Heart rate-lowering and -regulating effects of once-daily sustained-release diltiazem.

Background: Epidemiologic evidence suggests that an elevated heart rate (HR) is an adverse and independent prognostic factor in arterial hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Although diltiazem is characterized as an HR-lowering calcium antagonist, no studies have quantified the magnitude of HR changes in patients with angina or hypertension.

Hypothesis: The study was undertaken to explore the magnitude of proportional HR reduction at varying levels of resting HR with the sustained-release formulation of diltiazem (SR diltiazem) at the usual clinical doses of 200 or 300 mg once daily.

Diltiazem in acute myocardial infarction treated with thrombolytic agents: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Incomplete Infarction Trial of European Research Collaborators Evaluating Prognosis post-Thrombolysis (INTERCEPT).

Background: Diltiazem reduces non-fatal reinfarction and refractory ischaemia after non-Q-wave myocardial infarction, an acute coronary syndrome similar to the incomplete infarction that occurs after successful reperfusion. We postulated that this agent would reduce cardiac events in patients after acute myocardial infarction treated initially with thrombolytic agents-a clinical application previously unexplored with heart-rate-lowering calcium antagonists.

Methods: A prospective, randomised, double-blind, sequential trial was done in 874 patients with acute myocardial infarction, but without congestive heart failure, who first received thrombolytic agents.

Betaxolol versus carvedilol in chronic heart failure (BETACAR study). Rationale and design.

The use of beta-blockers in heart failure for a long time was regarded as contra-indicated because of their negative inotropic effects. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence that beta-blockers slow down the progression of left ventricular dilatation that characterizes heart failure. In addition changes in left ventricular ejection fraction after several months of beta-blocker treatment appears to have predictive value for survival.

[The combination of oral lysine-acetylsalicylate and metoclopramide compared with oral sumatriptan in the treatment of migraine attacks. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial].

A combination of lysine acetylsalicylate (equivalent to 900 mg aspirin) and 10 mg metoclopramide (LAS + MTC) was compared with oral sumatriptan (100 mg) and placebo in 421 patients with migraine in a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial. LAS + MTC was as effective as sumatriptan with a decrease in headache from severe or moderate to mild or none in 57% and 53%, respectively, for the first migraine attack treated, the primary efficacy parameter. Both treatments were better than placebo (success rate 24%, p < 0.

The effectiveness of combined oral lysine acetylsalicylate and metoclopramide compared with oral sumatriptan for migraine.

Aspirin is commonly used to treat migraine attacks, although sumatriptan, a much more expensive treatment, is also effective. We compared a combination of lysine acetylsalicylate (equivalent to 900 mg aspirin) and 10 mg metoclopramide (LAS+MTC) with oral sumatriptan (100 mg) and placebo in 421 patients with migraine. LAS+MTC was as effective as sumatriptan with a decrease of headache from severe or moderate to mild or none of 57% and 53%, respectively, for the first migraine attack treated.