L. Pantoni et al., A PRELIMINARY OPEN TRIAL WITH NIMODIPINE IN PATIENTS WITH COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND LEUKOARAIOSIS, Clinical neuropharmacology, 19(6), 1996, pp. 497-506
We treated, in a preliminary open trial, 31 patients presenting with c
ognitive impairment, progressive bilateral motor dysfunction, and leuk
oaraiosis on computed tomography (CT) with a 90-mg daily dose of nimod
ipine for a period as long as 1 year (minimum: 96 days, maximum: 424 d
ays), to study the safety and possible effects on functional and cogni
tive conditions throughout this period. Of the 29 patients who had bee
n followed for at least 9 months, most (82%) remained stable or improv
ed as evaluated by the Global Deterioration Scale. A significant impro
vement was observed in the total Sandoz Clinical Assessment Geriatric
scale score (44.66 +/- 7.17 at baseline vs, 36.86 +/- 9.34 at exit, an
alysis-of-variance time effect, p < 0.0001). These data indicate that
nimodipine, chronically administered in patients presenting with cogni
tive impairment, progressive bilateral motor dysfunction, and leukoara
iosis on CT, is safe and might have beneficial effect, to be confirmed
by a randomized trial.