Lumitene and Sildenafil Citrate

• Generic Name: beta-carotene
• Dosage Forms: n.a.
• Other Brand Names: A-Caro-25, B-Caro-T, Caroguard

Vitamins are compounds that you must have for growth and health. They are needed in small amounts only and are usually available in the foods that you eat. Beta-carotene is converted in the body to vitamin A, which is necessary for healthy eyes and skin.

A lack of vitamin A may cause a rare condition called night blindness (problems seeing in the dark). It may also cause dry eyes, eye infections, skin problems, and slowed growth. Your health care professional may treat these problems by prescribing either beta-carotene, which your body can change into vitamin A, or vitamin A for you.

Some conditions may increase your need for vitamin A. These include:

• Cystic fibrosis
• Diarrhea, continuing
• Illness, long-term
• Injury, serious
• Liver disease
• Malabsorption problems
• Pancreas disease

Increased need for vitamin A should be determined by your health care professional.

Claims that beta-carotene is effective as a sunscreen have not been proven. Although beta-carotene supplements are being studied for their ability to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer and possibly heart disease, there is not enough information to show that this is effective.

Beta-carotene may be used to treat other conditions as determined by your doctor.

Beta-carotene is available without a prescription.

• Generic Name: sildenafil
• Dosage Forms: n.a.
• Other Brand Names: Revatio, Viagra

To facilitate attainment of a sexually functional erection in males with erectile dysfunction (ED, impotence).

Most experts currently recommend that selective PDE type 5 inhibitors be offered as first-line therapy for ED unless contraindicated. Insufficient evidence to support the superiority of one selective PDE type 5 inhibitor over another.

Has been used for the management of sexual dysfunction in women; however, additional study needed to establish role, if any, of such therapy.

Although sildenafil may improve physiologic response (e.g., increased blood flow to sexual organs), such changes have not been associated with overall improvement in sexual dysfunction in women.

Also has been used in women with sexual dysfunction induced by SSRI antidepressants and in women with neurogenic sexual dysfunction (e.g., due to spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis); however, data limited.

Symptomatic management of PAH (WHO group 1 pulmonary hypertension) to improve exercise capacity and delay clinical worsening.

Parenteral preparation used for continued treatment in patients with PAH who are temporarily unable to take oral medication.

Efficacy established principally in patients with NYHA/WHO functional class II–III PAH (idiopathic or associated with connective tissue diseases).

Recommended as one of several treatment options for initial management of PAH in patients with NYHA/WHO functional class II, III, or IV symptoms who are not candidates for calcium-channel blocker therapy or in whom such therapy has failed. Individualize choice of therapy; consider factors such as disease severity, route of administration, potential adverse effects and costs of treatment, clinician experience, and patient preference.

In patients with inadequate response to initial monotherapy, may consider combination therapy with a prostanoid or endothelin-receptor antagonist (added sequentially). By targeting different pathophysiologic pathways of the disease, such combination therapy may provide additive and/or synergistic benefits.

Because increased mortality has been observed in children receiving higher (more effective) dosages of sildenafil, FDA currently does not recommend use of the drug in patients <18 years of age. (See Pediatric Use under Cautions.) Whether long-term sildenafil therapy has a beneficial effect on mortality in adults remains to be established.