30 patients (male:26) with average ages of 61+/- 8.5 and primary hypertension grade I-II were consulted and tested who used plendyl at a initial dose of 5 mg daily, within 4 weeks. The use of plendyl has demonstrated that the drug reduced both diastolic and systolic blood pressure.
Hypertension ; Blood Pressure ; Felodipine ; Therapeutics

Depression is a relatively common agonizing psychiatric disorder that affects the way we feel and think about ourselves and the world around us. Cognitive theories of depression have long posited that various cognitive biases are involved in the development and recurrence of depression. However, the current cognitive theory of depression has been reformulated and expanded from the previous cognitive model of depression based on the results from pharmacological, neuroimaging and neurocognitive studies. This review summarizes the evidence for cognitive dysfunctions in depression and the related pharmacological, neuroanatomical and genetic aspects which aim to integrate our knowledge about the cognitive aspects of depression and its treatment. The newly formulated cognitive theory of depression provides directions for future investigation to identify people at risk, to minimize recurrence, and to maximize long-term beneficial outcomes for those suffering from depression.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cognition* ; Depression* ; Felodipine ; Neuroimaging ; Recurrence

This tutorial explains the basic principles of mechanistic ligand-receptor interaction model, which is an operational model of agonism. A growing number of agonist drugs, especially immune oncology drugs, is currently being developed. In this tutorial, time-dependent ordinary differential equation for simple E(max) operational model of agonism was derived step by step. The differential equation could be applied in a pharmacodynamic modeling software, such as NONMEM, for use in non-steady state experiments, in which experimental data are generated while the interaction between ligand and receptor changes over time. Making the most of the non-steady state experimental data would simplify the experimental processes, and furthermore allow us to identify more detailed kinetics of a potential drug. The operational model of agonism could be useful to predict the optimal dose for agonistic drugs from in vitro and in vivo animal pharmacology experiments at the very early phase of drug development.
Animals ; Felodipine ; In Vitro Techniques ; Kinetics ; Pharmacology

BACKGROUND: Cryotherapy has been accepted as the mainstay in treating periunugal and palmoplantar warts. The major drawback of cryotherapy is the requirement of several unbearably painful treatment sessions. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the efficacy of immunotherapy in viral wart treatment, as an adjunctive method to cryotherapy. METHODS: Retrospective chart review was performed on 124 patients visiting the hospital from January to December 2009 for the treatment of periungual and plantar warts. We analyzed the number of cryotherapy sessions necessary for treating warts and assessed the clinical benefits from the addition of other treatment modalities, by adjusting the various confounding factors. RESULTS: Of the 124 investigated patients, immunotherapy with diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) was performed in 14 patients (11%), together with cryotherapy. After adjusting the factors related to the therapeutic difficulties of wart, the average number of cryotherapy sessions for the immunotherapy-combined group was significantly lower (3.58+/-1.25) than that for the cryotherapy only group (5.10+/-0.44) (p=0.026). However, there were no differences in the number of treatment sessions of cryotherapy when topical 5-FU/salicylic acid agents were added to the treatment. CONCLUSION: Immunotherapy may be a successful adjuvant to cryotherapy in reducing the number of agonizing cryotherapy sessions.
Cryotherapy ; Cyclopropanes ; Felodipine ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Warts

Sexual dysfunction is a common side effect in patients treated with antipsychotics but significant differences exist across different compounds. We report hypersexuality symptoms in two female patients with schizophrenia who were receiving treatment with aripiprazole. The patients experienced more frequent sexual desire and greater sexual preoccupation after taking aripiprazole. We discuss the potential neuro-chemical mechanisms for this and argue that aripiprazole's unique pharmacological profile, partial agonism with high affinity at dopamine D2-receptor, may have contributed to the development of these symptoms.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Dopamine ; Felodipine ; Female ; Humans ; Piperazines ; Quinolones ; Schizophrenia ; Aripiprazole

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) along with post-operative syndrome in the lumbar spine shows confusing and duplicated symptoms, and this makes it difficult to make a clear differential diagnosis. Therefore, the patient with post-operative syndrome in the lumbar spine suffers losses of time and money, and the surgeon who diagnoses and treats post-operative syndrome in the lumbar spine also agonize from the patient's losses. It is necessary to provide these patients with a multidisciplinary approach to their disease and symptoms. We diagnosed herniation of an intervertebral disc of the lumbar spine (L4/5) and we performed discetomy twice in different hospitals. However, the symptoms did not improve, so we re-operated and performed discetomy along with monosegmental fixation using pedicular screws and interbody cages. There was improvement of pre-operation symptoms, but neurogenic symptoms occurred and then progressed after the surgery. Therefore, we report here on the case of CRPS that was diagnosed with the exclusion of the causes of post-operative syndrome in the lumbar spine, and the patient was finally effectively treated with spinal cord stimulation. Although differentiating post-operative syndrome in the lumbar spine from CRPS is difficult, we recommend suspecting CRPS as the cause of post-operative syndrome in the lumbar spine and taking CRPS as the main interest in order to diagnose and treat CRPS more effectively and accurately.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Felodipine ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Spinal Cord Stimulation ; Spine

