Multicentre clinical placebo-controlled study with buflomedil in the treatment of mild dementia of vascular origin.

A study was carried out in 73 male or female patients suffering from mild vascular dementia. The experimental protocol involved an initial run-in period (14 days) and subsequent double-blind, randomized treatment with 300 mg buflomedil or placebo given orally twice daily for 90 days. At the end of this treatment period, all patients received buflomedil for a further 90 days and, thereafter, patients received buflomedil or no further treatment for another 90 days. The efficacy of buflomedil was monitored using rating scales and neuropsychological tests. The findings of the study indicate that buflomedil improved the symptoms of vascular dementia; the most improvement was recorded in patients who had received buflomedil for the longest period. Inadequacy, cooperation, psycho-affective disorders, self-care and somatic complaints were positively influenced by buflomedil. The efficacy of buflomedil may be due to its effects on platelet aggregation and improvement in blood flow distribution to the ischaemic brain and oxygenation of brain tissue.

A study of the possible interaction of indoprofen with hypoglycemic sulfonylureas in diabetic patients.

Phenylbutazone was shown to impair tolbutamide metabolism with resulting potentiation of its hypoglycemic effect and increased danger of hypoglycemia. As indoprofen is widely used for treating rheumatic conditions, and in particular osteoarthritis, the possibility that it may increase the effect of sulfonylureas on blood glucose levels has been investigated. Clinical studies have been carried out in 24 patients with osteoarthritis. All of them had maturity-onset diabetes mellitus and were on sulfonylurea drugs (tolbutamide or glipizide). The trials were double-blind and were carried out according to two different experimental designs. Twelve patients were treated with 600 mg/daily of indoprofen for five days and placebo for an equivalent period of time according to a cross-over scheme. Another group of patients was treated with indoprofen for eight days preceded and followed by a four-day placebo treatment. In both studies concomitant treatment with the hypoglycemic drug was maintained with a fixed dosage. No important differences were found between blood glucose levels when the periods of treatment with indoprofen and placebo were compared. Consequently, it is unlikely that indoprofen treatment at the doses employed may interfere at the clinical level with the effect of tolbutamide or glipizide on glucose metabolism.