[Clinical efficacy of cefixime (results of multicenter trials)].

Multicentre trials of cefixime (Cefspan, Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Japan) were performed in 1992.

[Study of circadian rhythm of bronchial patency for timely correction and evaluation of the effectiveness of inhalation powder forms of salbutamol in children with bronchial asthma].

A study was made of the circadian rhythms of bronchial patency for ++timely correction and dynamic estimation of the efficacy of powdered inhalation salbutamol (ventodisc) in 30 children aged 7-15 years suffering from persistent recurrent bronchial asthma. The treatment with ventodisc was carried out after basic therapy (euphylline or theopec and/or becotid). During 1 week the children inhaled the drug only at the moments of attacks of obstructed respiration.

[The results of the therapeutic monitoring of piracetam in parturients and newborn infants].

Overall 30 women in childbirth with preeclampsia and fetoplacental dysfunction received piracetam solution which was given initially in a dose of 5 g by intravenous drip, rapidly since the onset of labour and then every 2 hours till the end of labour in a dose of 2 g by jet injection. This made it possible to increase fetus resistance to hypoxic conditions. The concentrations of piracetam within the range of 60-80 g/l in the blood of women in childbirth should be viewed as minimum therapeutic.

[Therapeutic and pharmacological monitoring of individual monotherapy of epilepsy with hexamidine].

The treatment with primidone alone of 53 epileptic patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizures, partial attacks with elementary symptomatology, and partial fits with complex symptomatology removed them completely in 75, 64.2, and 36.9% of the patients, respectively.

[The clinical pharmacology of antiepileptic agents].

The correct choice of an antiepileptic drug, its individual dosage and schedule of administration at the beginning of treatment and then during the maintenance therapy promotes a complete control of seizures using one anticonvulsant in 60-90% of patients. The treatment should be initiated with administration of one drug which is adequate for the given type of seizures taking into consideration that different drugs can appear effective in different patients with the same form of epilepsy. One has to choose drugs by consecutively gradually changing them.

[The use of phenobarbital and carbamazepine (finlepsin) in children with epilepsy and cerebral spastic palsy with epileptic syndrome].

Based on examining 20 patients with infantile cerebral paralyses (ICP) and 18 epileptic patients aged 6 to 14 years it has been demonstrated that the effective doses of carbamazepine do not differ (14-27 mg/kg/day) in both the groups, whereas the effective doses of phenobarbital are higher (5.3 mg/kg/day) in ICP patients than in those suffering from epilepsy (3.65 mg/kg/day; P less than 0.

[Allopurinol in the combined therapy of severe forms of epilepsy in children].

Allopurinol was tested as an antiepileptic drug (AED) in children with progressive history of the disease, frequent severe seizures and ineffective conventional AED treatment. A total of 38 children aged 4 months to 10 years were given allopurinol at daily doses of 4 to 5 mg/kg body weight. The drug had positive effects in 10 out of 28 patients having frequent seizures.

[Theophylline concentration in the blood of children with persistently recurring bronchial asthma].

An antirecurrence effect of theophylline was studied in 32 children aged 3 to 12 years suffering from severe bronchial asthma. The drug dosage was determined by means of a stepwise increase of a daily dose in the range of 10-30 mg/kg/day under control of the patient's general condition and parameters of external respiratory function. Blood theophylline concentration was measured by an immunofluorescent method.

[Synthesis and analysis of des-Met5-[D-Ala2]enkephalinamide analogs].

The effects of N- and C-terminal oligoalanine insertions into des-Met5-[D-Ala2]enkephalin amide (I) on the biological activity and spatial structure were examined. The corresponding analogues were obtained by solid-phase synthesis using Sephadex LH-20 ac a polymeric support. Biological activity was assayed via changes in the pain threshold in the rat, body temperature, and also as affinity for opiate receptors.

[Effect of GABA-positive substances on the primary and mirror epileptogenic foci in the hippocampus of rats].

The effects of beta-alanine, phenibut and muscimol on the activity of the "mirror" (MEF) and primary (PEF) epileptogenic foci were studied in rats on the model of penicillin-induced epilepsy using the direct administration of the drugs into the foci (muscimol only into MEF). All the drugs suppressed the development of electrographic correlates of seizures both in PEF and MEF. The varied characters of the drugs' effects on interseizure epileptiform bursts depending on administration into PEF (provocation) or MEF (no effect) were revealed.

