Ability and fitness to drive of Parkinson's disease patients.

The authors review reports in the literature on the fitness and ability to drive of neurosurgical patients and subjects afflicted by neurological disorders, before focusing on their own series of 204 idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The study sample comprised 173 men and 31 women (average age 70.6 and 74.

Elective neurotraumatology and therapeutic strategies in early post-trauma.

The aim of elective neurotraumatology is to outline new and valid therapeutic strategies in early post-trauma in order to obtain a more favourable long-term outcome for cranial and spinal trauma patients than usually achieved with conventional intensive therapies. After a critical review of all drugs and measures currently used for the treatment of damage due to cerebral trauma and a brief mention of new agents still being studied, the results of a retrospective study of 128 patients with severe head injury are reported. For all patients a complete clinical and pharmacological history of their traumatic event, which had occurred from 5 to 14 years before the present evaluation, was available.

[Multiple sclerosis. A report of a case treated with thymopentin].

The authors analyse the case of a 58-year-old male suffering from substantially "atypical" multiple sclerosis (MS), both in terms of the late onset and because of some characteristics of the course of disease. The patient was treated with a subcutaneous immunomodulator (thymopentin) at a dose of 50 mg/day in 3-monthly cycles with intervals of 2 months between cycles, for a total of 3 cycles. Instrumental (CAT-NMR) and laboratory (immunological) tests were not significant, whereas others provided complex responses that allowed the presence of a demyelinating syndrome to be ascertained, above all due to the positivity of isoelectrofocusing.

Angiopathic parkinsonism: does it exist?

The Authors report on 150 cases of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. The patients represent 8.3% of total parkinsonian patients and are selected on the basis of clinical and laboratory criteria that allow the diagnosis of "angiopathic parkinsonism" as an autonomous entity.

[Effects of isosorbide-5-mononitrate on exercise capacity, prostacyclin synthesis, the renin-aldosterone axis and catecholamines in patients with cardiac insufficiency].

Isosorbide-5-mononitrate (IS-5-MN) is an active metabolite of isosorbide dinitrate with a longer plasma half life. Aim of the study was the evaluation of the effects of 40 mg/day of IS-5-MN on exercise capacity in patients with heart failure NYHA class II. After 1 week of wash-out, 10 patients with heart failure NYHA Class II, assumed 20 mg bid for 3 weeks.