E. Kissinger et al., Clinical and neurophysiological study of the effects of multiple doses of artemisinin on brain-stem function in Vietnamese patients, AM J TROP M, 63(1-2), 2000, pp. 48-55
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Envirnomentale Medicine & Public Health","Medical Research General Topics
The qinghaosu (artemisinin) group of drugs is the most important new class
of antimalarials developed in the last fifty years. Although there has been
no clinical evidence of neurotoxicity, an unusual pattern of damage to spe
cific brain-stem nuclei has been reported in experimental animals receiving
high doses of arteether or artemether. Detailed clinical examinations, aud
iometry, and brain stem auditory evoked potentials (BSAEPs) were assessed i
n 242 Vietnamese subjects who had previously received up to 21 antimalarial
treatment courses of artemisinin or artesunate alone and 108 controls from
the same location who had not received these drugs. There was no evidence
of a drug effect an the clinical or neurophysiological parameters assessed.
In this population there was no clinical or neurophysiological evidence of
brain-stem toxicity that could be attributed to exposure to artermisin or
artesunate.