0000000000293424
AUTHOR
G. Barbagallo Sangiorgi
Effects of Intravenous Erythromycin Lactobionate in Respiratory Infections
The antibiotic erythromycin lactobionate given intravenously acts almost exclusively on Gram-positive bacteria. Even at high plasma and tissue concentrations there is an almost total absence of side-effects. It could be considered, therefore, as first choice in the treatment of patients with infectious respiratory diseases. Most of the 40 patients admitted to the present study were elderly and all had either acute or chronic and becoming acute respiratory disease. Their clinical symptoms and levels of phlogosis improved on treatment with erythromycin lactobionate without any interruption of therapy due to side-effects and toxicity. The absence of unfavourable pharmacological interactions f…
Efficacy and tolerability of lercanidipine in monotherapy in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension
To investigate the efficacy and tolerability of lercanidipine, used as monotherapy once a day, in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension (ISH), 83 patients were enrolled in this multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. All patients were older than 60 years, and their mean age was 66.7 +/- 5.4 years. ISH was defined as SBPor = 160 mmHg, and DBP95 mmHg. After wash-out and placebo run-in periods, patients were randomly assigned to placebo or lercanidipine (10 mg once a day) treatment for 4 weeks. Non-responding patients of the lercanidipine-treated group were later treated with 20 mg of lercanidipine once a day for 4 additional weeks. At the end of the stu…
General Symptomatology of Pathogenic Drug Usage in Old Patients
Drug administration involves the risk of unwanted side effects in patients of any age. This risk is considerably higher in older patients,5 as is shown by several statistics on this subject.8, 16, 18, 21 Higher risk of unwanted side effects in aged subjects is due to the concomitance of a number of factors1,5,17 i. e
Comparison of the effects of salmeterol and salbutamol on clinical activity and eosinophil cationic protein serum levels during the pollen season in atopic asthmatics
In atopic asthma there is strong evidence of eosinophils playing an active role in pathogenesis. Some investigations demonstrated that eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) serum levels increased in atopic patients with asthma during pollen season.The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of short-term (1 week) beta 2-agonist treatment on lung function and eosinophil activity in asthmatic patients.We used an open, randomized, cross-over design to compare the effects of salbutamol (200 micrograms q.i.d.) and salmeterol (50 micrograms b.i.d.) on peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), blood eosinophil count and serum levels of ECP as a measure of eosinophil activity in 20 mild atopic asthmatics.…
Evidence that the interaction between circulating IgA and fibronectin is a normal process enhanced in primary IgA nephropathy
A solid-phase ELISA was set up to measure the direct binding capacity (BC) of different, commercially available, purified human IgA preparations to plates coated with human fibronectin (FN). It was found that secretory, polymeric, and, to a much lesser extent, monomeric IgA exhibited elevated FN-BC as compared to their BC to plates coated with bovine serum albumin. This binding was specific since not observed with human IgG or IgM antibodies. In addition, we noted that this interaction was dose dependent, Ca2+ dependent, saturable, and not covalent, was inhibited by soluble FN, but not by a prior incubation of FN-coated plates with anti-human fibronectin antibodies, and appeared to involve …