Dose finding double-blind clinical trial with praziquantel in schistosomiasis japonica patients.

A double-blind clinical trial with praziquantel was carried out. A total of 400 cases was treated with four different dosages, namely, 60, 50, 40 and 30 mg/kg body weight of praziquantel. The drug was given in one day divided into two doses. Identical placebo tablets were used to make up a total of 60 mg/kg. Tolerance was good in all with the exception of one case suffering from asthmatic attack with papule rashes over large area of the body surface. 394 patients were able to be followed up parasitologically six months post-treatment. 79.8%, 71.7%, 78.8% and 70.1% of the patients were negative in the groups with the total dose of 60, 50, 40 and 30 mg/kg respectively. The cure rates as well as the side effects were similar for the four groups. The efficacy was lower than that reported by other authors and the possibility of reinfection was incriminated. In villages with few snails the negative hatching rates in aforementioned four groups were 89.1%, 91.1%, 88.9% and 81.8%, while in villages with abundant snails the rates were 68.2%, 46.5%, 66.7% and 54.8%. The difference between the two areas was statistically significant. Higher efficacy was observed in adults with an average cure rate of 80.0% than in children under 15 years of age, the average cure rate being 57.1%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Clinical trial on furapyrimidone in filariasis.

A clinical trial was carried out with furapyrimidone in treating 51 patients with B. malayi, 159 with W. bancrofti and eight with D. perstans using different dosage schedules. Two hundred and fifty-seven cases of Malayan and bancroftian filariasis were treated with hetrazan for comparison. The results based on the microfilaricidal effects suggest that furapyrimidone possesses similar therapeutic effects of hetrazan on Malayan filariasis at eight-month follow-up, and higher incidences of microfilarial disappearance of W. bancrofti infection (81.3%) at six-month follow-up. The drug was also effective against D. perstans. The side effects consisted of fever and irritation of the digestive tract. Fever may be related to allergic reaction of foreign protein from the dead or dying parasites. The side reactions are similar to those of hetrazan and usually not serious. Comparing the efficacies and side effects of furapyrimidone with different dosage schedules the authors recommend regimens of 15 to 20 mg/kg/day for six days in treating Malayan filariasis and 20 mg/kg/day for seven days in treating bancroftian filariasis.