ABSTRACT
Following a 4-week placebo period, 19 patients (12 male, average age 62.3 years) with chronic stable angina pectoris and a positive exercise test were treated with the beta-adrenoceptor antagonists bopindolol at increasing doses of 0.5, 1 and 2 mg, each being given once daily for 4 weeks. For the final 4 weeks of the study, active treatment was replaced by placebo. Maximum tolerated exercise (bicycle ergometry, performed 24 h after drug administration) increased dose-dependently from 519 +/- 59 s (baseline) to 758 +/- 95 s with 2 mg (p less than 0.001) and fell again to 508 +/- 48 s (placebo). The frequency of anginal attacks also fell dose-dependently from an average of 5.4 per week (baseline) to 0.5 with 2 mg (p less than 0.001) and rose again to 5.1 per week when active treatment was stopped.
Subject(s)
Adrenergic beta-Antagonists/administration & dosage , Angina Pectoris/drug therapy , Pindolol/analogs & derivatives , Adrenergic beta-Antagonists/adverse effects , Adrenergic beta-Antagonists/therapeutic use , Aged , Angina Pectoris/physiopathology , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Electrocardiography , Exercise Test , Female , Heart Rate/drug effects , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pindolol/administration & dosage , Pindolol/adverse effects , Pindolol/therapeutic use , Single-Blind MethodABSTRACT
In a double-blind trial tizanidine (DS 103-282: 5-Chloro-4-(2-imidazolin-2-yl-amino)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole), a new muscle relaxant, was compared with diazepam in twenty in-patients suffering from acute paravertebral muscle spasm. All the patients had suffered from degenerative spinal disease for some years. Ten patients received tizanidine and the other ten received diazepam. Both drugs were administered t.i.d. for a period of 7 days. Significant improvements were reported in eight of the sixteen variables. Tizanidine was significantly superior to diazepam for two of these variables (lateral flexion of the lumbar spine, right and left). A centrally mediated blood-pressure-lowering effect was observed with both drugs. Tizanidine was generally better tolerated, only two patients reporting transient side-effects compared with five patients in the diazepam group. Like diazepam, tizanidine is a suitable drug for the treatment of acute paravertebral muscle spasm.
Subject(s)
Clonidine/analogs & derivatives , Diazepam/therapeutic use , Spasm/drug therapy , Acute Disease , Adult , Back Pain/complications , Clinical Trials as Topic , Clonidine/administration & dosage , Clonidine/therapeutic use , Diazepam/administration & dosage , Double-Blind Method , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Random Allocation , Spinal Diseases/complications , Time FactorsABSTRACT
12 patients with bronchial asthma received treatment with Ketotifen for three months. 8 patients then continued this medication for at least 9 months. During this period it was possible to reduce the amount of theophylline and bronchodilator amines as well as the maintenance dose of corticosteroids. Afterwards 6 patients showed clinical deterioration while on placebo; this was considered further evidence of the anti-asthmatic effect of Ketotifen. Ketotifen seems to be acceptable as a prophylactic agent in asthma.
