Five-year follow-up of early lisuride and levodopa combination therapy versus levodopa monotherapy in de novo Parkinson's disease. The French Lisuride Study Group.

The value of an early initial coadministration of levodopa (L-dopa) and lisuride in Parkinson's disease was the main goal of the present study. Eighty-two patients with recently diagnosed idiopathic Parkinson's disease were randomized into two groups for treatment with L-dopa alone or L-dopa + lisuride. The trial was double-blinded for the first year and open for the following 4 years.

[Effect of night medical guard on following day vigilance. Influence of hypnotic drug on recovery night and on the vigilance during the following day].

The consequences of sleep deprivation on vigilance and mood were evaluated in six healthy medical students the day after being on night duty and the following day, after recovering from a full night's sleep. Diurnal vigilance was studied using the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and mood was assessed on an anxiety self-evaluation scale. The study was conducted by means of a double-blind randomized trial to measure the effects of benzodiazepine (lormetazepam, 2 mg) compared to a placebo administered before the night recovery/full night's sleep.

[High-pressure liquid chromatographic determination of benfurodil hemisuccinate in blood and urine (author's transl)].

A sensitive and reliable method for quantitative determination of benfurodil hemisuccinate and benfurodil in plasma by high-pressure liquid chromatography on a Zorbax SIL column with a mean particle size of 7 micrometer and UV detection at 254 nm is described. Benfurodil hemisuccinate is stable in plasma but not in aqueous solutions. This is explained by its great fixation to plasma proteins which has been shown by equilibrium dialysis.