Lisuride treatment of restless legs syndrome: first studies with monotherapy in de novo patients and in combination with levodopa in advanced disease.

In two 4-week polysomnography pilot studies with 10 patients each, we investigated the efficacy of oral lisuride as monotherapy in de novo RLS patients as well as in combination with levodopa in advanced RLS. Daily doses at study end were 0.3 mg lisuride, plus 150 mg levodopa in the combination study. Marked improvements occurred in both studies in different PLM indexes and in the CGI. Levodopa dose could be decreased by 27%. Lisuride might be an efficacious treatment for RLS in general, and in combination with levodopa in advanced stage.

Determination of biogenic halogenated methyl-phenyl ethers (halogenated anisoles) in the picogram m(-3) range in air.

Halogenated anisoles (methyl-phenyl ethers) appear to be ubiquitous organic trace compounds in the environment. An analytical method is presented for analyzing the altogether 134 congeners of chloro-, bromo- and mixed bromochloro-anisoles on an isomer-specific basis in air. High volume sampling (20 m(3) per hour) is carried out by adsorption, using a mixture of silica gel 60 and ENVI-Carb. The preseparation of the anisoles is achieved by NP-LC on Florisil (a magnesium silicate). The interference by volatile n-alkyl nitrates in the electron-capture detection can be avoided by a LC-preseparation on a carboneous phase. The isomer-specific separation and detection is performed by HRGC-ECD and HRGC-MS-SIM. A structure-specific systematic numbering of the 134 congeners of the chloro-, bromo- and bromochloro-anisoles is suggested. The retention data are given of 16 chloroanisoles, 10 bromoanisoles and 27 bromo-chloroanisoles on three stationary phases with different polarity.