3 PharmaEast GmbH, Berlin, Germany There is increasing evidence indicating that certain drugs evoke adverse drug effects that depend on the gender of patients. Elucidation of gender-effect of various drugs by means of preclinical trials is an important field of pharmacology. The chloriuretic and natriuretic effect of valproates (VPA) had not been investigated earlier, so the aim of the present ...

I read with interest the recent article by Ward et al. (2000) on the interactions between probenecid and valproic acid in rats. The authors attempted to predict the in vivo disposition of valproate glucuronide in the presence of probenecid using in vitro metabolism experiments and concluded that the in vitro prediction approach was not successful in this case. Although the authors provided two ...

Drug-induced encephalopathy is a disease entity often caused by impaired cerebral metabolism that is not attributed to structural brain lesions. However, some drug-induced encephalopathies can develop structural lesions and share other underlying pathophysiological mechanisms (table 2). Leading symptoms are acute or chronic disturbances of consciousness, brain function and personality changes w...

The aim of this study was to determine whether ethacrynic acid (EA), a loop diuretic with anticonvulsant activity, would affect the protective action of the conventional antiepileptics (AEDs) carbamazepine (CBZ), phenytoin (PHT), valproate (VPA) and phenobarbital (PB) in the mouse maximal electroshock seizure (MES) model. The effects of acute and chronic treatment with EA on these AEDs were exa...

To explore the mechanism underlying antileukaemia effect of sodium valproate, the growth and survival of the K562 cell line were investigated. Global profiles of gene expression in K562 cells exposed to sodium valproate were assessed and validated. The differentially expressed genes identified were further used to query the connectivity map database to retrieve a ranked list of compounds that a...

Long-term usage of antiepileptic drugs (AED) may lead to changes in serum vitamin B12 (B12) levels. Studies show that after sodium valproate prescription in epileptic patients, B12 concentrations increased.1 On the other hand, in the normal population, serum levels of B12 decreases with age.2 In the case of B12 deficiency, various hematologic, neurologic, and psychiatric clinical findings may b...

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that lithium increases choline concentrations, although previous human studies examining this possibility using 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) have had mixed results: some found increases while most found no differences. METHODS: The present study utilized 1H MRS, in a 3 T scanner to examine the effects of both lithium and sodium valproate upon cho...

Fetal Valproate Syndrome (FVS) is caused by prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA). Clinical phenotype of FVS includes characteristic facial dysmorphism, various congenital defects, developmental delay/mental retardation, and other neurologic deficits. The risk of congenital malfomation in the developing fetus is 2 or 3-fold higher (4-6%) than that of background population. In this report, we...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate and compare long-term effectiveness of five antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for monotherapy of adult patients with focal epilepsy in routine clinical practice. METHODS Adult patients with focal epilepsy, who were prescribed with carbamazepine (CBZ), valproate (VPA), lamotrigine (LTG), topiramate (TPM), or oxcarbazepine (OXC) as monotherapy, during the period from January 2004...

Over-expression of P-glycoprotein, encoded by the ABCB1 gene, is proposed to be involved in resistance to antiepileptic drugs in about 30% of patients with epilepsy. Here, we investigated the possible association between ABCB1 polymorphisms and sodium valproate (VPA) treatment in Malaysian epilepsy patients. Genotypes were assessed in 249 drug-resistant and 256 drug-responsive Malaysian patient...