[Toward a preventive management Alzheimer's disease]. / Pour une prise en charge préventive de la maladie d'Alzheimer.

Dementias, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in particular, will increasingly become a public health issue. However, three major data may change the severity of these pathologies: in young adults, simple measures of healthy lifestyle (control of vascular risk factors, physical activity and cognitive stimulation), have an impact on a future cognitive decline; the same lifestyle interventions may delay the start of the disease for elderly people potentially at-risk; finally, and for the first time, a monoclonal antibody directed against amyloid lesions has just shown a significant effect on the progression of AD in patients at an early stage of the disease. According to these results, we will have to reconsider the strategy for managing minor or severe cognitive disorders and particularly AD. Nowadays, patients start the care process too late. The solution is to act earlier, even preventively. It is necessary to improve a care offer adapted to this new situation in order to impact on the disease as soon as possible, even before the onset of symptoms, based on: 1) predictive algorithms aimed at establishing whose cognitively unimpaired individuals may further develop the disease; these algorithms will be based on demographic, family, cognitive, genomic and biological data, such as in the "Santé Cerveau" project developed in partnership with the Health Regional Agency (ARS) and the general practitioners; 2)and on some expert centers which must become "dementia prevention clinics" to test prevention measures, initiate and validate multi-domain therapeutic education programs; to disclose about the risk in response to the request of worried patients; and to propose early pharmacological treatments if these individuals are on the way to declare AD in the coming months, taking into account competition between risks. This will allow to prepare to make use of new pharmacological treatments that might be discovered.

Effect of ramipril on insulin sensitivity in obese patients. Time-course study of glucose infusion rate during euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp.

To assess the effects of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor on insulin action in obesity, five normotensive non-diabetic obese women were examined on two occasions as part of a double-blind, randomized, cross-over study involving ten days of treatment with either 1.25 mg ramipril or placebo. The study consisted of a euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp (two periods of insulin infusion at rates of 0.4 and 1 mU/kg/min, 2 h for each step) combined with indirect calorimetry. The most notable results involved a significantly faster time-course of glucose infusion rates during the first 30 min of each insulin infusion period [analysed by calculating slopes (S1 and S2)] after ramipril than placebo administration. The mean glucose infusion rates reached during the last 30 min of each insulin infusion period (G1 and G2), as well as the increases in carbohydrate oxidation rates during the clamp (C1-C0 and C2-C0) and the decreases in plasma nonesterified fatty acids (A0-A1 and A0-A2), were not significantly different after ramipril and placebo. According to robust principal component analysis of S1, S2, G1, G2, C1, C2, A1 and A2 (orthogonally to C0 and A0), insulin sensitivity was improved with ramipril as compared to placebo (p = 0.013). This study strongly suggests that a low dose of an ACE inhibitor increases the activation phase of insulin action in normotensive nondiabetic obese patients and may accelerate insulin action.

Kinetics, safety, and efficacy of ramipril after long-term administration in hemodialyzed patients.

We studied the efficacy and safety of ramipril and the kinetics of its active moiety ramiprilat in 12 hypertensive patients receiving regular hemodialysis, after a single dose and after long-term (28 days) administration. Patients received 2.5 mg ramipril after each hemodialysis. On days 1 and 29, ramipril was administered 4 h before the hemodialysis and serial blood samples were obtained for 9 h for determination of pharmacokinetic parameters. Tolerability was good, and all patients completed the study. There was a high degree of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition throughout the study. Ramipril had a clear-cut antihypertensive effect. Long-term administration of ramipril did not modify the time to peak ramiprilat concentration, but increased the mean maximal concentration significantly: 20.2 +/- 12.7 vs. 10.4 +/- 7.1 ng center dot ml-1. The mean accumulation ratio was 2.2. Ramiprilat hemodialysis clearance was 31.7 ml/min (range 4.2-64.9 ml/min) on day 1 and 21.0 ml/min (range 7.9-56.5 ml/min) on day 29. Ramipril 2.5 mg, administered after hemodialysis, appears to be safe and effective in hypertensive patients receiving periodic hemodialysis. Despite an increase in ramiprilat concentration from day 1 to day 29, the steady state was reached. We describe the role of nonrenal clearance of ramiprilat.

[Comparative study, using a placebo, of the frequency of micturition after repeated administration of piretanide SR 6 mg/day (Eurelix) to healthy volunteers]. / Etude comparative au placebo de l'évolution de la fréquence des mictions sous pirétanide 6 mg L.P. (Eurélix) en administration réiterée chez le volontaire sain.

Thirty healthy volunteers received piretanide SR 6 mg/day (n = 15) or placebo (n = 15) in a 10-day double-blind parallel-group comparative trial. 24-h urine output was significantly greater with piretanide than with placebo on D1 (1919 +/- 434 ml and 1160 +/- 335 ml respectively, p = 0.001 one-sided) as on D10 (1563 +/- 538 ml and 1236 +/- 435 ml respectively, p = 0.04 one-sided). Nevertheless the evolution of urinary output from D1 to D10 was significantly different (p = 0.008): it remained stable with placebo but diminished with piretanide. The diuretic effect of piretanide was apparent with a supplementary miction between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. both on D1 and D10. Between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m., the number of mictions was the same in both groups. Thus piretanide SR 6 mg has a mild effect on the number of mictions; it should not alter patients' well-being.

Study of the efficacy and safety of the combination ramipril 2.5 mg plus hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension. ATHES Study Group.

In a double-blind, parallel-group multicentre study, the efficacy and safety of a fixed low-dose combination of ramipril 2.5 mg and hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) 12.5 mg was compared with each of the component drugs when given as monotherapy. After a four-week placebo run-in, patients were randomized to receive either ramipril 2.5 mg (n = 218) or HCT 12.5 mg (n = 220), or the fixed-dose combination of ramipril 2.5 mg and HCT 12.5 mg (n = 222), for a period of eight weeks. At the end of the study, in which 624 patients had completed treatment, it was found that the decrease in supine diastolic blood pressure (the main efficacy parameter) was greater in the ramipril-HCT combination group than in either the ramipril or the HCT monotherapy groups, the difference being statistically significant when compared with the HCT group (-14.3, -13.1 and -12.4 mm Hg, respectively). Reductions in standing DBP and supine and standing systolic blood pressure (SBP) were also greatest in the combination group. The incidence of adverse events was lower in the combination group than in either of the monotherapy groups, and there were no serious clinically significant laboratory abnormalities in the combination group.

[Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. Pathologal and genetic study]. / Maladie de Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker. Etude pathologique et généalogique.

Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker's disease is a familial spongiform encephalopathy whose pathological hallmark is the existence--especially in the cerebellum--of numerous amyloid plaques. We report here the third clinicopathological case in a French family. Brain tissue from one of its members--initially described as familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease--has been reported as successfully inoculated to monkeys. We present the currently accumulating data favouring the hypothesis of a common etiology for familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker's disease. The familial characteristics, resulting in different durations of incubation and evolution, could lead to different clinical and histological expressions.