Intraplaque verapamil injection for treatment of Peyronie's disease.

We report our findings on the effects of intraplaque injection of verapamil for the treatment of Peyronie's disease. We followed 11 men with Peyronie's disease in a nonrandomized constant dose study. During our study, four men received testosterone supplementation; five received vitamin E and/or potassium aminobenzoate (potaba) concurrent with verapamil; two received injections of verapamil only. Plaque size decreased significantly in 7 of 11 patients (55%); softening occurred in 6 (55%); 4 of 8 patients (50%) had decreased curvature. Deformities and symptoms did not recur in any patients who reported improvement. Three of 11 (27%) patients failed treatment and elected to undergo surgical correction. All four (100%) of our study participants with pain had complete resolution after intraplaque verapamil injection compared with Levine et al's 91%. We have demonstrated that intraplaque verapamil injection is a promising treatment for Peyronie's disease in that it may circumvent surgical intervention and may be used with concurrent therapies.

Dollars and sense: considerations for experimental model design.

Our recent review indicates that numerous factors are involved in selecting an animal model for the study of human disease processes. These include: anatomic, neurologic, physiologic, and pathologic parameters, concept of discrimination, volume of knowledge available, and costs. Regarding costs, data was collected from twelve medical research institutions in relation to the eight animals selected for comparative cost analysis: rhesus monkey, cynomolgus monkey, Sprague-Dawley (S.D.) rat, dog (mongrel), cat (mixed breed), swine (piglet), guinea pig, and rabbit. Biologically, the choices are vast and depend upon the investigator and the experimental design. Economically, pricing is a substantial constraint that varies widely and is institutionally dependent. Furthermore, within the same institution, costs differ according to the source of funding (e.g., private, federal, state, or institutional). However, if the investigator carefully considers these biologic and economic factors, it is possible to select an appropriate animal model.