays, the latter performed by using three different fluorescent probes (Thiazole Orange (TO), TO-PRO-3, and PhenDV). Their ability to bind covalently to the c-myc G4 structure in vitro and their cytotoxicity potential in two ovarian cancerous cell lines were established. Our results show that the aromatic surface of the metallic ligands governs, in vitro, their affinity, their selectivity for the G4 over the duplex structures, and platination efficiency. However, the structural modifications do not allow significant discrimination among the different G4 topologies. Moreover, all compounds were tested on ovarian cancer cell lines and normal cell lines and were all able to overcome cisplatin resistance highlighting their interest as new anticancer drugs.