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Biomedical subjects

V Manna

Publications and source records attributed to V Manna.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Headache and noradrenergic involvement: the effects of alpha 2-stimulants and alpha 2-antagonists.

The efficacies of an 2-agonist clonidine and an 2-antagonist mianserin were compared in two treatment groups, common migraine and tension headache sufferers. Forty patients entered this double-blind placebo-controlled study. Placebo, clonidine 0.150 mg, and mianserin 30 mg were each administered for 90 day periods. Headaches were induced by intravenous doses of histamine dihydrochloride. The histamine threshold in the common migraine group was significantly lower than in the tension headache group. In the common migraine group, mianserin decreased headache frequency. In the tension headache group, at 90 days mianserin significantly decreased headache intensity and headache frequency. Clonidine significantly decreased headache intensity at 90 days in the common migraine group. At 90 days, mianserin had significantly reduced the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) mean total score, (in the tension headache group), HDRS mean anxiety cluster scores (in both groups), and the HDRS mean depression cluster score (in the tension headache group). At 90 days, clonidine had significantly reduced the HDRS mean total score (in the tension headache group) and HDRS mean anxiety cluster scores (in both groups).

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Flunarizine in common migraine: Italian cooperative trial. I. Short-term results and responders' definition.

In order to assess the effects of flunarizine in long-term prophylaxis of common migraine, 120 subjects (90 female and 30 male) were treated with 10 mg at bedtime and followed-up for two years. The effectiveness of the drug was assessed by investigating the variations of the Headache Index (HI) and of the intake of analgesics. The patients considered responders were those with an at least 60% reduction of the HI compared with the baseline value. To assess side effects, on each follow-up examination the patients were weighed and submitted to the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Toulouse-Pieron test for attention, and arousal test. By the third month of therapy, the average monthly HI had decreased from a baseline value of 16.5 +/- 7.0 to 7.5 +/- 4.2. Also by the third month, 60 subjects had proved responders and 50 non-responders; 10 had dropped out of the study because of side effects or for other reasons. The only statistically significant differences between responders and non-responders were in the baseline HI, which was higher among responders, and in the baseline intake of analgesics, which was higher in non-responders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Antidepressant drugs and migraine.

There is evidence that some antidepressant drugs, above all amitriptyline and mianserine, are beneficial in the prophylaxis of migraine. The mechanism of action of antidepressants in migraine is likely to be complex. Mood disturbances accompanying migraine syndromes suggest a mode of action of such a class of drugs. In the last few years some clinical studies tend to show that the antimigraine effects of these drugs seem relatively independent of the antidepressant activity.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Pharmaco-EEG study on vincamine and on teproside in patients with chronic cerebrovascular disease.

Pharmaco-EEG is a technique used in diagnostic and in neuropharmacological research. Correlations between the ageing brain and EEG spectral analysis have been discovered (1-5). Typical EEG findings of multi-infarct dementia, senile dementia and chronic cerebrovascular disease have been reported by several authors. Using this methodology, it is possible to know if a drug crosses the blood brain barrier, the period of drug action and the drug-induced enhancement or inhibition of cerebral bioelectrical activity. It is also possible to ascertain the pharmacological class of a drug through a comparison between it and another that is well known. The authors have studied the pharmaco-EEG effects of teproside and vincamine in two groups of subjects affected by chronic cerebrovascular disease. The first group (8 patients, mean age 58.3 years) were treated with vincamine 15 mg i.v. EEG spectral analysis was performed using a Hewlett-Packard 5423 A analyser with centro-occipital derivations. EEG registrations were executed by using an epoch of 5 min at times- 15, 0, +15, +45, +60, and +120 min with drug administration at zero time. In a chronic study, after a three day wash-out period, teproside 240 mg/os/day was administered to the first group, while vincamine 60 mg/os/day and 120 mg/os/day was administered to the second group. Subjects were studied with EEG spectral analysis by using the same methodology at baseline and after 10 and 20 days of treatment. The two drugs induced an enhancement of cerebral bioelectrical activity by an improvement of alpha waves mean relative power, by a shifting toward rapid rhythms of dominant frequency and by a decrease of delta and theta waves mean relative power. With the dosages used teproside appeared to be more active than vincamine.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Effect of cholinergic and anticholinergic drugs on short-term memory in Alzheimer's dementia: a neuropsychological and computerized electroencephalographic study.

A correlation was found among the degree of memory loss, intellectual impairment, the quantity of senile plaques, and a decrease in choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase activity in patients affected by senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. In this study, patients were subjected to a series of computerized electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings and neuropsychological evaluations after acute administration of the following drugs: placebo; the cholinergic drugs physostigmine, pyridostigmine bromide, and edrophonium chloride; and the anticholinergic drugs scopolamine and orphenadrine. The results obtained show that the acute administration of some cholinergic drugs improved memory and attention performances, whereas the anticholinergic drugs induced opposite effects. The cholinergic drugs exhibited a tendency to shift the EEG spectrum analysis into more normal patterns compatible with the patient's age. This study supports the view that the cholinergic system plays an important role in memory and attention disturbances found in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Ergot derivatives in the prophylaxis of migraine: a multicentric study with a timed-release dihydroergotamine formulation.

In this multicentric random double-blind study versus placebo, the therapeutic activity of timed-release dihydroergotamine preparation 10 mg/per os/day has been tested in 90 patients affected by common migraine. The drug presented a prophylactic effect on recurrent headache, mainly on night and awakening migraine. A low incidence of side-effects with no weight changes or other effects on physiologic events was registered.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Involvement of immune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of rosacea.

Twenty-five patients with rosacea were compared with twenty-five control subjects for previous medical history and tests of immune function. Rosacea patients were found to have a higher incidence of disorders of the auto-immune type and were significantly more difficult to sensitize to DNCB than the controls. In addition, twelve of the rosacea patients and eleven other rosacea patients had biopsies which were examined by the direct immunofluorescence technique. In only five was the test negative. In the remainder deposits of IgM and/or IgG and/or complement were found at the dermo-epidermal junction and/or in the dermal collagen. Serum from the rosacea patients was also examined by the indirect technique and in six cases a circulating antinuclear antibody of IgM type was found. It is suggested that altered immune function plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of the disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

An animal model for chronic ulceration.

Few techniques are available for the study of persistent ulceration. In this report we describe a suitable animal model. Intracutaneous injection of sodium tetradecyl sulphate (STD) in guinea-pig flank skin caused a reproducibly sized and shaped superficial ulcer that healed approximately three times more slowly than punch biopsies of comparable size. Histological, immunofluorescent and autoradiographic studies showed that it possesses many of the morphological and kinetic features of human stasis ulceration. STD ulcers treated with a streptokinase/streptodornase solution healed with less slough and tended to re-epithelialize more rapidly than controls, but ulcers treated with dextran polymer beads or a stabilized hydrogen peroxide cream healed at the same rate as their control.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Psoralen photochemotherapy of psoriasis.

The value of PUVA therapy in selected patients with severe psoriasis has been confirmed. Suppression of the disease was incomplete in those patients whose disease was unstable, with associated seborrhoeic dermatitic features. No consistent change in the proportion of epidermal cells in DNA synthesis could be demonstrated during regression of the psoriasis as a result of PUVA therapy.

Adult↗