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Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study

Aim:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of donepezil plus natural hirudin in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's Disease. Methods: In the 20-week, randomized, open-label and controlled study, 84 patients received either donepezil (5 mg/day for the first 4 weeks and 10 mg/day thereafter)...

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Autores principales: Li, De-qiang, Zhou, Yu-ping, Yang, Han
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Ivyspring International Publisher 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22606044
http://dx.doi.org/10.7150/ijms.4363
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author Li, De-qiang
Zhou, Yu-ping
Yang, Han
author_facet Li, De-qiang
Zhou, Yu-ping
Yang, Han
author_sort Li, De-qiang
collection PubMed
description Aim:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of donepezil plus natural hirudin in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's Disease. Methods: In the 20-week, randomized, open-label and controlled study, 84 patients received either donepezil (5 mg/day for the first 4 weeks and 10 mg/day thereafter) or donepezil plus natural hirudin (3 g/day) treatment. Efficacy was reflected by the change of the total scores of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog), Activities of Daily Life (ADL) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Results: The patients with the donepezil plus natural hirudin treatment showed more significant improvement in the daily activities and the decline of the cognition than those with donepezil treatment. Significant difference was present in the groups since the 8th week. No group difference was found in the NPI change. However, within the hirudin treatment group, more powerful efficacy including NPI assessment was found in the patients with vascular risk factors (VRF) as comparing to with those without VRF. The combination of donepezil and natural hirudin was well tolerated. The dropout rate was greater in the donepezil and natural hirudin (50%) treatment group than in the donepezil (39%) treatment group. Similar result was found in the incidence of adverse events (23.8% vs 19.0%), but there was no statistical difference between the two groups. Adverse events were the most common reason for the dropout. Although hemorrhage and hypersensitiveness were more common in donepezil plus Maixuekang treatment (11.9% and 7.1%) group than in donepezil treatment (2.4% and 2.4%) group, no significant difference was present between the two groups. Economic problem was another important reason for the patients' withdrawal. Conclusions: Compared with the donepezil treatment in the patients with mild-to-moderate AD, our results suggest that donepezil combined with natural hirudin may improve the treatment effects in the ADL, BPSD and cognition of the patients. Furthermore, this joint treatment is safe.
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spelling pubmed-33543292012-05-17 Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study Li, De-qiang Zhou, Yu-ping Yang, Han Int J Med Sci Research Paper Aim:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of donepezil plus natural hirudin in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's Disease. Methods: In the 20-week, randomized, open-label and controlled study, 84 patients received either donepezil (5 mg/day for the first 4 weeks and 10 mg/day thereafter) or donepezil plus natural hirudin (3 g/day) treatment. Efficacy was reflected by the change of the total scores of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog), Activities of Daily Life (ADL) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Results: The patients with the donepezil plus natural hirudin treatment showed more significant improvement in the daily activities and the decline of the cognition than those with donepezil treatment. Significant difference was present in the groups since the 8th week. No group difference was found in the NPI change. However, within the hirudin treatment group, more powerful efficacy including NPI assessment was found in the patients with vascular risk factors (VRF) as comparing to with those without VRF. The combination of donepezil and natural hirudin was well tolerated. The dropout rate was greater in the donepezil and natural hirudin (50%) treatment group than in the donepezil (39%) treatment group. Similar result was found in the incidence of adverse events (23.8% vs 19.0%), but there was no statistical difference between the two groups. Adverse events were the most common reason for the dropout. Although hemorrhage and hypersensitiveness were more common in donepezil plus Maixuekang treatment (11.9% and 7.1%) group than in donepezil treatment (2.4% and 2.4%) group, no significant difference was present between the two groups. Economic problem was another important reason for the patients' withdrawal. Conclusions: Compared with the donepezil treatment in the patients with mild-to-moderate AD, our results suggest that donepezil combined with natural hirudin may improve the treatment effects in the ADL, BPSD and cognition of the patients. Furthermore, this joint treatment is safe. Ivyspring International Publisher 2012-05-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3354329/ /pubmed/22606044 http://dx.doi.org/10.7150/ijms.4363 Text en © Ivyspring International Publisher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Reproduction is permitted for personal, noncommercial use, provided that the article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Paper
Li, De-qiang
Zhou, Yu-ping
Yang, Han
Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study
title Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study
title_full Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study
title_fullStr Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study
title_short Donepezil Combined with Natural Hirudin Improves the Clinical Symptoms of Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 20-Week Open-Label Pilot Study
title_sort donepezil combined with natural hirudin improves the clinical symptoms of patients with mild-to-moderate alzheimer's disease: a 20-week open-label pilot study
topic Research Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22606044
http://dx.doi.org/10.7150/ijms.4363
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