Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0015672 (fatigue)
 51,768 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Thalidomide is currently under investigation for its proposed value in treating a number of AIDS-related conditions. Banned in the 1960s because it was found to cause birth defects, thalidomide has been found to inhibit tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a cytokine associated with the development of aphthous ulcers, dementia, fevers, fatigue and wasting, as well as enhanced HIV replication. Development rights to use the drug are owned by Celgene, which calls the drug Synovir. Celgene is currently developing several new TNF inhibitors which are chemically analogous to thalidomide but which might be safer or more effective. Currently, at least 38 sites around the country are testing thalidomide for HIV-related ulcers, and six trial sites are testing for wasting syndrome. Thalidomide is in trials for the treatment of primary HIV infection at five sites. However, it is unclear whether thalidomide does more to curb HIV activity beyond inhibiting TNF. Thalidomide trials have been slow to recruit, therefore buyers clubs are working to make the drug available through their services.
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PMID:Thalidomide and HIV: several possible uses. 1136 2

Fighting AIDS is like battling a war on various fronts. As AIDS patients live longer, they become weary and lose weight. This is not due to insufficient calorie intake, but rather due to the body using protein reserves, and wasting muscle tissue. Replacing calories using dietary supplements adds fats, but the muscle mass continues to diminish. Fatigue, reduction of sexual desire, problems with erections, or hair loss can be caused by a loss of testosterone. Levels of testosterone can be easily checked in the blood. It is one of the anabolic steroids that has proven useful in efforts to regain muscle tissue. Injectables, varying from 200-400mg daily, are preferable to oral doses, with results taking six to eight weeks to appear. Other steroids may be added if testosterone is not effective alone. Proper nutrition, high protein intake, and regular exercise are needed to maximize results. Steroid use in AIDS treatment is relatively new; any long range adverse affects may not be known. Regular blood tests monitoring liver enzymes have not revealed any negative symptoms. Positive responses from steroid use continue to give hope to AIDS victims.
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PMID:[Anabolic steroids]. 1136 81

Wasting is a severe, dangerous medical condition, and it can occur quickly, even in overweight patients. In wasting, the digestive process is disrupted, and patients lose their ability to absorb necessary nutrients from food. HIV interferes with metabolism, causing the body to burn muscle mass before it burns fat. Additionally, other physical problems can make eating difficult or painful, and the nausea associated with HIV therapies compounds the problem. Several nutritional supplements are recommended for people with weakness, fatigue, or poor appetite. Some are standard supplements intended to boost caloric intake easily, others are modified fat supplements or special formula supplements designed for special purposes.
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PMID:Managing weight loss with nutritional supplements. 1136 27

Approximately one-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis (TB), and TB kills more people worldwide than any other infectious disease. TB infection, however, is not the same as active TB disease. Nine out of ten people with healthy immune systems who are infected with TB do not develop active TB disease; the rate at which people who are coinfected with HIV and TB develop active TB is 100 times higher. The history and epidemiology of the disease are outlined. In 1990, epidemiologists began seeing new strains of TB that are drug-resistant. This multidrug-resistant TB (MDRTB) is especially dangerous for HIV-positive persons. Symptoms of active TB disease include lung fluid expulsion, fatigue, weakness, malaise, fever, and chills. Untreated TB can lead to severe wasting and death. TB prevention, transmission, and treatment are described. A table is included which lists the major drugs used to prevent and treat TB, and describes the primary side effects associated with each. A resource list is provided.
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PMID:Tuberculosis. 1136 84

