Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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 9,689 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Physicians enrolled 127 patients who were admitted to the Bangkok Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Thailand with acute, uncomplicated falciparum malaria between January-May 1991 into a randomized clinical trial of 3 oral treatments: artesunate, mefloquine, and artesunate followed by mefloquine. At the end of 28 days, 88% of patients who received only artesunate (total dose 600 mg), 81% of those who received only mefloquine (total dose 1250 mg), and all patients who received both artesunate and mefloquine were cured. Artesunate reduced the parasite count by 90% within 24 hours of 1st treatment. The 2 groups that received artesunate experienced considerably more rapid reduction in parasitemia and in fever than the group that received only mefloquine (p.002). Mefloquine was more adept than artesunate at clearing residual parasites. Mefloquine-treated patients experienced slightly more headaches and dizziness while they still had malaria than the other 2 groups. The physicians believed that these symptoms could actually have been due to the acute malaria infection. Patients who were on the sequential artesunate-mefloquine regime experienced more nausea and vomiting than the other groups, but the differences were insignificant. The combination therapy with artesunate and mefloquine was very effective and patients with acute, uncomplicated malaria tolerated it well.
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PMID:Randomised trial of artesunate and mefloquine alone and in sequence for acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria. 134 54

Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Thailand is resistant to available antimalarial drugs, which necessitates the search for alternative drugs. In a clinical trial mefloquine 1250 mg in divided doses was compared with oral artemether at 700 mg total dose given over 5 days in acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria. 46 adult men, aged 15-50 years and weighing 45-65 kg, with acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria, no history of liver or kidney diseases, and not history of tasking antimalarials for this episode of illness were recruited at the Bangkok Hospitak for Tropical Diseases. 12 were treated with mefloquine and 34 with oral artemether. Hospital follow-up was 28 days for the artemether group and 42 days for the mefloquine group. Parasites did not clear from the blood of 2 patients in the mefloquine group, although there was a decrease in parasitemia. The other 10 patients in the mefloquine group has a good initial response with mean parasite clearance times and fever clearance times of 64 and 27 hours respectively. Oral artemether gave a significantly faster parasite clearance time than mefloquine (30 vs. 64 hours), and a significantly better cure rate (97 vs. 64%) with fewer episodes of dizziness and vomiting. Oral artemether at 700 mg given over 5 days is effective and well tolerated. The cure rate with this regimen is higher than that reported with 600 mg intramuscular artemether given over 5 days. Mefloquine 1250 mg has a cure rate of 80-84% but it produces side effects such as vomiting. The treatment with artemether should last at least 5 days with a dose above 600 mg for a cure rate approaching 100%. This treatment is still likely to be more acceptable to patients than the combination regimen of quinine plus tetracycline for 7 days. These findings suggest that neither artemether nor mefloquine is effective against the intrahepatic stage of Plasmodium vivax. Primaquine is the choice of drug for radical cure.
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PMID:Comparison of oral artemether and mefloquine in acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria. 135 18

Plasmodium falciparum in Thailand is highly resistant to available antimalarial drugs. Artemether, a derivative of artemisinin, is a promising compound currently used to cope with this situation but the course of treatment has to be at least 5 d. An effective short treatment course of this drug is possible when used in combination with mefloquine. We now report a trial of different regimens of the combination artemether/mefloquine. Fifty-seven male Thai patients, admitted to the Bangkok Hospital for Tropical Diseases, were allocated at random to receive oral artemether 300 mg as an initial dose, followed by either the standard dose of mefloquine (750 mg) at 24 h or a higher dose of mefloquine (750 mg at 24 h, then 500 mg at 30 h). Patients were followed up in hospital for 42 d. Two patients, both in the high dose mefloquine group, were excluded as they failed to attend for follow-up. All patients had a rapid initial response to treatment with median parasite clearance times of 37 and 40 h, median fever clearance times of 33.5 and 30.5 h, and cure rates of 75 and 96% (P = 0.0248), for the standard and high doses of mefloquine respectively. No serious adverse effect was found; mild and transient dizziness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea were noted in half of the patients in each group. The results suggest that a 30 h short course of artemether plus mefloquine at high dose should be used in areas with documented mefloquine resistance.
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PMID:A comparative clinical trial of two different regimens of artemether plus mefloquine in multidrug resistant falciparum malaria. 766 Apr 40

At the Bangkok Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Thailand, health workers collected blood samples from male patients with acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria so researchers could compare the efficacy of artesunate (700 mg over 5 days) with the standard antimalarial treatment (600 mg quinine at 8 hour intervals plus 250 mg tetracycline at 6 hour intervals for 7 days). All 31 patients in the artesunate group had a much more rapid initial response than the 33 in the quinine-tetracycline group (mean parasite clearance time [PCT] = 37 hours; mean fever clearance time [FCT] = 31 vs. 73 and 55 hours, respectively) (p = 0.000001 for PCT; p = 0.000041 for FCT). In both groups, the mean PCT and mean FCT did not differ with level of pretreatment parasitemia. The cure rates on day 28 did not differ significantly (96.7% for the artesunate group, 100% for the quinine-tetracycline group). Five men in the artesunate group and nine in the quinine-tetracycline group had Plasmodium vivax in the peripheral blood between days 13 and 24, suggesting that these two regimens are not effective during the intrahepatic stage of plasmodia. 29 patients in the quinine-tetracycline group had tinnitus, while no one in the artesunate group did (p = 0.000001). Nausea and dizziness were common in both groups (45% for the artesunate group and 60% for the quinine-tetracycline group; 52% and 48%, respectively). Vomiting was more common in the quinine-tetracycline group (91% vs. 26%; p = 0.000005). Seven patients in the artesunate group had bradycardia, mostly during days 2-7. Convulsions occurred in one patient in the artesunate group 21 days after the first dose. They may have been caused by malaria, but artemisinin compounds have had central nervous system effects. These findings suggest that 700 mg artesunate is an effective antimalarial in areas with multiple-drug resistant parasites. Health workers should monitor its side effects, especially neurotoxicity, closely.
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PMID:Comparison of oral artesunate and quinine plus tetracycline in acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria. 820 43

