Four hundred fifty volunteers participated in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial of the prophylactic effects of rimantadine and amantadine during an outbreak of influenza A. The subjects received drugs orally at a dose of 100 mg twice a day for six weeks. Influenza-like illness occurred in 41 per cent of the subjects receiving placebo but in only 14 per cent of those receiving rimantadine and 9 per cent of these receiving amantadine (P less than 0.001 for either drug vs. placebo). Laboratory-documented influenza occurred in 21 per cent of placebo recipients, 3 per cent of rimantadine recipients, and 2 per cent of amantadine recipients (P less than 0.001). These findings represent efficacy rates of 85 per cent for rimantadine and 91 per cent for amantadine, as compared with placebo. More recipients of amantadine (13 per cent) than recipients of rimantadine (6 per cent; P less than 0.05) or placebo (4 per cent; P less than 0.01) withdrew from the study because of central-nervous-system side effects. On the basis of this study, rimantadine appears to be the drug of choice for the prophylaxis of influenza A.

We gave a perfluorochemical oxygen-transport fluid and plasma expander, Fluosol-DA, to seven severely anemic patients before surgery to determine its effectiveness in supplementing oxygen transport. The dose of Fluosol in the five patients completing the study was 20 ml per kilogram of body weight. When the patients breathed low levels of supplemental oxygen (mean partial pressure of arterial oxygen +/- S.D., 101 +/- 25 torr), the perfluorochemical carried a small amount of oxygen, but when they received pure oxygen (arterial oxygen pressure, 361 +/- 65 torr) it carried approximately 0.8 per cent of oxygen (by volume). This increase accounted for 7 +/- 3 per cent of the patients' arterial oxygen content and 24 +/- 7 per cent of their oxygen consumption. The cardiac index and left ventricular stroke-work index decreased, whereas the oxygen delivery increased, although these changes were not statistically significant. Significant changes included a 22 per cent increase in oxygen consumption, a 59 per cent increase in mixed venous oxygen tension, and an increase in mixed venous hemoglobin saturation to 90 +/- 6 per cent. We conclude that at ambient oxygen tensions fluosol acts primarily as a volume expander, whereas at higher tensions (greater than 300 torr) it contributes substantially to the oxygen-delivery system.

To prevent occlusion of aortocoronary-artery-bypass grafts, we conducted a prospective, randomized-double-blind trial comparing dipyridamole (instituted two days before operation) plus aspirin (added seven hours after operation) with placebo in 407 patients. Vein-graft angiography was performed in 360 patients (88 per cent) within six months of operation (median, eight days). Within one month of operation, 3 per cent of vein-graft distal anastomoses (10 of 351) were occluded in the treated patients, and 10 per cent (38 of 362) in the placebo group; the proportion of patients with one or more distal anastomoses occluded was 8 per cent (10 of 130) in the treated group and 21 per cent (27 of 130) in th placebo group. This benefit in graft patency persisted in each of over 50 subgroups. Early postoperative bleeding was similar in the two groups. In this trial dipyridamole and aspirin were effective in preventing graft occlusion early after operation.

Environmental stress has been implicated as an important factor in the relapse of schizophrenic patients receiving optimal drug therapy. In a randomized controlled study, we compared at-home family therapy with clinic-based individual supportive care in the community management of schizophrenia in 36 patients taking neuroleptic maintenance medications. The family-treatment approach sought to enhance the stress-reducing capacity of the patient and his or her family through improved understanding of the illness and training in behavioral methods of problem solving. The results at the end of nine months revealed the superiority of this approach in preventing major symptomatic exacerbations. Only one family-treated patient (6 per cent of all patients) was judged to have had a clinical relapse, as compared with eight patients (44 per cent) treated individually. Family-treated patients averaged 0.83 days in the hospital, as compared with 8.39 days for the comparison group. Significantly lower levels of schizophrenic symptomatology on blind rating-scale assessments supported these clinical observations of the superiority of family management.

Seventy-seven patients with first episodes of genital herpes and 111 with recurrent episodes were enrolled in a double-blind trial comparing topical acyclovir with a placebo (polyethylene glycol ointment). Among acyclovir-treated patients with first-episode primary genital herpes, the mean duration of viral shedding (4.1 days) and the time to complete crusting of lesions present at the initiation of therapy (7.1 days) were shorter than among placebo recipients (7.0 and 10.5 days, respectively) (P less than 0.05). Acyclovir-treated patients with recurrent herpes had a shorter duration of viral shedding than placebo recipients (0.95 vs. 1.90 days) (P = 0.03). Among the patients with recurrent herpes, acyclovir reduced the time to crusting of lesions in men but had no effect on the symptoms or healing times in women. Topical acyclovir shortens the duration of viral shedding and accelerates healing of some genital herpes simplex virus infections.