[Ocular hypotensive effect of systemic beta-blockers in patients with primary glaucoma and arterial hypertension]. / Oftal'mogipotenzivnyĭ éffekt sistemnogo primeneniia beta-blokatorov pri pervichnoĭ glaukome i arterial'noĭ gipertenzii.

AIM: to evaluate the ocular hypotensive efficacy of systemic beta-blockers in primary glaucoma patients suffering from arterial hypertension (AH). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 29 patients with POAG (58 eyes) aged from 47 to 83 years. Patients with stage I-III POAG received instillations of prostaglandin analogs and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. All POAG patients also suffered from arterial hypertension and were prescribed selective beta-blockers (metoprolol, bisoprolol, or nebivalol) as monotherapy or as part of combination therapy (if the target arterial pressure had not been achieved under the initial treatment). After the start of oral beta-blockers therapy, the patients were re-examined at 2 and 4 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. RESULTS: A clinically significant reduction of IOP in the most seriously affected eye - by 3.3 mmHg (p<0.05), or 14% - occurred four weeks after the start of selective beta-blockers. Over three months of combination therapy, IOP in the 'worst' eye decreased by 4.4 mmHg (18.5%). At 1 year, IOP in the 'worst' eye was 6.2 mmHg (26%) lower than at baseline (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Aged and senile patients with primary glaucoma usually suffer from polypathy (on average, they have 6.3±0.6 concurrent somatic diseases). To reduce the risk of polypharmacy and the frequency of side effects in the treatment of POAG and AH patients, it is advised that the treatment includes oral selective beta-blockers able to provide target levels of arterial pressure and IOP. In this study, oral beta-blockers in POAG and AH patients enabled IOP reduction as great as 18.5%-26% of baseline values over a 1-year follow-up period.

[Experience with the superselective third-generation beta-adrenoblocker nebivolol used to treat patients with prior myocardial infarction]. / Opyt primeneniia superselektivnogo beta-adrenoblokatora III pokoleniia nebivolola v lechenii bol'nykh perenesshikh infarkt miokarda.

The effectiveness and safety of therapy with nebivolol and its effects on life quality (LQ) were studied in 71 patients with prior myocardial infarction (MI) with an ejection fraction of 40% or more. The follow-up lasted 1 year. The mean daily dose of the drug was 3.66 +/- 0.11 mg. Echocardiography, bicycle ergometry, daily ECG monitoring, survey according to the questionnaires developed by V. P. Zaitsev, a researcher of All-Russian Cardiology Research Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, to the depression scale (DS), the personality scale (PS) and reactive anxiety scale (RAS) by Spilberg-Khanin were performed. The study was conducted on the day of initiation of outpatient treatment, following 3 months and 1 year. After 3 months of therapy, clinical improvement was observed in 83% of the patients and it preserved at the same level till the end of the first year: exercise tolerance and the total volume of work increased significantly (p < 0.001), 97% of the examinees returned to work. Nebivolol produced an antiarrhythmic effect in 66.7% of the patients with high Lown gradation premature beats. Therapy with the agent showed a low mortality rates (1.4%), few number of cardiovascular excesses (4.2%), and good tolerability (7.2%). By the end of the first year, cardiac remodeling improved insignificantly: end-systolic volume, end-diastolic volume, left ventricular myocardial mass decreased by 6.4, 1.4, and 7%, respectively; fraction ejection increased by 2.3% of the baseline values. The parameters of LQ improved: the RAS scores reduced by 18.4%; the number of patients with high PS scores decreased significantly (p < 0.05) due to the increase in the number of patients with its moderate level (p < 0.01) and, what is significant, erectile function did not deteriorate. Thus, nebivolol demonstrated its high effectiveness and safety during prolonged therapy of patients with prior MI, without cardiodepressive activity and favorable impact on their LQ.