[Antiepileptic action of met-enkephalin and the rapid development of tolerance to its epileptogenic action].

It has been shown in chronic experiments on rabbits with electrochemoelectrodes implanted into the dorsal hippocamp that the first administration of met-enkephalin in a dose of 60 to the hippocamp induced the development of an epileptogenic focus (EF) or potentiated the action of the penicillin-induced EF. The second administration of met-enkephalin in the same dose to the hippocamp (interval in a standard scheme of experiments 5 days) did not lead to the production of the EF, which attests to rapid development of tolerance to the epileptizing action of the peptide, with this tolerance being preserved for 20 subsequent days of observation over the animals. After tolerance developed, administration of 60 micrograms met-enkephalin 5 to 10 min before penicillin produced an antiepileptic action, thereby preventing the development of the EF.

[Effect of acupuncture on the activity of experimental epileptogenic foci in the hippocampus of rabbits].

Experiments were performed on rabbits with electrochemotrodes implanted into the left and right dorsal hippocamp. The evidence was obtained for the first time as to the marked inhibitory effect of acupuncture on epileptogenic foci created by penicillin microinjections into the hippocamp. The most effective was stimulation of the Min-Men point.

[Combined effect of a magnetic field and anti-hypoxic agents on epileptogenic foci in the rabbit hippocampus].

Magnetic field (MF) intensifies the activity of penicillin-induced epileptogenic foci (EF) in the rabbit hippocamp. The same effect was obtained with gutimin. Injections of sodium hydroxybutyrate produced but little changes in hypersynchronous activity as compared to the data of control experiments.

[Decreased acetylcholinesterase activity in the area of epileptogenic foci created by met-enkephalin in the hippocampus of rats].

Experiments on rats with electrochemotrodes implanted in the left and right hippocamp have shown that in epileptogenic foci created by microinjections of met-enkephalin or D-ala-2-met-enkephalin into the hippocamp, acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) was diminished. It is assumed that reduction in AChE activity is an adaptive mechanism by which the excitability of hippocampal inhibitory basket cells, which are sensitive to acetylcholine, is increased.

[Pharmaco-dynamic mechanisms for reducing the activity of an epileptogenic focus with allopurinol].

Experiments on 73 rats with electrochemotrodes implanted into the dorsal portion of the left hippocamp showed that allopurinol (A) injected intraperitoneally in a dose of 25 and 50 mg/kg decreased the activity of the penicillin-induced epileptogenic foci in the hippocamp and significantly increased the content of serotonin (S) in their area at the 40th minute of the epileptogenesis. Thus, all this provided evidence in favour of a shift in tryptophan metabolism toward an elevated S production that inhibited the development of the epileptic process. A is suggested for clinical use in treating patients with epilepsy, especially in those cases that are resistant to common therapy.

[Peripheral mechanism of the phenomenon of fenibut habituation].

In spite of the appearance of the tolerance to phenibut in white rats at days 11-12 of its intraperitoneal administration (250 mg/kg), the drug injections (25 micrograms) into the lateral ventricles of the brain via permanent cannulas evoked, as before, a fall in the body temperature and synchronization of the electrocorticogram in rats. The tolerance to phenibut did not occur when the drug was injected daily (12 days) into the brain ventricles. A conclusion is made that the tolerance to phenibut has a peripheral character.

[Increase in the activity of an epileptogenic focus in frog hippocampus as a result of kynurenines and its reduction by serotonin].

In frogs with epileptogenic focus induced by injection of penicillin (1000 U in 0.4 microliter) into the primordial hippocampus it was shown that pretreatment with two kynurenines (quinolinic acid -- 0.1 microgram, and d,l-kynurenine -- 1 microgram) into the focus region and their injection into the functioning epileptogenic focus led to a sharp increase of the interparoxysmal epileptiform discharges and electrographic correlates of the fit on the EEG.

[Effect of M- and N-cholinomimetics on the activity of an epileptogenic focus in the hippocampus of rabbits of different ages].

Experiments have been made on adult, 16-20 and 6-10 day old rabbits with electrodes chronically implanted into the left and right dorsal hippocamp. Solutions of arecoline (M-cholinomimetic) and nicotine (N-cholinomimetic) were administered into the penicillin epileptogenic focus of the hippocamp. Large doses of arecoline (10 mg) and nicotine (0.