In adults the calcium antagonist amlodipine given once a day has proved to be an attractive addition to the antihypertensive armamentarium. The present report describes our experience in 43 paediatric outpatients (26 boys and 17 girls, aged between 1.1 and 19, median 9.8 years) with chronic kidney diseases. The patients were given amlodipine for 16 weeks as part of their antihypertensive treatment. Before amlodipine arterial pressure was 150 (142-163)/90 (84 -95) mm Hg (median and interquartile range). Six patients withdrew from amlodipine because of oedema, flushing or headache. In the remaining patients amlodipine 7.7 (6.9-9.4) mg/m 2 body surface area once a day significantly decreased arterial pressure by 17 (13-22)/10 (7-13) mm Hg. The

In pediatric patients with chronic kidney diseases, irbesartan given once a day for 18 weeks significantly reduces arterial pressure and proteinuria, with an excellent tolerability and side effect profile.

P-glycoprotein (Pgp), Glutathione (GSH), Glutathione S-Transferase (GST), and O6-Alkylguanine-DNA Alkyltransferase (ATase) were measured in parallel as putative indicators of drug resistance in adult leukemia. The patterns of resistance parameter expression of chronic and acute leukemia were different. In acute leukemia on average all parameters were increased as compared to normal bone marrow. In chronic leukemia GSH and GST were increased, whereas Atase, GPx and frequency of Pgp-expression were low. Treatment with cytostatic drugs did not influence median levels of expression/activity of the resistance parameters. Resistance parameter expression/activity of leukemic cells was also compared with various other tissue and tumor types. Generally the pattern of resistance parameter expression reflected the resistance status of the tissue, constitutively resistant tumor types and their corresponding normal tissue on average having higher levels than leukemic cells and other tissue and tumor types with acquired resistance. For individual patients with acute leukemia, however, none of the parameters was directly correlated with response to treatment.