The molecular vibration-activity relationship in the receptor-ligand interaction of adenosine receptors was investigated by structure similarity, molecular vibration, and hierarchical clustering in a dataset of 46 ligands of adenosine receptors. The resulting dendrogram was compared with those of another kind of fingerprint or descriptor. The dendrogram result produced by corralled intensity of molecular vibrational frequency outperformed four other analyses in the current study of adenosine receptor agonism and antagonism. The tree that was produced by clustering analysis of molecular vibration patterns showed its potential for the functional classification of adenosine receptor ligands.
Adenosine* ; Classification ; Dataset ; Dermatoglyphics ; Felodipine* ; Ligands ; Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled ; Receptors, Purinergic P1* ; Subject Headings ; Vibration

Postmortem bacterial culture can be valuable for investigating deaths and determining the cause of death. However, there are many concerns regarding postmortem bacterial culture such as postmortem transmigration and agonal spread of bacteria. The two main methods for identification of the bacteria are biochemical and genetic methods. In Korea, the genetic method has been used for postmortem bacterial culture and identification in forensic medicine. However, there is a lack of consensus on the method to be used for postmortem bacterial culture and identification. Herein, we compared the genetic and biochemical methods of postmortem bacterial culture in autopsy practice. Both analyses were performed on the same samples. Bacteria were identified in 28 of the 34 cases (82.4%). Of the 74 comparable samples, only 28 (37.8%) showed consistent results by both methods. In addition, the biochemical method had a shorter reporting time and was more sensitive. In conclusion, we analyzed the causes of the inconsistency between the two methods and provided appropriate conditions and protocols for postmortem bacterial culture and identification.
Autopsy ; Bacteria ; Biochemical Processes ; Cause of Death ; Consensus ; Felodipine ; Forensic Medicine ; Genetic Processes ; Korea ; Methods*

Thirteen patients with contracted bladder due to tuberculosis who underwent surgical intervention were evaluated The most common agonizing symptom was frequency. Surgical management included augmentation cystoplasty in 8 patients and urinary diversion in 5 patients. In augmentation cystoplasty, the overall success rate of 87.5 % has been achieved in view of relief of symptom, improvement of bladder capacity and preservation of renal function. For the success of augmentation cystoplasty, creatinine clearance higher than 30 ml/min., no abnormality in selected intestinal segment, absence of uninhibited detrusor contraction or detrusor-sphincter-dyssynergia and no bladder outlet obstruction are inevitable. As an alternative, urinary diversion should be considered only in cases of severely deteriorated renal function, severely decreased bladder capacity, bladder outlet obstruction, neurogenic bladder and inapplicability of augmentation cystoplasty.
Creatinine ; Felodipine ; Humans ; Tuberculosis* ; Urinary Bladder Neck Obstruction ; Urinary Bladder* ; Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic ; Urinary Diversion

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a family of cell-surface proteins that play critical roles in regulating a variety of pathophysiological processes and thus are targeted by almost a third of currently available therapeutics. It was originally thought that GPCRs convert extracellular stimuli into intracellular signals through activating G proteins, whereas β-arrestins have important roles in internalization and desensitization of the receptor. Over the past decade, several novel functional aspects of β-arrestins in regulating GPCR signaling have been discovered. These previously unanticipated roles of β-arrestins to act as signal transducers and mediators of G protein-independent signaling have led to the concept of biased agonism. Biased GPCR ligands are able to engage with their target receptors in a manner that preferentially activates only G protein- or β-arrestin-mediated downstream signaling. This offers the potential for next generation drugs with high selectivity to therapeutically relevant GPCR signaling pathways. In this review, we provide a summary of the recent studies highlighting G protein- or β-arrestin-biased GPCR signaling and the effects of biased ligands on disease pathogenesis and regulation.
Bias (Epidemiology)* ; Felodipine ; GTP-Binding Proteins ; Humans ; Ligands ; Pathology* ; Physiology* ; Transducers