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W. King Engel, MD; Benjamin Rix Brooks, MD

Arch Neurol. 1980;37(5):320.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Side effects of a drug sometimes lead to new uses. Phthalazinol is an inhibitor of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) phosphodiesterase (and cyclic guanine monophosphate (cGMP) phosphodiesterase to a much lesser extent), with no serious side effects.^1-3 We have used phthalazinol, 30 to 75 mg/kg/day, in patients during a period of four years, for as long as 33/4 years in one patient, attempting to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.¹ Phthalazinol raised to normal the low CSF levels of cAMP, but did not raise the low levels of cGMP.^3.4 Phthalazinol did not benefit the disease in 20 patients.³ One 69-year-old man with only bulbar involvement, which had progressed for 30 months before treatment, has had no further progression during 47 months of phthalazinol therapy, 35 mg/kg/day. Whether arrest was related to the phthalazinol or a spontaneous plateauing of his disease is not yet known.3 Transient side effects in a . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations

Footnotes

Reprint requests to Neuromuscular Diseases Section, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, Bldg 10, Room 10D20, Bethesda, MD 20205 (Dr Engel).

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