The aim of the present study was to investigate the possibility that catecholaminergic pathways within the central nervous system play a role in the control of renin secretion. Plasma renin activity (PRA) was measured after intravenous administration of L-dopa with and without prior inhibition of extracerebral dopa decarboxylase by carbidopa (MK-486) in pentobarbital-anesthetized dogs in which ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this report is to discuss whether or not rectal levodopa administration is useful in some situations. BACKGROUND In situations where oral intake of levodopa formulations is not possible, the treatment options of Parkinson's disease patients are limited. The literature describes no or low rectal absorption of levodopa. CASE DESCRIPTION A patient with an ileus was unable ...

A controlled release preparation of levodopa-carbidopa, CR III, given every 4 hours to 17 Parkinsonian patients for up to 10 months reduced plasma drug variations and improved motor response fluctuations compared with standard levodopa-carbidopa given every 2 hours. The results support the value of pharmaceutical approaches to the stabilisation of circulating levodopa levels in the treatment of...

In a double-blind, double-dummy, double-titration Phase 3 trial in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, the efficacy and safety of Levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) infusion were characterized relative to immediate-release oral levodopa-carbidopa (LC-oral) treatment. We present in this report the comparative pharmacokinetic profiles of LCIG and LC-oral from this pivotal study. The...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. Pharmacotherapy with levodopa in combination with carbidopa provides symptomatic relief in patients suffering from PD. However, several studies have been conducted in an attempt to improve the therapeutic efficiency of levodopa by using drugs that preferentially inhibit extracerebral decarboxylase. Yet, none of them ...

BACKGROUND Marijuana use is prevalent among patients with cocaine dependence and often non-exclusionary in clinical trials of potential cocaine medications. The dual-focus of this study was to (1) examine the moderating effect of baseline marijuana use on response to treatment with levodopa/carbidopa for cocaine dependence; and (2) apply an informative-priors, Bayesian approach for estimating t...

Parkinson's disease is associated with a variety of dermatologic disorders and the study skin may provide insights into pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this common neurodegenerative disorder. Skin in patients can be divided two major groups: 1) non-iatrogenic disorders, including melanoma, seborrheic dermatitis, sweating bullous pemphigoid, rosacea, 2) iatrogenic related either to syst...

Specialist physicians may have prescribing habits that are different from nonspecialist physicians. Little is known about the prescribing habits of physicians specializing in the treatment of obesity. An anonymous survey was given to the physician members of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP). There was a 35% response rate (266 physicians) to the questionnaire that was represen...

Senek, M. 2018. New Approaches for Levodopa Treatment in Parkinson’s Disease. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1437. 84 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0256-0. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic cells, which results in dopamine depletion. Levodopa is the most effective sympto...

The carcinoid tumor is an uncommon neuroendocrine neoplasm the hallmark of which is excessive serotonin production. In studying kinetics of tryptophan hydroxylase and aromatic-L-amino acid decarboxylase (AAAD) in human carcinoid hepatic metastases and adjacent normal liver (J. A. Gilbert et al, Biochem. Pharmacol., 50: 845-850, 1995), we identified one significant difference: the Vmax of carcin...