Teratogenic effect of carbamazepine use during pregnancy in the mice

Carbamazepine use is the first choice of antiepileptic drugs among epileptic pregnant females. There are many inconclusive studies regard the safety of carbamazepine use during pregnancy. This study aims to investigate the morphological and histopathological teratogenic effects of carbamazepine use during pregnancy. The healthy pregnant females mice divided into equal five groups [each n=20]. The first [control] group received distilled water/day. Second, third, fourth and fifth group received 8.75, 22.75, 52.5, 65 mg of carbamazepine/day respectively. Carbamazepine and water were given by gastric gavage throughout gestational period. Fetuses were delivered on the 18th day of gestation by hysterectomy. Fetal measurements and appearance were assessed with investigation the histopathological changes of brain and spinal cord. There was a significant decrease of weight, different organs weight, length, upper and lower limb length of mice in the first day of delivery in fifth group. There was a significant increase of weight, different organs weight, length, upper and lower limb length in the third group. Many congenital anomalies such as spina bifida, meromelia, microphalmia, oligodactyly, anencephaly, neurodegeneration of brain and spinal cord were noticedin fifth group. Teratogenic effect of carbamazepine represented as growth retardation and neurodevelopmental toxicity depending on its overdose degree

Response to ribavirin treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Ribavirin is a nucleosi.de analogue with a broad spectrum of antiviral action. 17 patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated with oral ribavirin at a dose of 15 mg/Kg per day for 6 months. S e m alanine aminotransferase [ALT] activities decreased significantly [P<0.005] during ribavirin treatment [mean ALT before treatment was 117.01 +/- 50.3 1 U/ ml and 65.01 +/- 31.09 U/ml by the end of treatment]. ALT levels became normal in 5 cases [29.5%], significantly decreased in 8 cases [47%], but did not significantly change in the remaining 4 cases [23.5%]. Serum ALT in all the responding patients returned to pretreatment levels 2 months after stopping the treatment. Before treatment, serum hepatitis C virus [HCVRNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction [PCR] in all 17 patients. At the end of treatment, 5 of these 17 patients had become negative for HCV - RNA but they became positive again 3 months after discontinuation of treatment. The response to ribavirin was not correlated with HCV genotypes and liver histopathology in all patients and there was no significant difference between responders and non-responders. Ribavirin treatment resulted in mild, reversible hemolysis and none of the patients exhibited symptomatic anemia. These findings suggest that ribavirin has a beneficia1 effect on patients with chronic hepatitis C, although further studies are needed to determine how ribavirin can be best used