engleski

An examination of the effect of MgSO4 in peripheral arterial diseases. A double blind trial

The purpose of the experiment described was to find out as objectively as possible the true pharmacodynamic value of a drug which has been alleged to be effective in chronic peripheral arterial diseases chiefly of atherosclerotic genesis. The objective assessment of a drug is of exceptional importance for the advancement of medical practice and it has been seriously undertaken in recent years. The double blind trial excludes a biased evaluation by the physioian and also excludes the patient knowing what he is being given. The results are therefore much more useful and come as near as possible to the truth about the drug's pharmacodynamic effect and its difference from a placebo. The patients' improved conditions after the administration of a drug are not enOugh to state that it has a positive pharmacodynamic effect. In our case, for example, subjective and objective improvement occurred in about 50% of patients treated with magnesium but almost the same happened to those who had been given distilled water, which proves that magnesium cannot be said to have any specific effect. The question arises why this improvement occurred after administration of both drug and placebo. It may have been the favorable general regime to which the patients were subjected, the suggestive effect of the "new medicine", the natural course of the diseases, etc. To answer this question was however not the purpose of our experiment. Our results show that injections of 50% MgS04 in doses of 4 cc every other day for one month did not have any especially significant effect on the state of peripheral arterial diseases different from that of distilled water. We are unable to confirm the alleged antithrombotic, cholesterolytic or hypotonic effects of this salt in our patients.

MgSO4; effect; peripheral arterial disease; double blind trial

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