Effect of a short course of beta-blocker treatment on the central hemodynamics and work capacity of patients with neurocirculatory dystonia

Changes in central hemodynamics, systolic phase structure and capacity for physical work were examined, using respiration ergometry, in patients with neurocirculatory dystonia after a short course of treatment with beta-blockers. It was demonstrated that the treatment resulted in the eukinetic type of circulation, yet changes in physical working capacity showed opposite tendencies: oxygen support of exercise was improved in some patients only. A short-term beta-blocker treatment course can be used as a test of adequacy of the chosen therapy.     

Effect of buspiron on formation of acquired helplessness

By decreasing anxiety and emotional stress, buspiron in doses of 1 and 5 mg/kg decelerates the formation of instrumental defense reflex and increases the incidence of acquired helplessness in rats trained under conditions of highly indefinite environment. Buspiron in a dose of 0.5 mg/kg apparently does not affect the optimal emotional background, thus promoting attaining the goal of conditioned reflex activity and not leading to an increase in the incidence of acquired helplessness. Translated fromByulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 126, No. 9, pp. 286–288, September, 1998     

Cerebral and autonomic aspects of labile hypertension

EEG, central hemodynamic parameters and the emotional syndrome were investigated in 55 patients with labile hypertension. Two cerebrovegetative patterns corresponding to different degrees of cortical activation and different mechanisms controlling arterial blood pressure and anxiety levels were identified. As the two groups of patients did not differ in terms of age or duration of the disease, those could not be attributed to different stages of the disease, suggesting rather that sympathetic and parasympathetic vegetative nervous components may be making different contributions to the formation of hemodynamic type.     

Effect of leucine-enkephalin on interneuronal transmission of excitation

Experiments on unanesthetized cats immobilized with flaxedil showed that injection of leucine-enkephalin (1 mg) into the lateral ventricle is followed by inhibition of evoked responses in the ventrolateral columns of the spinal cord and of segmental interneuronal transmission in the spinal cord and by a decrease in the amplitude of potentials in cortical somatosensory area I evoked by sciatic nerve stimulation. Naloxone (1 mg/kg, intravenously) prevented these effects of leucine-enkephalin. Preliminary injection of methysergide (2.5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) led to weakening of the effect of leucine-enkephalin on spinal interneuronal transmission. Leucine-enkephalin did not change the amplitude of polysynaptic potentials of the glossomandibular reflex, the arc of which is closed in the brain stem.Department of Pharmacology, Faculties of Internal Medicine and Public Health, I. M. Sechenov First Moscow Medical Institute. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR V. V. Zakusov). Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 87, No. 6, pp. 556–558, June, 1979.     

Hepatotoxic effects of drugs from some pharmacological groups

The review presents the results of clinical-observations of side hepatotoxic effects of drugs from different pharmacological groups. Based on the data available in the literature, the authors systematized and supplemented the characteristic types of hepatic damages due to the use of drugs in different fields of medicine. The basic mechanisms responsible for the damaging effects of hepatotropic pharmacological agents are considered. The review places a particular emphasis on the major hepatic dysfunctions observed in oncological care when antitumor drugs having different mechanisms of action. This section of the review is supplemented with cases observed in the past years, wherein there are data on the hepatotoxicity of agents from the platin group, the nonsteroidal antiandrogen flutamide, topoisomerase II inhibitors in addition to the well-known alkylating drugs and antitumor antibiotics that have hepatotoxic properties.     

Neurochemical Relationships in the Action of Opioid Analgesics on Cerebral Cortex

The experiments with unrestrained cats showed that opioid analgesics in near-analgesic doses decreased the amplitude of the primary test response recorded in the second sensorimotor zone of the cerebral cortex in 20-150-msec interval between the stimuli applied to thalamocortical fibers radiating from thalamic n. VPL. Application of test substances affecting certain neurotransmitter processes and microionophoretic application of drugs and neurotransmitters to cortical neurons showed that the inhibitory effect of opioid analgesics on cerebral cortex is probably realized through GABA-, serotonin-, -adreno-, and cholinergic structures. The excitatory amino acids are also involved into this process.