Objective. To evaluate the nature, risks, and benefits of osteoarthritis (OA) management by primary care physicians and rheuma tologists .Methods. Subjects were 41 9 patients followed for symptoms of knee OA by either a specialist in family medicine (FM) or general internal medicine (GIM) or by a rheumatologist (BH)

250 mg mefloquine was administered orally once a week for 21 consecutive weeks to 5 volunteers. Blood samples were collected just before administration of the next dose, and the unchanged drug and its metabolite, Ro 21-5104, were measured in the plasma. The mean plasma levels minima in individual subjects measured at steady state were for mefloquine between 0.56 and 1.25 μg/ml, and for the metabolite between 1.47 and 5.55 μg/ml. The corresponding metabolite to mefloquine ratios ranged between 2.3 and 8.6. The half-life of mefloquine determined at the end of the trial agreed fairly well with values measured in single dose kinetics. This suggests that induction or inhibition of the metabolizing enzymes did not occur during the period of administration.

Oral single dose kinetics of mefloquine was investigated in 16 male volunteers, 3 Caucasians and 13 African natives. Unchanged mefloquine (= M) and one of its metabolites (= MM) were measured in the plasma. The apparent half-life of absorption of M ranged from 0.36 to 2.0 h, its terminal half-life of elimination from 15 to 33 days. Assuming complete systemic availability, an apparent volume of distribution of 14–29 liters kg^-1 and a total clearance of 18–39 ml min^-1 were derived. MM given orally to mice or rats showed at equal dose the same tolerance as mefloquine. Following oral administration of M to man, plasma levels of MM surpassed those of M, resulting in a 2.4–5.1 larger AUC. However, because of its much smaller apparent volume of distribution, MM may be anticipated to represent only a small percentage of the dose and therefore to contribute only to a minor extent towards the unwanted side effects of the drug.

No abstract

The electron-donating properties of the drug amiodarone (also known as cordarone), have been studied by conductimetry. Amiodarone was found to form a charge-transfer complex in vitro with the electron acceptor iodine, which is involved in human thyroid metabolism. Amiodarone was also found to interact with some other biological molecules with the capacity to behave as electron acceptors, such as dopamine hydrochloride, (-)-epinephrine, serotonin hydrochloride, coenzyme Qm and j9-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. An electronic absorption band in the visible region of the spectrum due to chargetransfer complex formation between iodine and amiodarone was also observed, supporting the conductimetric results.