Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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 21,692 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We reported a case of idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome with psychiatric symptoms and abnormal areas in subcortical white matter on brain MRI. The 25-year-old man was referred to us because of fever, confusional state and emotional incontinence. He soon became apathetic and emotionless. While he was confused, we studied brain CT twice and brain MRI four times. In deep white matter around the lateral ventricles and the cortices of parietal lobe, occipital lobe and cerebellar hemispheres, T1-weighted MRI revealed low intensity areas and T2-weighted MRI showed high intensity areas. After gadolinium infusion, some above-stated areas were enhanced. The lesions in the deep white matter disappeared when symptoms diminished, while lesions in the occipital cortex remained unchanged. Brain MRI studies were beneficial and useful to analyse the rare idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome with psychic disorders.
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PMID:[A case of idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome with special reference to mental disorders and brain images]. 950 70

Although drug-drug interactions constitute only a small proportion of adverse drug reactions, they are important because they are often predictable and therefore avoidable or manageable. Their frequency is related to the age of the patient, the number of drugs prescribed, the number of physicians involved in the patient's care and the presence of increasing frailty. The most important mechanisms for drug-drug interactions are the inhibition or induction of drug metabolism, and pharmacodynamic potentiation or antagonism. Interactions involving a loss of action of one of the drugs are at least as frequent as those involving an increased effect. It is likely that only about 10% of potential interactions result in clinically significant events and, while death or serious clinical consequences are rare, low-grade, clinically unspectacular morbidity in the elderly may be much more common. Nonspecific complaints (e.g. confusion, lethargy, weakness, dizziness, incontinence, depression, falling) should all prompt a closer look at the patient's drug list. There are a number of strategies that can be adopted to decrease the risk of potential clinical problems. The number of drugs prescribed for each individual should be limited to as few as is necessary. The use of drugs should be reviewed regularly and unnecessary agents withdrawn if possible, with subsequent monitoring. Patients should be encouraged to engage in a 'prescribing partnership' by alerting physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to symptoms that occur when new drugs are introduced. Physicians with a responsibility for elderly people in an institutional setting should develop a strategy for monitoring their drug treatment. For those interactions that have come to clinical attention, it is important to review why they happened and to plan for future prevention. Clinicians should also report, via the appropriate postmarketing surveillance scheme, any drug-drug interactions they have encountered. Finally, multidisciplinary education about the nature of physiological aging and its effect on drug handling, and the possible presentations of drug-related disease in older patients, is an important element in reducing interactions in the elderly.
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PMID:Important drug-drug interactions in the elderly. 963 96

A 67-year-old woman with a diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica presented initially with periods of confusion and incontinence. A CT scan of the brain was normal and she was treated with tapering doses of corticosteroids and clinical improvement. After a brief period off steroids, the patient presented with a progressive dementia, left-sided clumsiness, gait disturbances and left hemispatial neglect. An MRI at this time demonstrated a large area of edema over the right parietal lobe and intense cortical enhancement. A chest CT demonstrated multiple nodules. Biopsies of the lung and brain failed to identify any infectious organisms or malignant tissue. The leptomeningeal biopsy revealed multiple granulomatous areas with central necrosis and hystiocytic cells consistent with idiopathic hypertrophic pachy-meningitis.
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PMID:A 67-year-old woman with polymyalgia rheumatica and left hemispatial neglect. 978 Aug 54

The authors present the case of a 69 year old woman who developed bladder incontinence and confusion. A CT scan showed severe hydrocephalus and calcifications, prompting a ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement. On the day after operation the patient presented left hemifacial spasm. MR revealed a subarachnoid cysticercus rostral to the pons, and surgical excision was proposed. She refused surgery and was placed on prednisone. Brainstem auditory responses were absent on the left side 2 months after shunting and were still abnormal 53 months later. The hemifacial spasm disappeared 3 months after shunt placement and has not recurred in 5 years of follow-up.
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PMID:Transient hemifacial spasm associated with subarachnoid brainstem cysticercosis: a case report. 979 54

