Double Blind Comparative Study of Cinnarizine and Buflomedil in Patients Suffering from Cerebrovascular Insufficiency

Abstract

In this paper a comparison was established from the clinical, neurological, psychological, and laboratory viewpoints, between the effects on the cental nervous system of a vasodilating medication, cinnarizine, currently accepted as effective, and buflomedil, a medicine recently introduced, which has shown good promise in the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases. During a 180-day period, 37 patients suffering from vascular cerebral insufficiency, aged between 43 and 86 years, were treated. The patients were randomized into two groups, each group receiving one of the treatments in a double-blind study. All patients were periodically administered clinical and neurological tests, and the Benton Test for visuo retention through which the intellectual level, recent memory, and visuo-motor coordination were examined. In addition, the patients were given a series of laboratory toxicity tests to ascertain the safety of the treatment. On completion of the study all data submitted to a statistical analysis. After studying the results, the authors reached the conclusion that both treatments were beneficial; when corresponding doses were used, buflomedil showed better results by improving the reasoning and the remote memory, and in the Benton test, better results in improving visuo-motor coordination were demonstrated by statistical analysis. Laboratory tests did not reveal any changes except in the serum cholesterol level, which decreased significantly in those patients who took buflomedil.

History of Symptomatic Therapy in Vascular Dementia

“…In the late 70s, a new group of potential therapeutic agents for vascular disorders of the brain was introduced with the so-called hemorheological agents (drugs with vasoactive, antiaggregant, and pro-eryt hrocyte def ormabili ty actions and protective glial cell modulation). Pentoxifylline (Hawart, 1979) was the first of the alkylxantines soon followed by buflomedil (Pacheco e Silva et al, 1981) and later on by denbufylline (Saletu et al, 1992) and propentofylline (Mielke et al, 1996). But it is in the 80s that various other classes of drugs considered active on the cerebrovascular disorders were introduced and proposed for clinical use.…”