{"title":"Fixed dose combinations of ACE inhibitors.","authors":"B Rangoonwala, W Schulz, B Bauer","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>First-line antihypertensive monotherapy is effective in reducing blood pressure to within the normal range in approximately 50% of patients. Normalisation in the remaining patients may require a combination of two or more drugs. This review considers the clinical efficacy and tolerability of combinations involving angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. The efficacy of combinations with diuretics or calcium antagonists, as initial therapy or in patients with inadequate responses to monotherapy, has been demonstrated in many trials. With combination therapy, normalisation rates approaching 80% can be achieved using submaximal doses of both components. Therapy with both combinations is well tolerated; with ACE inhibitors reducing the diuretic metabolic effects or counteracting some calcium antagonist-associated vasodilatory effects. Data on ACE inhibitors with beta-blockers are limited. When patients respond inadequately to first-line monotherapy, the increasing availability of drug combinations will allow individual selection of the most appropriate combination, taking account of additional risk factors and concomitant disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"454-65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19998534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N G Kounis, G M Zavras, P J Papadaki, G D Soufras, E A Poulos, J Goudevenos, A Alangoussis, K Antonakopoulos, C Frangides, S A Peristeropoulou, C Koutsojannis
{"title":"Allergic reactions to local glyceryl trinitrate administration.","authors":"N G Kounis, G M Zavras, P J Papadaki, G D Soufras, E A Poulos, J Goudevenos, A Alangoussis, K Antonakopoulos, C Frangides, S A Peristeropoulou, C Koutsojannis","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To assess the exact cause and extent of transdermal glyceryl trinitrate (GTN)-induced allergic reactions, a study of continuous and intermittent use of GTN patches was conducted in 320 patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II and III angina pectoris. Three commercially available GTN patch systems were used. Twenty-one patients (6.5%) developed cutaneous reactions. In 17 patients (5.3%), the reactions were confined to the area of application and were characterised as irritant reactions. Four patients (1.2%) developed both localised and remote from the area of application lesions and one patient developed a generalised anaphylactic reaction. The rate of discontinuation of therapy was 3.4%. The irritant skin reactions were mainly due to contaminants and additives. Changing to a different transdermal system reduced the incidence of local reactions--a particularly desirable effect in patients who respond well to GTN therapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"437-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19996016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Limitations of typhoid vaccination for travellers.","authors":"J Stephen, N Mara, D Nathwani","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Around one-third of travellers to endemic areas receive pre-travel typhoid vaccination, increasingly with the new parenteral vaccination Typhim Vi (Mérieux). More than 200 cases of Salmonella typhi and S. paratyphi infection are imported into the UK each year. Despite the widespread use of immunisation, non-specialist clinicians and the travelling public do not appear to fully appreciate the limitations of currently available vaccination. These limitations are not adequately highlighted in either the Green Book of Immunisation against Infectious Diseases (HMSO, 1992) or the new handbook Health Information for Overseas Travel (HMSO, 1995) which are important sources of reference for clinicians and practice nurses. This may delay consideration of diagnosis and presentation for treatment in immunised travellers.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"468-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19998536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is hormone replacement therapy prescribed for postmenopausal diabetic women?","authors":"M D Feher, A J Isaacs","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A community-based survey was undertaken to ascertain current hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescription rates in postmenopausal diabetic women. From age/sex and disease registers linked to prescription data which covered 144,237 patients, details on 6867 women aged 50-60 years were obtained. Of this group, 1684 (24.5%) were receiving prescriptions for HRT; the comparable figures for the 537 patients with hypertension and 135 (insulin-dependent and non-insulin dependent) diabetic patients were 117 (21.8%) and 15 (11.1%) respectively. While the presence of hypertension did not affect the likelihood of being prescribed HRT (odds ratio 0.85 [95% CI 0.68-1.05], p > 0.1), women with diabetes were less than half as likely as those from the general population to be prescribed HRT (odds ratio 0.38 [95% CI 0.21-0.67], p < 0.001). These data indicate that proportionately greater numbers of postmenopausal diabetic women, even compared with those with hypertension, another group at high risk of cardiovascular disease, are denied the potential benefits of HRT.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"431-2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19996014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J F Muir, P H Godard, Verhaert, P Leophonte, J L Racineux, J D Harry
