A study on the modification of anti-inflammatory and analgesic action of aspirin by nifedipine.
BACKGROUND
Aspirin has been used as an analgesic from time immemorial. But the recent advances on various aspects of it in reducing risk of various fatal and non fatal diseases warrant a re-look.


OBJECTIVE
This study has been undertaker to assess the anti inflammatory and analgesic action of aspirin and Nifedipine alone as well as in combination and their individual and synergistic effect as anti-inflammatory and analgesic drug.


METHODS
The anti - inflammatory and anti - nociceptive effect of aspirin and nifedipine was studied in a group of albino rats of Sprague Dowly strain. Anti - inflammatory action of the drugs were tested in experimentally produced inflammatory model by injecting turpentine oil in to the synovial cavity of knee joint of rats and anti - nociceptive effect was studied by hot plate method.


RESULTS
From the study it was observed that nifedipine alone was a better anti - inflammatory drug causing 40.10 percent reduction of experimentally produced inflammation in the studied rats on the 12th day of observation compared to aspirin alone (33.80 %) and aspirin - nifedipine combination (39.82%) but as an analgesic nifedipine alone (51.20%) was not found to be as effective as aspirin(88.96%) at 90 minutes of observation. However, when nifedipine was combined with aspirin, it potentiated the anti - nociceptive action of aspirin (107.64 %) at 90 minutes of observation which was statistically significant (P<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The above finding demonstrated that the dose of Non Steroidal Anti - inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) probably could be reduced when it is combined with Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs) and thus the adverse effect of NSAIDs could be reduced considerably. Student's t test was applied for statistical analysis.
Patowary
S
S
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Nepal. suspat@rediffmail.com
D000700:Analgesics / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001241:Aspirin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004357:Drug Synergism; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009543:Nifedipine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D000700:Analgesics; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers; D009543:Nifedipine; D001241:Aspirin