Combined use of labetalol and nifedipine in controlling the cardiovascular response from ECT.

Serious cardiac complications have been reported to occur in elderly depressed patients during a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). As a result, cardiac medications are being used more often to dampen the cardiovascular response that occurs during an ECT treatment. Specifically, labetalol (a mixed alpha- and beta-blocker) has been shown to effectively control the heart rate during ECT.

The influence of anesthetic choice on carotid endarterectomy outcome.

This study compared the technique of general and regional cervical block anesthesia for carotid endarterectomy. Three hundred sixty-eight patients undergoing 399 carotid endarterectomies were administered one of these alternative anesthetics as selected preoperatively by each patient and his or her physician. In 242 cases general anesthesia was used.

Perioperative hypertension in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy: shorter duration under regional block anesthesia.

Two alternative anesthetic techniques for use during carotid endarterectomy were studied in a series of 424 procedures. A total of 248 were performed in patients under general anesthesia and 176 patients received regional block anesthesia. Perioperative instability of blood pressure was noted in 108 patients.

Effects of intravenous high doses of ketoprofen on blood clotting, bleeding time and platelet aggregation in man.

The effect of ketoprofen (Orudis, Farmitalia) on ADP, epinephrine (EPI) and collagen (COLL) induced platelet aggregation (PlA), simplate bleeding time (SBT), partial thromboplastin time (PTT) and per cent prothrombin activity (PrA) was studied in eleven patients, four males and seven females (median age 59 years) with rheumatoid arthritis (six cases), cancer (four cases) and osteoarthrosis (one case). Tests were performed before and 1, 8 and 24 hours after a single intravenous dose (600 mg) of ketoprofen and on Days 4 and 8 during a 7-day treatment (200 mg i.v.