To investigate complaints of Gulf War veterans, epidemiologic, case-control and animal modeling studies were performed. Looking for OPIDP variants, our epidemiologic project studied 249 Naval Reserve construction battalion (CB24) men. Extensive surveys were drawn for symptoms and exposures. An existing test (PAI) was used for neuropsychologic. Using FACTOR, LOGISTIC and FREQ in 6.07 SAS, symptom clusters were sought with high eigenvalues from orthogonally rotated two-stage factor analysis. After factor loadings and Kaiser measure for sampling adequacy (0.82), three major and three minor symptom clusters were identified. Internally consistent by Cronbach's coefficient, these were labeled syndromes: (1) impaired cognition; (2) confusion-ataxia; (3) arthro-myo-neuropathy; (4) phobia-apraxia; (5) fever-adenopathy; and (6) weakness-incontinence. Syndrome variants identified 63 patients (63/249, 25%) with 91 syndromes. With pyridostigmine bromide as the drug in these drug-chemical exposures, syndrome chemicals were: (1) pesticide-containing flea and tick collars (P < 0.001); (2) alarms from chemical weapons attacks (P < 0.001), being in a sector later found to have nerve agent exposure (P < 0.04); and (3) insect repellent (DEET) (P < 0.001). From CB24, 23 cases, 10 deployed and 10 non-deployed controls were studied. Auditory evoked potentials showed dysfunction (P < 0.02), nystagmic velocity on rotation testing, asymmetry on saccadic velocity (P < 0.04), somatosensory evoked potentials both sides (right P < 0.03, left P < 0.005) and synstagmic velocity after caloric stimulation bilaterally (P-range, 0.02-0.04). Brain dysfunction was shown on the Halstead Impairment Index (P < 0.01), General Neuropsychological Deficit Scale (P < 0.03) and Trail Making part B (P < 0.03). Butylcholinesterase phenotypes did not trend for inherent abnormalities. Parallel hen studies at Duke University established similar drug-chemical delayed neurotoxicity. These investigations lend credibility that sublethal exposures to drug-chemical combinations caused delayed-onset neurotoxic variants.
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PMID:Epidemiological association in US veterans between Gulf War illness and exposures to anticholinesterases. 1002 6

By controlling life-style and environmental hazards and seeking appropriate medical care, many people can enjoy a healthy, independent old age; various psychological schema provide models for such "successful" aging. But we must turn to the humanities for a vision of aging that sees meaning in lives characterized by incontinence, immobility, and confusion.
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PMID:Nursing home medicine--a gloomy profession? 1011 Apr 86

Chemotherapy for malignant brain tumors has a limited efficacy largely due to restricted blood-brain barrier permeability for chemotherapeutic drugs. Intraarterial chemotherapy (IAC) has the advantage of increased uptake during the first passage of the drugs through tumor capillaries. Initial IAC trials had less than satisfactory results due to unacceptable toxicities. Between 1987 and 1996, 173 patients with primary and metastatic brain tumors were treated with intraarterial (intracarotid and/or intravertebral) cisplatin and etoposide (VP-16). Out of these, 168 patients, who received a total of 438 cycles, were evaluated for the incidence of toxicities. Patients received either cisplatin at 40 mg/m2 and VP-16 at 20 mg/m2 or cisplatin at 60 mg/m2 and VP-16 at 40 mg/m2. Nausea and vomiting were the most common toxicities (42 patients, 14% of cycles). Arterial puncture was associated with a 1.6% incidence of groin hematomas (6 patients), and a 0.7% incidence of failure to canulate the carotid or vertebral arteries (3 patients). Neurologic toxicities included headache (1.4% of cycles, 5 patients), focal seizures (1.4% of cycles, 5 patients), transient confusion and urinary retention/incontinence (1.9% of cycles, 8 patients), and blurred vision (0.9% of cycles, 4 patients). We have not seen visual loss, strokes, major vessel dissection or thrombosis, or myelosuppression. Toxicity incidence was higher in patients with metastatic brain tumors than in those with primary brain tumors (34% versus 17%, p < 0.001). It was also higher in patients who had brain radiation therapy (RT) prior to IAC than in those who had RT concomitant with IAC (31% versus 19%, p = 0.05). No significant difference in toxicity incidence was noticed between patients who received RT concomitant with IAC and those who received RT after IAC (19% and 23% respectively, p = 0.08). Intracarotid chemotherapy given prior to RT resulted in 23 months of median survival for patients with glioblastoma multiforme. Intraarterial chemotherapy with cisplatin and VP-16 is a relatively safe treatment modality, especially in patients with primary brain tumors who have not received brain radiotherapy.
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PMID:Toxicities related to intraarterial infusion of cisplatin and etoposide in patients with brain tumors. 1036 Apr 81

