A PRELIMINARY OPEN TRIAL WITH NIMODIPINE IN PATIENTS WITH COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND LEUKOARAIOSIS

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.