THERAPY WITH ALMITRINE BISMESYLATE IN CHR ONIC RESPIRATORY INSUFFICIENCY

This study was designed to evaluate the gasometric and functional resp iratory responses in chronic bronchitic patients with chronic respirat ory insufficiency (CRI) under ambulatory oxygen therapy (AOT) with alm itrine bismesylate (AB). It was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, ra ndomized, prospective study which lasted three months and with a dosag e regime of 50-100 mg/day of AB. Fiftyfour patients completed the stud y (28 in AB and 24 in the placebo (P) groups, respectively). All patie nts were males, with a mean age or 65+/-6.1 years. In the study of pul monary function only airway resistance (Raw) was changed, with a signi ficant decrease at the third month in the AB group compared with the P group (0.83+/-0.31 vs. 1.07+/-0.46 kpa/L.S), with a p value of 0.05 ( mean+/-SD) and PaO2 which improved from 8.15+/-0.88 to 8.81+/-2.3 kpa (61.17+/-6.6 to 66.10+/-10 mmHg), with a p value of 0.05. AB therapy w as well tolerated.