The combination of artesunate and mefloquine is currently one of the most effective treatments for multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Simultaneous, rather than sequential treatment with the two drugs, would allow better patient compliance. We therefore evaluated three-day treatment with artesunate combined with either 2 or 3 days of mefloquine co-administered once a day with artesunate. The study was an open, randomized trial for acute, uncomplicated falciparum malaria and was conducted at the Bangkok Hospital for Tropical Diseases. One hundred and twenty adult patients were randomized to two treatment groups. Group 1 patients received 4 mg/kg/day of artesunate for 3 days and 3 daily doses of 8.0 mg/kg/day mefloquine given with artesunate. Group 2 patients received the same dose of artesunate and the same total dose of mefloquine (25 mg/kg). However, the mefloquine was given as 15 mg/kg on the first day and 10 mg/kg/ on the second day, again with artesunate. The baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients in the two groups were similar. The cure rates for the 3-day and 2-day mefloquine regimens were 100% and 99%, respectively. There were no significant differences in either median fever clearance times (group 1=32 hours; group 2=33 hours) or mean parasite clearance times (group 1=42.3 hours; group 2=43.3 hours). Both regimens were well tolerated and there were no significant differences in the incidence of adverse effects. Nausea or vomiting occurred in 3.8% of patients in both groups and transient dizziness occurred in 4% of group 1 and 9% of group 2 patients. These results suggest that a 3-day regimen of mefloquine administered with artesunate is effective and well tolerated. This practical regimen could improve patient compliance.
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PMID:An open, randomized trial of three-day treatment with artesunate combined with a standard dose of mefloquine divided over either two or three days, for acute, uncomplicated falciparum malaria. 1612 22

At present, no universally-accepted effective treatment for cutaneous gnathostomiasis is available. At the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Mahidol University, albendazole 400 mg twice a day for 14 days is commonly prescribed for patients diagnosed with cutaneous gnathostomiasis. The efficacy of albendazole to induce outward migration of the parasite was less than or around 20% in 2 studies. Research for alternative, more efficacious treatment, is needed. In this prospective open-labeled study, we assessed the safety of ivermectin in 20 Thai patients diagnosed with cutaneous gnathostomiasis. Ivermectin, one time only, at dosages of 50, 100, 150, or 200 microg/kg bodyweight, was given orally to 4 groups of patients, 5 patients each group. Adverse events were recorded and laboratory tests were obtained before and after treatment. No serious adverse events occurred in this study. Forty adverse events were possibly related to ivermectin. The adverse events were malaise (35%), myalgia (30%), drowsiness (30%), pruritus (20%), nausea/vomiting (20%), dizziness (15%), diarrhea (15%), feeling of shortness of breath (10%), feeling of palpitations (10%), constipation (5%), anorexia (5%), and headache (5%). These adverse events were self-limited and not dose-related. Laboratory abnormalities were found in 3 patients (15%). Transient microscopic hematuria, pyuria, and mildly elevated liver enzymes were found in 1 patient each. Ivermectin single dose, of 50,100, 150, and 200 microg/kg bodyweight, is considered safe in Thai patients. Future trials of ivermectin on human gnathostomiasis may be performed using dosages up to 200 microg/kg bodyweight.
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PMID:Tolerability of ivermectin in gnathostomiasis. 1612 31

Malaria treatment is becoming increasingly difficult due to the widespread drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum. In Japan, only three antimalarials are approved for treatment: oral quinine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, and mefloquine. Recently, however, the Research Group on Chemotherapy of Tropical Diseases introduced atovaquone-proguanil for treating drug-resistant P. falciparum malaria. This research group had also introduced mefloquine before it was licensed nationally. Using data obtained from the research group, we analyzed the efficacy and safety of atovaquone-proguanil, as compared with mefloquine, in nonimmune patients with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria. Cures were attained in all (100%) of 20 atovaquone-proguanil-treated and 49 (98%) of 50 mefloquine-treated adults. The mean fever clearance time (FCT) and parasite clearance time (PCT) appeared to be longer in the atovaquone-proguanil group than in the mefloquine group, but the differences were not statistically significant. Three (15%) of the 20 atovaquone-proguanil-treated adults had adverse events (AEs), all of which were transient elevations of liver enzymes, while 19 (38%) of the 50 mefloquine-treated adults had AEs, including dizziness in 8 (16%) and nausea/vomiting in 7 (14%). All 3 children treated with atovaquone-proguanil were cured without developing AEs. Despite the limitations of this study in not being a formal clinical trial, atovaquone-proguanil seemed to be at least equal to, or even better than, mefloquine for the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in nonimmune patients, including children. Its marketing in Japan could be beneficial in offering an alternative therapeutic option. However, vigilance should be maintained on the possible occurrence of rare but severe AEs, and also of the possible spread of drug resistance.
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PMID:Efficacy and safety of atovaquone-proguanil compared with mefloquine in the treatment of nonimmune patients with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in Japan. 1710 92