Considerable literature (1-6) is available on "the cumulative effect of digitalis", but the mechanism involved in the appearance of this "cumulative effect" is still a matter of speculation. Previous reports suggest the possibility that cardiac glycosides may produce their effects on the heart through the central nervous system (CNS) (7, 8). The present work was designed to determine whether "t...

INTRODUCTION Two Italian adults arrived at the Emergency Department referring diarrhea, nausea and vomiting for 4 days; weakness, fatigue and visual hallucinations were also complained of. Patients reported the ingestion of some leaves of a plant, which they supposed to be "donkey ears", a week before. Physical examination showed hypotension and bradycardia and ECG examination disclosed sinus r...

The article provides a mathematical description based on the theory of differential equations, for the proliferation of malignant cells (cancer). A model is developed which enables us to describe and predict the dynamics of cell proliferation much better than by using ordinary curve fitting procedures. By using differential equations the ability to foresee the dynamics of cell proliferation is ...

1 Ouabain was administered at a loading dose of 3 jg/kg followed by an infusion at a rate of 1 jig kg-1 min-' in order to produce severe dysrhythmia in dogs within 60 minutes. Similarly, digitoxin at a loading dose of 9 jg/kg followed by an infusion at a rate of 3 ,ug kg-' min-' was administered to compare its effect with that of ouabain. 2 During the 60 min experimental period, the plasma conc...

During the last 40 years extensive investigations have been reported on various aspects of the metabolism of cardiac glycosides. A detailed review describing the cellular basis of cardiac glycoside action has been reported by Hajdu and Leonard (1). One prime difficulty encountered in determining the metabolic fate of cardiac glycosides is in establishing a reliable and sensitive method for dete...

Placental transfer of radioactive C-digitoxin was investigated in four pregnant women. The concentration of the labeled drug and its metabolic products in the various fetal organs was determined. Less than 1 per cent of the administered glycoside was detected in the fetus as unchanged digitoxin and less than 3.5 per cent as its metabolites. The fetal heart and kidney of 11 to ]2 weeks gestation...

The cardiac glycosides digitoxin (1) and digoxin (3) have been used in cardiac diseases for many years. During this time several reports have suggested the possible use of digitalis in medical oncology. Several analogues of digitoxin (1) were evaluated for growth inhibition activity in three human cancer cell lines; this study showed that digitoxin (1) was the most active compound and revealed ...

Within recent years, there has been an increasing interest in purified digitalis preparations. However, in spite of the original optimistic reports , the recent literature tends to discredit the value of the new preparations. Most criticisms fall into two groups: (A) Inadequacy of digitali-zation with the original recommended dosage schedules. (B) Increase in the incidence of drug toxicity. It ...

Because of an error in the manufacture of digoxin tablets a large number of patients took tablets that contained 0.20 mg. of digitoxin and 0.05 mg. of digoxin instead of the prescribed 0.25 mg. of digoxin. The symptoms are described of 179 patients who took these tablets and suffered from digitalis intoxication. Of these patients, 125 had taken the faultily composed tablets for more than three ...