{"title":"Seventy-two hour comparison of methylprednisolone suleptanate and methylprednisolone sodium succinate in patients with acute asthma.","authors":"J F Muir, P H Godard, Verhaert, P Leophonte, J L Racineux, J D Harry","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The efficacy and safety of the methylprednisolone prodrugs methylprednisolone suleptanate and methylprednisolone sodium succinate were evaluated in a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, double-dummy parallel study of 88 patients hospitalised with acute asthma. Each study drug was administered as a bolus intravenous injection of 40mg methylprednisolone equivalents every 6 hours for 48 hours. Methylprednisolone 32mg was administered orally 6 hours after the last dose. Pulmonary function, medical events, and clinical laboratory values were assessed at predefined intervals before and during the 72-hour study. The primary response measure of pulmonary function was per cent predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) at 48 hours. Secondary response measures were peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio. Although both drugs demonstrated within-group mean changes from baseline (starting at 6 hours) that were statistically significant for each response, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. The mean percent predicted FEV1 at 48 hours and mean per cent change from baseline were 64% and 13% (p < 0.0001) for the methylprednisolone suleptanate group and 67% and 17% (p < 0.0001) for the methylprednisolone sodium succinate group, respectively. The mean PEFR and FEV1/FVC ratio at 48 hours were 5.77 l/s and 73% for the methylprednisolone suleptanate group and 5.78 l/s and 76% for the methylprednisolone sodium succinate group, respectively. There were no clinically or statistically significant between-group differences in any of the safety parameters. In this study, methylprednisolone suleptanate and methylprednisolone sodium succinate have been shown to be therapeutically equivalent in the treatment of patients hospitalized with acute asthma.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"440-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19998531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E Quebe-Fehling, R Brambilla, C L Bromly, K Fishwick, E H Walters, D J Hendrick
{"title":"The duration of action of inhaled formoterol dry powder.","authors":"E Quebe-Fehling, R Brambilla, C L Bromly, K Fishwick, E H Walters, D J Hendrick","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The duration of action of formoterol inhaled as a dry powder formulation is compared with placebo and a reference treatment of salbutamol dry powder in patients with bronchial asthma. This single-centre, double-blind, cross-over study recruited 23 outpatients with clinically stable asthma. These patients were treated with 12 micrograms formoterol, 400 micrograms salbutamol or placebo in a randomly allocated sequence, with at least 2 days between treatments. Forced expiratory volume in 1s of expiration (FEV1) was measured at specified time points from 15 min to 15 hours post-treatment. Formoterol produced significantly higher values of FEV1 at the primary endpoint of 12 hours compared with placebo and salbutamol. No differences between FEV1 values were seen for the active treatments of formoterol and salbutamol for the first 5 hours post-inhalation. Formoterol was significantly superior to placebo at all time points, whereas salbutamol was significantly superior to placebo for the first 5 hours. This study demonstrates that formoterol, when given as a dry powder inhalation, has a significantly longer duration of acute bronchodilator action than 400micrograms salbutamol inhaled as a dry powder. The duration of action of formoterol of at least 12 hours seen in this study is at least as long as that reported following administration from a metered dose inhaler (MDI) at the same dose level. The study also demonstrates that 12micrograms formoterol dry powder is well tolerated by patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"446-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19998532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An unusual thyroglossal cyst causing upper airway obstruction.","authors":"D Strachan, C Wengraf","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rarely does a thyroglossal cyst reach such proportions as to compromise the upper respiratory airway. Such a case is presented and the manner in which it was satisfactorily treated is described.</p>","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 8","pages":"472-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19998538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autoimmune encephalopathy after treatment of thymoma-associated myasthenia gravis.","authors":"D Maher, V Fritz","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 7","pages":"406-7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19976301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pernicious anaemia patients should be searched for iron deficiency during follow up.","authors":"H Demiroğlu, S Dündar","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22312,"journal":{"name":"The British journal of clinical practice","volume":"50 7","pages":"412"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"19976308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}