A randomized, controlled trial of remacemide for motor fluctuations in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Preclinical studies suggest that glutamate antagonists help ameliorate motor fluctuations in patients with PD treated with levodopa.

Methods: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, dose-ranging study, the authors assessed the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of the glutamate receptor blocker remacemide hydrochloride in 279 patients with motor fluctuations treated with levodopa. The primary objective was to assess the short-term tolerability and safety of four dosage levels of remacemide during 7 weeks of treatment.

Glue sniffer's neuropathy.

Progressive sensorimotor neuropathy developed in two patients exposed to prolonged (chronic) inhalation of n-hexane (glue sniffing). Sural nerve biopsies showed loss of axons; remaining axons were either normal or showed accumulation of filaments of 90 to 100 A thick, widened nodes of Ranvier, and focal enlargements. The muscle biopsy revealed neurogenic atrophy.

Hexachlorophene retinopathy in rats.

The primary effect of hexachlorophene on rat retina is disruption of the disc membranes of photoreceptor outer segments and irreversible destruction of their cell bodies. The neurons of the ganglion cell layer of the retina also become affected, probably secondary to optic nerve lesions present in hexachlorophene intoxication. The early and probably reversible changes of the discs are vacuolation and vesiculotubular degeneration.