[Knowledge of the human body. At the 450th anniversary of the first edition of Andreas Vesalius' life work. "De Humani Coporis Fabrica Libri Septem"].

As an introduction to the symposium we pay attention successively: firstly, to the "Magister divinus", to Andreas Vesalius' personality, according to the testimony of his pupil Fallopius; secondly, to his ingenious lifework, the "De Humani Corporis Fabrica", according to the opinion of Sir William Osler, "the greatest medical book ever written", finally, to the historical evolution leading to the Vesalian way of thinking and working. All this proves that Vesalius' work is a fundamental turning point in the development of medicine as well as in the evolution of scientific practice in a general sense. It is also one of the highlights in the construction of mankind's intellectual patrimony.

[Clinical pharmacology: current status and perspectives].

In view of the ever increasing complexity of individualized pharmacotherapy, the study of new and potent drugs in man and the misuse and abuse of drugs, WHO-Study Group reports and a recent enquiry in Belgium, France and W. Germany stress that the development of clinical pharmacology is an absolute necessity for patients, physicians, health authorities, the pharmaceutical industry and society at large. It seems this development could be optimally achieved by setting up, within Services of General Medicine or Internal Medicine of University Hospitals and large Public Hospitals, autonomous Units of Clinical Pharmacology with the responsibility to take an active part: a) at the service level: 1) in patient care, either directly in general medical services or drug problem oriented consultations, or indirectly through consultative functions and pharmacotherapeutic conferences; 2) in drug monitoring services, management of cases of overdose, drug information, drug utilization surveys, pharmaco-epidemiology, ethical committees, formulary committees, drug regulatory agencies and studies of Phase I, II and III; b) at the teaching level: 1) in courses of clinical pharmacology sui generis, to undergraduates, in close collaboration with the University Department of Pharmacology; 2) at the postgraduate level, as a specialty in se, and as part of the training in medical specialties and at the level of continuing education of general practitioners and specialists; c) at the research level: 1) in clinical pharmacokinetic studies, with special attention to interindividual variability and genetic factors, to drug concentration/effect studies, to drug interactions, and in pharmacodynamic studies, in view of the development of new approaches in the study of drug-receptor interactions; 2) in the design, realization and evaluation of Phase I, II and III studies, clinical trials and multicenter drug studies.

Risks and benefits in the trial of the European Working Party on High Blood Pressure in the Elderly.

Hypertensive patients over the age of 60 years were admitted to a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Patients in the actively treated group received a combined potassium-losing and -sparing diuretic (triamterene 50 mg plus hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg; n = 416); this dose could be doubled and methyldopa (up to 2 g, daily) was added in 35% of patients when blood pressure remained high. The placebo group (n = 424) received matching capsules and tablets.

Age-related effects of placebo and active treatment in patients beyond the age of 60 years: the need for a proper control group.

The age-related response to placebo and active antihypertensive treatment was evaluated in 742 elderly hypertensive patients who were followed in the double-blind placebo-controlled trial conducted by the European Working Party on High blood pressure in the Elderly (EWPHE). In the two treatment groups, the fall in systolic and diastolic blood pressures after 3 months was negatively correlated with age (P less than 0.02), indicating that the hypotensive effect of placebo and active treatment was more pronounced in older patients.