In order to evaluate differences in sleep factors between children with wetting problems and dry children, questionnaire data were obtained from 1,413 schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 10 y. The analyses were performed using logistic regression, and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to approximate the relative risk. Current enuresis was associated with a subjectively high arousal threshold, pavor nocturnus, nocturia and confusion when awoken from sleep (ORs 2.7, 2.4, 2.1 and 3.4, respectively), whereas children with current incontinence often experienced bedtime fears, onset insomnia or nocturia (ORs 2.4, 2.3 and 2.7, respectively). Children exhibiting urinary urgency were overrepresented among both children with current enuresis (OR 2.5) and those with current incontinence (OR 17.2). It is concluded that impaired arousal mechanisms and bladder instability are aetiological factors underlying nocturnal enuresis.
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PMID:Depth of sleep and sleep habits among enuretic and incontinent children. 1044 34

Multiple treatment options are available for the radiation therapy of prostate cancer including whole pelvic radiotherapy (WPRT), prostate-only radiotherapy (PORT), three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), as well as proton or neutron beam based therapies and brachytherapy. Numerous technical variations hamper objective assessment of these different treatment modalities. These variations are extensive and often subtle (dose to the prostate, the dose per fraction, number and size of fields, the photon energy, patient positioning, prostatic motion, the use of immobilization devices, 2D or 3D planning for treatment, and others) may cause interpretive uncertainty. Despite this confusion, there is some consensus. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadirs, as well as pretreatment PSA levels, significantly alter outcome. Low-risk patients do well no matter which treatment they receive, although the question of dose-escalation therapy to improve results remains unanswered. High-risk patients do poorly regardless of treatment, although the addition of androgen ablation and dose-escalation therapy may improve results. Quality of life (QOL) studies continue to show a problem for radical prostatectomy (RP) patients secondary to impotence and incontinence and a problem for radiotherapy patients due to gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances. Patients can have access to any specific study through technologies such as the Internet. Although this information can be useful, the subtleties of each different article are usually beyond the understanding of most patients. This report examines some of the new radiotherapy modalities as well as corrects some misconceptions regarding radiotherapy results and morbidity. In addition, we discuss some studies comparing surgery and radiotherapy and attempt to objectively compare different radiation therapy strategies for localized prostate cancer.
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PMID:Deciding on radiation therapy for prostate cancer: the physician's perspective. 1097 94

Acute care of the elderly patient is a specialty area of practice. The elderly have a spectrum of needs including physiologic, psychosocial, functional, and financial needs that will alter their response to physiologic illness and the acute care experience in general. Acute care units specifically designed to meet the needs of elderly adults can have a dramatic impact on recovery from acute illness and long-term, postdischarge outcomes. This report describes the experience of one elderly patient hospitalized for the treatment of pneumonia. This elderly patient manifested a response to the acute care experience that was typical of his age cohort, including confusion and incontinence. Subsequent transfer to an acute care for the elderly unit maximized this patient's recovery and postdischarge placement.
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PMID:Acute care of the elderly units: a positive outcomes case study. 1185 21


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