12.1 周五（每日健康新闻）— 近期研究结果表示，吸入性伊洛前列素和波生坦联合治疗可改善肺动脉高压（PAH）患者的症状，肺动脉高压是一种以进行性肺血管狭窄为特征、常导致患者虚弱不堪甚至死亡的疾病。
密歇根大学医学中心的Dr. Vallerie V. McLaughlin和和他的9个同事对65例接受波生坦治疗的PAH患者进行了研究。波生坦是一种内皮素受体拮抗剂，可以增加肺血流量。
在这些病人中，32例采用吸入性伊洛前列素（一种前列腺幻素的类似物）和波生坦的联合用药，其余病人采用安慰剂和波生坦治疗。
在12周的研究后，接受伊洛前列素和波生坦联合治疗的病人可在6分钟步行测试中能独立行走98尺，其中11例可观察到明显的改善。另外，接受伊洛前列素和波生坦联合治疗的病人中无一例在此研究过程中出现病情恶化。
这一发现发表在《美国呼吸和重症医学杂志》12月第一期上。
PAH的病因目前尚不明确，临床表现为活动后气促、过度疲乏、无力、头晕和晕厥。随着时间的推移上述症状有逐渐加重的趋势。
Combination Therapy Eases Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
FRIDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A combination therapy of two drugs -- inhaled iloprost and bosentan -- appears to improve the condition of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a debilitating and potentially fatal disease characterized by a progressive narrowing of blood vessels in the lungs.
Dr. Vallerie V. McLaughlin, of the University of Michigan Medical Center, and nine colleagues studied 65 PAH patients who were being treated with bosentan, an endothelin receptor antagonist that helps boost blood flow in the lungs.
Of those patients, 32 were selected to receive inhaled iloprost (a prostacyclin analog) along with bosentan, while the remainder took a placebo and bosentan.
By the end of the 12-week study, all the patients who received the bosentan-iloprost therapy were able to walk 98 feet further during a six-minute walk test, and 11 of them showed improvement in a measurement of how severely they were affected by PAH.
In addition, none of the patients who received the bosentan-iloprost therapy experienced clinical deterioration over the course of the study.
The findings are published in the first issue for December of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Symptoms of PAH, which has no known cause, include shortness of breath following exercise, excessive fatigue, weakness, dizziness and fainting. The symptoms tend to grow worse over time.
-- Robert Preidt
SOURCE: American Thoracic Society, news release, Dec. 1, 2006
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=77879
编辑：蓝色幻想