Use of the commonly prescribed protease inhibitor Crixivan appears to result in a bizarre adverse effect, despite its desirable effects on T-cell count and viral load. This adverse effect is more common in women than men, and includes the following symptoms: (1) limb wasting, (2) fat gain in the torso, (3) breast enlargement, (4) skin thinning, (4) vein enlargement, (5) irregular periods, (6) high blood pressure and high blood glucose, (6) fatigue, and (7) decreased sex drive. It is believed that 5 to 10 percent of patients taking Crixivan suffer from some of these symptoms, but the percentage would probably be much higher if the number of women alone were studied. Some physicians have been unsupportive about complaints of these symptoms, and have told their patients to exercise or that the changes may be due to aging. One suggestion for dealing with these symptoms is to get body composition measurements prior to starting a protease-containing regimen. Exercise continues to remain important, primarily to prevent wasting. However, dieting is not recommended since it does not reduce the fat deposits and it does contribute to wasting of the limbs. If the symptoms become intolerable, a change in regimen may be needed.
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PMID:The new body of AIDS: Crixivan bellies, legs, and humps. 1136 90

A component of ATP, phosphate is at the hub of the energy-related mechanisms operative in muscle cells. Together with calcium, phosphate is involved in bone tissue mineralization: thus, a chronic alteration in the metabolism of phosphate can induce bone and joint disorders. Diagnosis of chronic hypophosphatemia. Serum phosphate, calcium, and creatinine should be assayed simultaneously. Serum calcium is increased in hypophosphatemia caused by hyperparathyroidism and decreased in osteomalacia. Urinary phosphate excretion should be measured in patients with a normal serum calcium level and a serum phosphate level lower than 0.80 mmol/L. A decrease in urinary phosphate excretion to less than 10 mmol/24 h strongly suggests a gastrointestinal disorder, such as malabsorption, antacid use, or chronic alcohol abuse. In patients with a urinary phosphate excretion greater than 20 mmol/24 h, the maximal rate of tubular reabsorption of phosphate (TmPO4) and the ratio of TmPO4 over glomerular filtration rate (GFR) should be determined to look for phosphate diabetes. Manifestations and causes of phosphate diabetes in adults. Moderately severe phosphate diabetes in adults manifests as chronic fatigue, depression, spinal pain, and polyarthralgia, with osteoporosis ascribable to increased bone resorption. Although many cases are idiopathic, investigations should be done to look for X-linked vitamin D-resistant rickets missed during childhood, a mesenchymatous tumor, or Fanconi's syndrome with renal wasting of phosphate, glucose, and amino acids. Management of phosphate diabetes. Phosphate supplementation and, in patients with normal urinary calcium excretion, calcitriol produce some improvement in the symptoms and increase the bone mineral density. Whether dipyramidole is clinically effective remains unclear.
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PMID:Phosphate, the renal tubule, and the musculoskeletal system. 1139 20

Physical symptoms other than pain often contribute to suffering near the end of life. In addition to pain, the most common symptoms in the terminal stages of an illness such as cancer or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome are fatigue, anorexia, cachexia, nausea, vomiting, constipation, delirium and dyspnea. Management involves a diagnostic evaluation for the cause of each symptom when possible, treatment of the identified cause when reasonable, and concomitant treatment of the symptom using nonpharmacologic and adjunctive pharmacologic measures. Part I of this two-part article discusses fatigue, anorexia, cachexia, nausea and vomiting. Fatigue is the most common symptom at the end of life, but little is known about its pathophysiology and specific treatment. Education of the patient and family is the foundation of treatment with the possible use of adjunctive psychostimulants. Anorexia and cachexia caused by wasting syndromes are best managed with patient and family education, as well as a possible trial of appetite stimulants such as megestrol or dexamethasone. For appropriate pharmacologic treatment, it is helpful to identify the pathophysiologic origin of nausea in each patient.
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PMID:Management of common symptoms in terminally ill patients: Part I. Fatigue, anorexia, cachexia, nausea and vomiting. 1156 72

