Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0000729 (abdominal cramps)
 531 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A case report of subacute, reversible ischemic colitis associated with use of oral contraceptives (OCs) is reported. A 19-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with chief complaints of abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding of 2 days' duration. Past medical history and family history were noncontributory. The patient was receiving no medication other than Norinyl 2 (2 mg of norethindrone and .1 mg of mestranol), which she had been taking for 6 months. 2 days before admission the patient had taken 100 mg of dimenhydrinate and 2 ExLax tablets (90 mg of phenolphthalein) for constipation. Colonic roentgenograms revealed impaired mesenteric circulation and bowel ischemia; OC-induced ischemic bowel disease was diagnosed. Patient symptoms subsided within 96 hours of discontinuing the OC and initiating supportive therapy (including intravenous fluid infusion, nasogastric suction, analgesics, and antiemetics). When a repeat barium enema was performed, it showed resolution of the ischemia. In a short review following the case report, these drugs were indicted in causation of colitis-like syndrome: amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephazolin, chloramphenicol, chlorpropamide, clindamycin, cloxacillin, cotrimoxasole, cyclophosphamide, digitalis, ergotamine tartrate, flucytosine, fluorouracil, gold salts, laxative and cathartic abuse, mercurous chloride, methyldopa, penicillin V, and tetracycline. Ischemic bowel disease secondary to OC use is a rare but important complication because of its significant morbidity and potential mortality, and because of the widespread use of the drugs. The case report emphasizes the need to consider the differential diagnosis of acute vascular insult with bowel ischemia when acute abdominal pain progressing to bloody diarrhea occurs in young women taking OCs.
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PMID:Oral contraceptive-induced ischemic bowel disease. 48 72

In Belgium, physicians at Heilig Hart Kliniek in Roeselare removed half of the colon of a 22-year-old woman suffering from obstructing Crohn's disease of the terminal ileum. 2 weeks after leaving the hospital she had diarrhea and abdominal cramps and neither fecal culture nor Clostridium difficile toxin were positive. 2 weeks later she experienced the same symptoms, but the diarrhea was now profuse watery diarrhea mixed with blood. The physicians performed a biopsy of the colonic segment at both ends of the left colon which revealed signs of ischemic colitis (obvious congestion, acute extravasation of blood, and focal desquamation of epithelial cells). So they ordered parenteral feeding for 24 hours, after which she had no more symptoms. She began oral feeding with no complications. When the physicians learned that after discharge she began using the combined oral contraceptive (OC) Trinovum and 2.5 mg dihydroergotaminemesilate to treat migraine, they told her to stop taking the ergotamine alkaloid and recommended that she not use the OC. She agreed to stop using the migraine medication but started using the OC again. 4 months after the biopsy she no longer has side effects. The woman had multiple risk factors of ischemic colitis development: OC use and use of an ergotamine alkaloid. The potentially vasoconstrictory and thrombogenic factors may have irritated underlying vascular injury and the tendency of focal mesenteric thrombosis which is often present in people with Crohn's disease. Therefore, the physicians deducted that OC use and use of ergotamine alkaloid were responsible for the ischemia. In conclusion, ergotamine alkaloid use in association with OC use is contraindicated in women who have predisposing factors, e.g., thrombogenic disease or coagulation abnormalities.
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PMID:Ischemic colitis in a patient with Crohn's disease taking an oral contraceptive and an ergotamine alkaloid. 838 3