Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004134 (ataxia)
 15,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Almost every second trekker or climber develops two to three symptoms of the high altitude illness after a rapid ascent (> 300 m/day) to an altitude above 4000 m. We distinguish two forms of high altitude illness, a cerebral form called acute mountain sickness and a pulmonary form called high altitude pulmonary edema. Essentially, acute mountain sickness is self-limiting and benign. Its symptoms are mild to moderate headache, loss of appetite, nausea, dizziness and insomnia. Nausea rarely progresses to vomiting, but if it does, this may anticipate a progression of the disease into the severe form of acute mountain sickness, called high altitude cerebral edema. Symptoms and signs of high altitude cerebral edema are severe headache, which is not relieved by acetaminophen, loss of movement coordination, ataxia and mental deterioration ending in coma. The mechanisms leading to acute mountain sickness are not very well understood; the loss of cerebral autoregulation and a vasogenic type of cerebral edema are being discussed. High altitude pulmonary edema presents in roughly twenty percent of the cases with mild symptoms of acute mountain sickness or even without any symptoms at all. Symptoms associated with high altitude pulmonary edema are incapacitating fatigue, chest tightness, dyspnoe at the minimal effort that advances to dyspnoe at rest and orthopnoe, and a dry non-productive cough that progresses to cough with pink frothy sputum due to hemoptysis. The hallmark of high altitude pulmonary edema is an exaggerated hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. Successful prophylaxis and treatment of high altitude pulmonary edema using nifedipine, a pulmonary vasodilator, indicates that pulmonary hypertension is crucial for the development of high altitude pulmonary edema. The primary treatment of high altitude illness consists in improving hypoxemia and acclimatization. For prophylaxis a slow ascent at a rate of 300 m/day is recommended, if symptoms persist, acetazolamide at a dose of 500 mg/day is effective. Mild acute mountain sickness may also be treated with the same dose acetazolamide. Glucocorticoids are the first line treatment of the malignant form of acute mountain sickness. Nifedipine is effective only for the prophylaxis and treatment of high altitude pulmonary edema.
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PMID:[Mountaineering and altitude sickness]. 1144 1

On February 21, 2013, 6 elderly people collapsed abruptly after eating bean sprout bibimbab (boiled rice mixed with bean sprouts and seasoned with soybean sauce) at a countryside restaurant in the Chungbuk Province, Korea. Minutes after eating the meal, all of the patients lapsed into a state of stupor. Respiratory arrest developed in 2 patients; and one of two patients died of cardiac arrest. The autopsy identified methomyl and methanol in the deceased patient's gastric contents and in the remaining soybeanbean sauce seasoning. Five of the 6 patients ingested one spoonful of the soybeanbean sauce seasoning and survived, while one patient who died of cardiac arrest, ingested approximately two spoons. Symptoms of toxicity presented quickly in the subjects and progressed rapidly, including chest tightness, an unusual sensation in the pit of the stomach, dizziness, ataxia, and finally, collapse. Three patients who drank ethanol with the meal experienced only mild toxic symptoms. Our analysis of the clinical observations in these cases suggests that ingestion of methomyl pesticide and the additive toxicity of methanol may have been responsible for the intoxication.
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PMID:An outbreak of food borne illness due to methomyl pesticide intoxication in Korea. 2426 35