Vascular disrupting agent for neovascular age related macular degeneration: a pilot study of the safety and efficacy of intravenous combretastatin A-4 phosphate.

Background: This study was designed to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of intravenous infusion of CA4P in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods: Prospective, interventional, dose-escalation clinical trial. Eight patients with neovascular AMD refractory to at least 2 sessions of photodynamic therapy received CA4P at a dose of 27 or 36 mg/m2 as weekly intravenous infusion for 4 consecutive weeks.

Supplemental oxygen improves diabetic macular edema: a pilot study.

Purpose: Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the most common cause of moderate visual disability in persons of working age in the United States. The pathogenesis of DME is poorly understood. In this study, the effect of retinal hypoxia in the development and maintenance of DME was investigated.

A randomized trial of the efficacy of multidisciplinary care in heart failure outpatients at high risk of hospital readmission.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether a multidisciplinary outpatient management program decreases chronic heart failure (CHF) hospital readmissions and mortality over a six-month period.

Background: Hospital admission for CHF is an important problem amenable to improved outpatient management.

Methods: Two hundred patients hospitalized with CHF at increased risk of hospital readmission were randomized to a multidisciplinary program or usual care.

Dose dependence of chronic positive inotropic effect of vesnarinone in patients with congestive heart failure due to idiopathic or ischemic cardiomyopathy.

Vesnarinone is a novel oral agent that improves survival and symptoms of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Although it is thought to have positive inotropic effects, clinical data supporting this mechanism in patients with severe heart failure remain scant. The present study tested whether 3 months of oral vesnarinone therapy increases the inotropic state and whether this response is dose dependent.