Exercise-induced oxidative stress has been reported in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and may play a role in muscle fatigue. It is speculated that oxidative stress during exercise originates from the contracting muscles but this has not been documented. The accumulation of lipofuscin, a marker of cellular oxidative damage, was evaluated in the vastus lateralis muscle in 17 patients with COPD and 10 healthy subjects of similar age. Each subject performed a stepwise exercise test up to maximal capacity during which oxygen uptake (VO(2)) was measured. Resting and peak exercise blood gases were also obtained. Two indices of lipofuscin accumulation were used: lipofuscin inclusions/fiber ratio (LI/F) and lipofuscin inclusions/fiber cross-sectional area ratio (LI/CSA). These ratios were also determined for each specific fiber-type. LI/F (P < 0.01) and LI/CSA (P < 0.01) were greater in COPD compared to healthy subjects. LI/F and LI/CSA for all fiber types were also greater in COPD (P < 0.001). In both groups, LI/F (P < 0.001) and LI/CSA (P < 0.01) were higher in type I than in type II fibers. LI/F and LI/CSA did not correlate significantly with resting PaO(2) and SaO(2), peak VO(2), and DeltaPaO(2) and DeltaSaO(2) during exercise (P > 0.05). Increased lipofuscin accumulation, a marker of oxidative damage, was found in the vastus lateralis muscle in patients with COPD compared to healthy subjects. Oxidative damage of muscle tissue may thus be involved in skeletal muscle dysfunction and wasting in COPD.
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PMID:Lipofuscin accumulation in the vastus lateralis muscle in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 1187 Jul 15

The authors examined the impact of potent antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the diagnosis of wasting syndrome in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. Study time was divided into the periods 1988-1990, 1991-1993, 1994-1995, and 1996-1999 to correspond to different treatment eras. The proportion of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome diagnoses in which wasting was present increased from 5% in 1988-1990 to 7.1% in 1991-1993, 7.7% in 1994-1995, and 18.9% in 1996-1999. The incidence of wasting per 1,000 person-years increased from 7.5 in 1988-1990 to 14.4 in 1991-1993 and 22.1 in 1994-1995; it decreased to 13.4 in 1996-1999. Fewer patients with wasting had low hemoglobin and hematocrit levels and reported oral thrush in 1996-1999 than in any other period. Analysis of change in body mass index (weight (kg)/height (m)(2)) after wasting showed a faster return to prewasting levels in 1994-1995 and 1996-1999 than in earlier periods. Case-control analysis showed that wasting prior to 1996 was weakly associated with fatigue (p = 0.10), low hemoglobin (p = 0.11), and CD4-positive T-lymphocyte count (p = 0.04). During 1996-1999, wasting was weakly associated with diarrhea (p = 0.05) and potent ART (p = 0.097). Predictors of wasting have changed with potent ART. Further research is needed to determine whether lipodystrophy may be misdiagnosed as wasting syndrome.
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PMID:Changes in the incidence and predictors of wasting syndrome related to human immunodeficiency virus infection, 1987-1999. 1214 55

Cachexia, i.e. body wasting, has long been recognised as a serious complication of chronic illness. The occurrence of wasting in chronic heart failure (CHF) has been known for many centuries, but it has not been investigated extensively until recently. Cardiac cachexia is a common complication of CHF which is associated with poor prognosis, independently of functional disease severity, age, measures of exercise capacity, and left ventricular ejection fraction. Patients with cardiac cachexia suffer from generalised loss of lean tissue, fat tissue, as well as bone tissue. Cachectic CHF patients are weaker and fatigue earlier. This is due to both reduced skeletal muscle mass and impaired skeletal muscle quality. Concerning the pathophysiology of cardiac cachexia, there is increasing evidence that neurohormonal and immune abnormalities may play a crucial role. Cachectic CHF patients have raised plasma levels of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol, and they show high plasma renin activity and increased plasma aldosterone levels. A number of studies have also shown that cardiac cachexia is linked to raised plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha. The available evidence suggests that cardiac cachexia is a multifactorial neuroendocrine and metabolic disorder with a poor prognosis. A complex imbalance of different body systems, termed catabolic/anabolic imbalance, is likely to be responsible for the development of the wasting process. It is hoped that a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in cardiac cachexia will lead to novel therapeutic strategies in the (near) future.
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PMID:The syndrome of cardiac cachexia. 1216 9


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