Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0013362 (dysarthria)
 3,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A patient with symptomatic epilepsy receiving only phenytoin developed choreoathetosis and orofacial dyskinesias. These movement disorders disappeared when the drug was stopped and reappeared when the patient was challenged. Throughout the period of treatment, concentrations of phenytoin in serum were consistently low within the therapeutic range. Interfering symptoms from the cardiovascular system and the absence of some classic symptoms of phenytoin intoxication (nystagmus and dysarthria) contributed to delay the diagnosis. The patient died in hospital and autopsy of the brain showed rather localized encephalomalacies of corpus striatum. The pathogenic action of phenytoin and the role of preexisting brain lesions are discussed. Phenytoin must be suspected as the cause, when patients on this drug present with uncontrolllable epilepsy or neurological or mental deterioration.
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PMID:Choreoathetosis during phenytoin treatment. 40 43

The authors present a case of an 87-year-old gentleman who presented with general deterioration, increased confusion, recurrent falls and unsteadiness. He was treated for a urinary tract infection but was found to deteriorate rapidly, developing bilateral nystagmus, marked pastpointing, dysarthria and central ataxia. He had a complex medical history including epilepsy controlled with long-term phenytoin. Phenytoin is 90% protein bound and displaced by bilirubin. At the time of deterioration his total phenytoin concentration was within the limits of the laboratory's recommended therapeutic range. The biochemistry report also denoted the patient was hypoalbuminaemic and hyperbilirubinaemic. His symptoms completely resolved with phenytoin dose reduction. The combination of low albumin and high bilirubin may cause an increase in the free phenytoin concentration, resulting in toxicity, despite the measured total phenytoin concentration being within the therapeutic interval.
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PMID:When less is more: a case of phenytoin toxicity. 2353 44