Amlodipine compared to nitrendipine in hypertensive patients: the effects on toleration in relationship to the onset of action.

Amlodipine and nitrendipine are calcium antagonists of the 1,4-dihydropyridine group which differ in their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. The clinical relevance of these differences was investigated in a study designed to compare the efficacy and safety of once-daily amlodipine (5 mg) and nitrendipine (20 mg) in patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and conventional measurements showed that amlodipine and nitrendipine produced comparable reductions in blood pressure after 4 weeks of treatment.

[Biliopancreatic bypass and disorders of iron absorption].

Sideropenic anemia is a common long-term complication of surgical bilio-pancreatic bypass for morbid obesity, and is frequently resistant to oral iron therapy. To study the pathogenesis of this phenomenon we investigated 7 such patients clinically and biologically, with special emphasis on iron absorption. Our results show that sideropenia, consistently present and frequently complicated by anemia, is due to deficient iron absorption and that this malabsorption is non-selective.

[Cortinarius orellanus: a poisonous mushroom causing late acute renal insufficiency].

Three cases of intoxication due to ingestion of Cortinarius orellanus are presented. The hallmark of the clinical picture is acute tubulo-interstitial nephritis appearing about 10 days after ingestion of the mushrooms. This time lag is specific for intoxication by Cortinarius orellanus.