Fundamental & clinical pharmacology
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Fundam Clin Pharmacol · Jun 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialTropisetron and paracetamol association in post-operative patients.
Studies in animals and in healthy volunteers have demonstrated the central serotonergic analgesic mechanism of action of paracetamol involving the inhibition of this analgesia by tropisetron, a 5-HT3 antagonist. This randomized, double-blind, controlled study aims at studying this interaction in post-operative patients after ear surgery. ⋯ The difference between the sums of numerical scales of both groups [9 ± 10 (T) vs. 6 ± 7 (c)] is not significant, but the tropisetron group displays higher pain scores despite additional rescue analgesia. The limits of this trial call for a much larger study to investigate further this pharmacodynamic interaction.
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Fundam Clin Pharmacol · Jun 2012
Calcitonin ameliorates enhanced arterial contractility after chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve in rats.
In addition to its regulatory effect on bone mass, calcitonin has been shown to relieve pain and alleviate peripheral circulatory disturbance in patients with Raynaud's syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome. In the present study, we investigated whether calcitonin ameliorates diminished blood flow and enhanced arterial contraction in response to noradrenaline in chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve in rats. Following surgically induced CCI, laser Doppler flowmetry studies showed a significant decrease in plantar skin blood flow of the ipsilateral hind paw compared to the contralateral side. ⋯ In vitro analysis of plantar arteries isolated from the ipsilateral hind paw 7-13 days after the CCI procedure showed higher sensitivity to noradrenaline than the plantar arteries from the contralateral side. Elcatonin (0.1-10 nm) significantly reduced noradrenaline-induced contraction in the arteries of the ipsilateral side, whereas it had little effect on those of the contralateral side. These results suggest that calcitonin selectively ameliorates enhanced arterial contractility in CCI neuropathic rats, thus leading to its alleviating effect on peripheral circulatory disturbance.