An investigation was carried out to determine whether the sensitivity of rat tracheal smooth muscle to contractile and relaxant drugs was affected by three weeks' treatment with subcutaneous budesonide before death. Budesonide treatment was associated with a lower thymus weight and a smaller gain in body weight than in control animals. There was, however, no difference in the carbachol concentr...

Carisoprodol, a commonly prescribed muscle relaxant, has adverse effects on human performance and is gaining recognition as a factor in driver impairment and accident causation. Carisoprodol is a centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxant indicated for the relief of musculoskeletal pain. Carisoprodol and its major metabolite meprobamate have central nervous system (CNS) sedating effects similar ...

From the rhizomes of Kaempferia galanga, ethyl cinnamate (EC) was isolated and its vasorelaxant effect was examined on the rat aorta. EC inhibited the tonic contractions induced by high K+ and phenylephrine (PE) in a concentration-dependent manner, with respective IC50 values of 0.30 +/- 0.05 mM and 0.38 +/- 0.04 mM. The relaxant effect against PE-induced contractions was greater in the presenc...

The plant Wedelia chinensis was found to be used by different traditional systems and folklore for the treatment of various disorders. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect on central nervous system (CNS) of the ethanol extract of Wedelia chinensis whole plant in Swiss albino mice and Wistar rats.The CNS effects were evaluated by general behaviour, exploratory behaviour, mus...

The neuromuscular effects of succinylcholine (SCh) were described1 by Bovet 1949. The drug was introduced into clinical anesthesia in the United States by Foldes et al 1952, who stated that “the advantages of succinylcholine as a muscular relaxant in anesthesiology far outweighed its disadvantages”2. Even today in the 6th decade of its use, SCh, despite complications, survived as the “gold stan...

Since the introduction of the short acting muscle relaxant succinyl dicholine (suxamethonium) in 1951 and the subsequent discovery that certain patients exhibited a greater than usual sensitivity to the drug, interest has been directed towards identifying the genetically controlled variants of serum cholinesterase (acylcholine acyl hydrolase E.C. 3.1.1.8). Some of these variants have been found...

The present study was aimed to evaluate the mechanisms involved in the vasorelaxant effects of red wine polyphenol compounds (RWPC) in small mesenteric rat arteries. RWPC produce relaxation in small mesenteric arteries. This relaxant effect was abolished by endothelial denudation, NO-synthase blockade with L-NAME and partial depolarization with KCl or L-NAME plus KCl. Incubation with the reacti...

Plasma potassium levels were measured during induction with thiopentone or ketamine and subsequent administration of suxamethonium. The presence and magnitude of fasciculations following suxamethonium were noted. In addition arterial blood gases and glucose levels were measured. All patients displayed a small decrease in plasma potassium levels following the induction agents and a similar rise ...

We investigated the effect of hyperthyroidism on the responsiveness of the rabbit corpus cavernosum smooth muscle. In male albino rabbits, hyperthyroidism was established by oral feeding of L-thyroxine at increasing dosages (150-450 microg/kg) over an 8-week period. This treatment produced a stable hyperthyroid state as indicated by the increased serum T4 levels. The reactivity of corpus cavern...