Diabetic neuropathy includes a heterogenous group of neuropathic syndromes associated with diabetes mellitus. One form of diabetic neuropathy is distal symmetric polyneuropathy, which is characterized at a late stage by intractable pain. This pain is generally refractory to present modalities of therapy except for narcotics. Pentoxifylline offers a new approach to therapy, reducing the blood viscosity and improving perfusion of ischemic microcirculation. A case report will be presented of intractable painful peripheral neuropathy responding dramatically to pentoxifylline therapy.

This report presents the sixth case of thrombotic obliteration of the branches of the aortic arch to be documented in this country. The world's literature on this subject is reviewed and analyzed from the standpoints of clinical characteristics, etiology, and pathology.

The topic of placebos in clinical research has been recently addressed in general medical journals, and is relevant to a clinical pharmacologists’ readership as well. In this article we try to give an overview of the benefits as well as problems of this methodology. Although the use of placebos in drug development is frequently absolutely essential, important ethical and technical problems are generally involved. We conclude that the placebo‐controlled trial although methodologically pure may sometimes cause too many difficulties in the clinical setting.

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