Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0000737 (abdominal pain)
 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase inhibitors are gaining widespread use in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Clinical experience with lovastatin, which is approaching 4 years in many patients, indicates that it is well tolerated. Short-term adverse effects have usually been self-limited and have included abdominal pain, cramps, bloating, and flatus in 4-6% of cases. Raised hepatic transaminases and myopathy have occurred in 1.3 and 0.1% of cases, respectively; both, however, are reversible upon discontinuation of drug. To date, there is no evidence that lovastatin adversely affects the human lens. Overall, the drug has been well tolerated by the vast majority of patients over the long term. Early clinical experience with simvastatin shows a pattern and frequency of side effects similar to that reported with lovastatin.
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PMID:Long-term clinical tolerance of lovastatin and simvastatin. 207 73

The long term use of lipid-lowering drugs in the treatment of patients with hyperlipoproteinaemia is aimed at reducing plasma concentrations of known atherogenic lipoproteins with a favourable effect on lipid deposition in the arterial wall. A less common aim is to prevent the adverse sequelae of hyperchylomicronaemia in patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia. The decision to begin drug therapy should be made only after the exclusion of secondary factors and after an adequate trial of diet has failed to produce acceptable concentrations of plasma lipids and lipoproteins. The bile acid sequestrants (cholestyramine and colestipol), nicotinic acid, fenofibrate and inhibitors of hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase (e.g. lovastatin or simvastatin) are the most effective drugs for use in patients with primary hypercholesterolaemia; these agents reduce plasma concentrations of total and LDL-cholesterol by 15 to 45%. For those patients with concurrent hypertriglyceridaemia, nicotinic acid, lovastatin or simvastatin, or fenofibrate are the preferred drugs for initial use; bile acid sequestrants frequently exacerbate hypertriglyceridaemia in these patients. Fibric acid derivatives (e.g. clofibrate, gemfibrozil, bezafibrate or fenofibrate) are all effective in the therapy of patients with type III hyperlipoproteinaemia, as is nicotinic acid and I have found lovastatin to be effective also. Gemfibrozil or nicotinic acid are the most effective agents to use in the treatment of patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia who are at increased risk of abdominal pain and pancreatitis. Combined therapy with drugs which have different mechanisms of action can be effectively used in the treatment of patients with severe hypercholesterolaemia or combined hyperlipidaemia; for the former group, combinations which use bile acid sequestrants, HMG CoA reductase inhibitors and nicotinic acid are the most effective.
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PMID:An overview of lipid-lowering drugs. 307 24

Liver disease in pregnancy should be considered in 3 categories: pre-existing disease, disease peculiar to pregnancy and coincident acute liver or gall-stone disease. In addition the time of onset of diagnosis in terms of the trimester of gestation must be verified, as the diseases peculiar to pregancy have a characteristic time of onset. In the last trimester closes obstetric management is required for the constellation of abnormal liver function tests, nausea and/or vomiting and abdominal pain. This may be due to severe pre-eclampsia, HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets) syndrome or acute fatty liver of pregnancy with or without sub-capsular hepatic haematomas, amongst which there is an overlap. Early delivery is curative. A molecular basis consisting of long chain 3-hydroxyl CoA dehydroxegenase deficiency in heterozygote mothers underlies this clinical syndrome. Ursodeoxycholic acid is now established treatment for intra-hepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and appears to improve foetal outcome. Hepatitis B vaccination and immunoglobulin at birth prevents chronic hepatitis B in children of HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen) positive carrier mothers.
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PMID:Pregnancy and liver disease. 951 93

Sodium fluoroacetate was introduced as a rodenticide in the US in 1946. However, its considerable efficacy against target species is offset by comparable toxicity to other mammals and, to a lesser extent, birds and its use as a general rodenticide was therefore severely curtailed by 1990. Currently, sodium fluoroacetate is licensed in the US for use against coyotes, which prey on sheep and goats, and in Australia and New Zealand to kill unwanted introduced species. The extreme toxicity of fluoroacetate to mammals and insects stems from its similarity to acetate, which has a pivotal role in cellular metabolism. Fluoroacetate combines with coenzyme A (CoA-SH) to form fluoroacetyl CoA, which can substitute for acetyl CoA in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and reacts with citrate synthase to produce fluorocitrate, a metabolite of which then binds very tightly to aconitase, thereby halting the cycle. Many of the features of fluoroacetate poisoning are, therefore, largely direct and indirect consequences of impaired oxidative metabolism. Energy production is reduced and intermediates of the tricarboxylic acid cycle subsequent to citrate are depleted. Among these is oxoglutarate, a precursor of glutamate, which is not only an excitatory neurotransmitter in the CNS but is also required for efficient removal of ammonia via the urea cycle. Increased ammonia concentrations may contribute to the incidence of seizures. Glutamate is also required for glutamine synthesis and glutamine depletion has been observed in the brain of fluoroacetate-poisoned rodents. Reduced cellular oxidative metabolism contributes to a lactic acidosis. Inability to oxidise fatty acids via the tricarboxylic acid cycle leads to ketone body accumulation and worsening acidosis. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) depletion results in inhibition of high energy-consuming reactions such as gluconeogenesis. Fluoroacetate poisoning is associated with citrate accumulation in several tissues, including the brain. Fluoride liberated from fluoroacetate, citrate and fluorocitrate are calcium chelators and there are both animal and clinical data to support hypocalcaemia as a mechanism of fluoroacetate toxicity. However, the available evidence suggests the fluoride component does not contribute. Acute poisoning with sodium fluoroacetate is uncommon. Ingestion is the major route by which poisoning occurs. Nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain are common within 1 hour of ingestion. Sweating, apprehension, confusion and agitation follow. Both supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias have been reported and nonspecific ST- and T-wave changes are common, the QTc may be prolonged and hypotension may develop. Seizures are the main neurological feature. Coma may persist for several days. Although several possible antidotes have been investigated, they are of unproven value in humans. The immediate, and probably only, management of fluoroacetate poisoning is therefore supportive, including the correction of hypocalcaemia.
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PMID:Sodium fluoroacetate poisoning. 1728 93