Intranasal Versus Intravenous Dexamethasone to Treat Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized Multicenter Clinical Trial.

Background: SARS-CoV2 induces flu-like symptoms that can rapidly progress to severe acute lung injury and even death. The virus also invades the central nervous system (CNS), causing neuroinflammation and death from central failure. Intravenous (IV) or oral dexamethasone (DXM) reduced 28 d mortality in patients who required supplemental oxygen compared to those who received conventional care alone.

Intranasal dexamethasone: a new clinical trial for the control of inflammation and neuroinflammation in COVID-19 patients.

Background: By end December of 2021, COVID-19 has infected around 276 million individuals and caused over 5 million deaths worldwide. Infection results in dysregulated systemic inflammation, multi-organ dysfunction, and critical illness. Cells of the central nervous system are also affected, triggering an uncontrolled neuroinflammatory response.

Factors Associated With Cysticidal Treatment Response in Extraparenchymal Neurocysticercosis.

Extraparenchymal neurocysticercosis is the most severe form of cysticercosis, and response to treatment is suboptimal. We sought to determine how demographic and clinical characteristics and albendazole sulfoxide concentrations were related to cysticidal treatment response. We conducted a longitudinal study of 31 participants with extraparenchymal vesicular parasites who received the same treatment, albendazole 30 mg/kg/day for 10 days with dexamethasone 0.

Subarachnoidal Neurocysticercosis non-responsive to cysticidal drugs: a case series.

Background: Neurocysticercosis (NC) is one of the most frequent parasitic diseases of the central nervous system. Cysticidal drugs, albendazole and praziquantel, are generally effective when parasites localize in the parenchyma. In contrast, parasites lodged in the subarachnoid basal cisterns are less responsive to treatment.

Severe cysticercal meningitis: clinical and imaging characteristics.

In disease-endemic areas, severe cysticercal meningitis (SCM) is characterized by intense inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and negative bacterial and fungal cultures. There have been no systematic studies of SCM. We characterized patients with SCM and compare them with neurocysticercosis (NC) patients with mild CSF abnormalities by conducting a nine-year retrospective review at a neurological referral center.

Medical treatment for neurocysticercosis: drugs, indications and perspectives.

Neurocysticercosis is one of the most frequent parasitic diseases affecting the central nervous system. The introduction of anticysticidal therapy in the early 80's and the concomitant improvement of the radiological techniques have lead to apparently significant progress in patient prognosis. However, due to the specificity of the disease, a great debate has been generated on the real usefulness of cysticidal drugs.

[Comparative analysis of the influence of food and cimetidine in plasma levels of praziquantel].

Praziquantel (PZQ) is an effective drug for treatment of neurocysticercosis. The drug shows an extensive first-pass effect and therefore plasma levels are low. In order to increase plasma and CSF levels of PZQ other alternatives have been investigated such as the use of PZQ jointly with cimetidine or food.

Lack of interaction between HEPP, a new antiepileptic agent, and carbamazepine in rabbits.

The effect of the combination of a new anticonvulsant drug HEPP and carbamazepine (CBZ) on the pharmacokinetics of HEPP and CBZ was investigated using rabbits as an animal model. The study was performed in 18 male New Zealand white rabbits which were randomly divided into three groups, according to a balanced incomplete block design of three treatments and two periods. Plasma concentrations for HEPP and CBZ were assayed using HPLC methods.

Interaction between grapefruit juice and praziquantel in humans.

After a single oral dose of praziquantel with 250 ml of grapefruit juice, the area under the concentration-time curve and the maximum concentration in plasma of praziquantel (Cmax) were significantly increased (Cmax for water treatment, 637.71 +/- 128.5 ng/ml; and Cmax for grapefruit juice treatment, 1,037.