Longterm potassium therapy in angina pectoris (author's transl)

The effect of a two month potassium therapy on maximum performance was systematically investigated in 12 patients with overt angina pectoris. The patients received 40 mEq potassium daily by mouth. The average maximum performance increased by 85% after 8 weeks' administration of potassium. The rise in the performance curve fell after 6 weeks to attain a steady state after 8 weeks. In particular it must be emphasized that the heart rate was reduced under maximum capacity in spite of considerable increase in performance. Furthermore, a comparison of heart rates after 8 weeks' potassium administration showed that in each case for the same level of performance the heart rate was 15% less than before potassium. The results of the investigation support longterm therapy with potassium in angina pectoris.     

Diuretic therapy and angina pectoris

Two boys (9 and 14 years old) participated in an evaluation of treatment for stuttering. Habit reversal procedures (awareness training, regulated breathing, and social support) were combined with teaching positive attitudes to parents. During treatment, stuttering frequencies decreased, speech rates increased, and speech naturalness ratings increased. These changes occurred in the clinic, the child's home, and the child's school. After treatment, stuttering remained low in the clinic and at home, but increased stuttering was found at school.     

Selection of drug therapy in stable angina pectoris

Given a strong match between regions of two sequences, how far can the match be meaningfully extended if gaps are allowed in the resulting alignment? The aim is to avoid searching beyond the point that a useful extension of the alignment is likely to be found. Without loss of generality, we can restrict attention to the suffixes of the sequences that follow the strong match, which leads to the following formal problem. Given two sequences and a fixed X > 0, align initial portions of the sequences subject to the constraint that no section of the alignment scores below -X. Our results indicate that computing an optimal alignment under this constraint is very expensive. However, less rigorous conditions on the alignment can be guaranteed by quite efficient algorithms. One of these variants has been implemented in a new release of the Blast suite of database search programs.     

Current aspects of thrombolytic therapy in unstable angina pectoris

In the last years, several studies addressed the role of the different antithrombotic therapeutics in unstable angina pectoris. Acetylsalicylic acid still is the standard treatment reducing the rate of death and myocardial infarction by 50% in the first six months. Ticlopidin has no clinical effect in the first six days and therefore is not suited for treatment in the acute phase. Unfractionated heparin has an additional favourable effect when added to aspirin. Low molecular weight-heparin is at least as effective as UF-heparin. Direct thrombin-inhibitors (hirudin, hirudin-analoga) seem to be comparable to UF-heparin. Plasminogen-activators should not be given in unstable angina, as they show a tendency to worsen the clinical outcome. GP IIb/IIIa-antagonists (antibodies, synthetic antagonists) significantly improve the clinical effects of aspirin. When combined with a reduced dose of heparin, their favourable effect remains unchanged, while bleeding complications are reduced to a minimum.     

Influence of combination therapy (isosorbide dinitrate and molsidomine) on the incidence of angina pectoris in patients with coronary heart disease

Angina pectoris in patients with severe 3-vessel-disease refractory to treatment is a challenge for the treating physician. We have therefore tested the treatment efficacy of isosorbide dinitrate combined with molidomine on the frequency of angina pectoris in patients with symptoms refractory to treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 15 patients with severe coronary heart disease were included in the study. The protocol included a 2-weeks stabilisation phase, followed by a 4-weeks treatment phase with 100 mg isosorbide dinitrate in the morning as well as 8 mg slow-release molsidomine at 6 p.m. RESULTS: Initially all of the 15 patients reported about daily angina pectoris attacks. After 4 weeks of treatment 4 out of 15 patients became free of symptoms. From the other 11 patients 6 reported an improvement, 5 an unchanged frequency of attacks. DISCUSSION: Combination treatment with isosorbide dinitrate with molsidomine in a slow-release form (in the nitrate free interval) showed a distinct improvement in patients with angina pectoris refractory to treatment with reduction of complaints. The effect of the combination is possibly based on a prolonged vasodilatation of the stenosed vessels and a prolonged reduction of filling pressure (reduction of preload).     

Efficacy of isosorbide mononitrate in angina pectoris

The rapid development of tolerance has limited the applicability of oral and transdermal nitrates in the long-term management of patients with chronic stable angina pectoris. Recent well-controlled trials have demonstrated that asymmetrical, or eccentric, dosing of oral isosorbide mononitrate, in which 20-mg doses are taken at 8 A.M. and 3 P.M., provides at least 12 hours of antianginal coverage. There is no evidence for the development of tolerance with this schedule, which allows for a 17-hour nitrate withdrawal period. Likewise, the asymmetrical 20-mg twice daily regimen has not been associated with the zero-hour effect that has been reported with higher oral doses of isosorbide mononitrate and with intermittent nitroglycerin patch therapy. This approach also avoids the development of a clinical rebound phenomenon, as measured by increased episodes of angina and nitroglycerin consumption, compared with the pretreatment period, during the nitrate-free interval at night and the early hours of the morning.     

Effectiveness of drug therapy alone or its combination with plasmapheresis in patients with severe angina pectoris

The influence of difuracil (PAP-49), a novel nitrofuran, on saprotrophic and normal digestive tract microflora was studied in vitro and in vivo by comparison with that of furazolidone. It was shown that the minimum inhibitory concentration of both the drugs ranged from 0.01 to 1.56 micrograms/ml. The experiments on rabbits with the use of the drugs in doses of 5 and 10 mg/ kg body weight revealed that unlike furazolidone difuracil induced no noticable qualitative or quantitative changes in the intestinal microflora composition.