Possibilities of therapy for early manifestations of chronic cerebral ischemia: results of the PROFILE program
Objective: to investigate the efficacy and safety of Cavinton® Comforte (Vinpocetine) in patients with initial manifestations of chronic cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in outpatient neurological and therapeutic practice. Patients and methods. The program included 4410 patients with a verified diagnosis of Stage I-II dyscirculatory encephalopathy. All the patients took Cavinton® Comforte 10 mg thrice daily for 3 months. The patients underwent neurological and general physical examinations, laboratory tests, functional diagnostic (electrocardiography, Doppler ultrasound), and neuroimaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging). Neuropsychological tests for attention, memory, visual-spatial and executive functions were used to assess cognitive impairment. Results. Therapy with this drug showed a high efficiency in terms of both subjective characteristics and the data of neuropsychological tests for attention, memory, visual-spatial and executive functions. At the same time, the improvement was equally marked in young, middle-aged, and old patients. Positive changes in test results, as in patient complaints, were already evident after one month of treatment. A positive trend remained with the therapy continued for up to 3 months. More than 90% of physicians and patients assessed the efficacy and tolerability of treatment as good or excellent. Conclusion. The investigation has demonstrated that it is appropriate to use the drug in patients at the early stages of chronic CVD. To further study the efficiency of this therapy in patients with chronic brain ischemia, it is advisable to conduct a comparative placebo-controlled investigation.