A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Epidural Clonidine vs Bupivacaine for Pain Control During and After Lower Abdominal Surgery.

Background: Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists produce safe and effective analgesia, but most investigations studying the analgesic effect of alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonists postoperatively included previous or concomitant administration of other analgesics. Because clonidine potentiates the effect of these drugs, its own intrinsic analgesic effect has been difficult to establish. This study was designed to compare the intraoperative and postoperative effects of epidural clonidine vs bupivacaine for patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery.

Adenosine-induced flow arrest to facilitate intracranial aneurysm clip ligation does not worsen neurologic outcome.

Background: When temporary arterial occlusion of the parent artery is difficult for anatomical reasons, or when inadvertent aneurysmal rupture occurs during surgical dissection, adenosine administration can be used to produce flow arrest and brief, profound systemic hypotension that can facilitate intracranial aneurysm clip ligation. There is a concern, however, that the flow arrest and profound hypotension produced by adenosine, although brief, may cause cerebral ischemia and therefore worsen neurologic outcome compared with other techniques to facilitate aneurysm clip ligation. Therefore, we performed a retrospective, case-control study to determine whether adenosine-induced flow arrest had negative effects on the neurologic outcome of our patients.

A double-blind controlled trial of a single dose naproxen and an amino acid medical food theramine for the treatment of low back pain.

To study the safety and efficacy of a new medical food (Theramine) in the treatment of low back pain, we performed a 28-day double-blind randomized controlled trial in 129 patients. Back pain was present for at least 6 weeks and was not mild. Patients were randomly assigned to receive medical food alone (n = 43), naproxen alone (250 mg/d, n = 42), or both medical food and naproxen (n = 44).

Low-dose enoximone improves exercise capacity in chronic heart failure. Enoximone Study Group.

Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of low-dose enoximone on exercise capacity.

Background: At higher doses the phosphodiesterase inhibitor, enoximone, has been shown to increase exercise capacity and decrease symptoms in heart failure patients but also to increase mortality. The effects of lower doses of enoximone on exercise capacity and adverse events have not been evaluated.

Efficacy of Nicardipine for Long-Term Therapy of Chronic Stable Angina.

BACKGROUND: Although angina is a chronic disease, most clinical trials evaluating antianginal therapy are of a few weeks or months in duration. METHODS AND RESULTS: To evaluate the effects of nicardipine, a second-generation dihydro-pyridine calcium channel blocker, as long-term therapy, patients with chronic stable angina were treated for 1 year with open-label nicardipine. Anginal symptoms were controlled with 20 mg tid in 24%, 30 mg tid in 34%, and 40 mg tid in 42%.