Duke B O
Bull World Health Organ. 1968;39(2):137-46.
It is important to standardize quantitative methods for assessing the action of drugs on Onchocerca volvulus in man. There are certain disadvantages to making observations on adult worms removed from excised nodules in treated patients, but a great deal of information on drug action can be obtained by making a careful study of the concentrations of microfilariae in multiple weighed skin snips taken before treatment and at intervals after treatment.Before drug trials can be carried out intelligently by this method it is necessary to know the normal length of life of the various stages of the parasite in man. By a variety of experimental methods the life-spans of the adult worms and the microfilariae have been determined, as well as the duration of the prepatent interval.Diethylcarbamazine can be used at doses that are effectively microfilaricidal but have no action on the adult worms. This drug can therefore be used to eliminate any residual microfilariae that remain after treatment with a new drug under trial, thus permitting a more rapid assessment of the latter's action on adult worms.
规范评估药物对人体盘尾丝虫作用的定量方法很重要。对治疗患者切除结节中取出的成虫进行观察存在某些缺点，但通过仔细研究治疗前及治疗后不同时间采集的多个称重皮肤切片中微丝蚴的浓度，可获得大量有关药物作用的信息。要通过这种方法明智地进行药物试验，有必要了解寄生虫在人体各阶段的正常寿命。通过各种实验方法，已确定了成虫和微丝蚴的寿命以及潜伏期的时长。乙胺嗪可按有效杀微丝蚴但对成虫无作用的剂量使用。因此，这种药物可用于清除试用新药治疗后残留的任何微丝蚴，从而能更快地评估后者对成虫的作用。
