Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019158 (hepatitis)
 30,205 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Drug-induced autoimmune diseases have two immunological peculiarities. Firstly, some autoantibodies are present, which are virtually never seen in spontaneous human diseases and may be regarded as specific. This applies to antimitochondria antibody type 3 (anti M3) in the lupus-like syndrome caused by Venocuran, to antimitochondria antibody type 6 (anti M6) in iproniazide-induced hepatitis, to anti-insulin antibody found after treatment with methimazole, and to anti liver/kidney microsome antibody type 2 (anti LKM2) associated with hepatitis induced by tielinic acid. Secondly, a search for other autoantibodies shows that the immune disorder is much more limited than in spontaneous autoimmune diseases. Thus, contrary to myasthenia and idiopathic autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, we never found autoantibodies specifically directed against the thyroid, the stomach or the adrenal gland during treatment with D-penicillamine and alpha-methyldopa. Only some hypotheses may account for these peculiarities. Cross-reaction between drug and autoantigen may occur, but the fact that the antigen-antibody reaction is not inhibited by the drug or its metabolites does not support this explanation. Much more attractive is the "T-cell bypass" theory, according to which autoreacting suppressor T-cells are circumvented by helper T-cells stimulated by the drug-modified autoantigen. In this case, the autoimmune reaction would indicate to which body substance the drug is bound, thus making it immunostimulant, and not a structural similarity between the drug and the autoantigen.
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PMID:[Autoimmunity induced by drugs. Immunological characteristics and etiopathogenic hypotheses]. 624 48

Clinico-morphological study of the liver was carried out in 54 patients with generalized severe myasthenia of 1 1/2-2-year duration. The functional values of the liver were studied before thymectomy and on the 1st post-operation day. Eight liver punctates were examined histologically and electron-microscopically. A picture of nonspecific reactive hepatitis whose clinical manifestations included hyperbilirubinemia, and disorder of the absorbing and excreting functions of the liver was revealed. Ultrastructural signs of cholestasis were found. The observed fibrosis of the organ was accompanied by hypertrophy and hyperplasia of lipocytes but without their manifest transformation into lipofibroblasts . Hypoplasia of hepatocytes was observed in myasthenia which may be due to their thymus-dependent inhibition. The mechanism of disturbance of pigment metabolism in the liver of patients with myasthenia is multi-component and may be associated with disorders in bile evacuation, hematotissue barrier, and probably, structural-functional incompetence of hepatocytes.
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PMID:[Morphologic characteristics of disorders of liver function in myasthenia]. 672 5

There were examined 94 patients, aged from 22 to 68 years, with myasthenia, in whom morphological changes of thymic gland were revealed. In 89% of observations there was established the infectioning by cytomegalovirus, in 10%--hepatitis B, in 9%--hepatitis C. In 5% of patients there were observed coexistence of cytomegaloviral infection and hepatitis. In all the patients the trustworthy increase of the chromosomal aberrations frequency in comparison with spontaneous level of mutation was revealed. High diagnostic validity of chain reaction with polymerase in the viruses persistence determination was noted. The results of investigation of serous immunoglobulins to the virus neutralizing antibodies ratio may be applied for the indications elaboration in the lymphosorption and immunocorrection application in patients with myasthenia more than 4 years in course.
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PMID:[Persisting viral infection, serum antibodies and chromosome instability in myasthenia]. 1103 44

Thymomas are relatively uncommon malignancies of the anterior mediastinum and present with four distinct histological types based on the specific epithelial to lymphocyte ratio: spindle cell, epithelial predominant, lymphocyte predominant, or mixed. Each histologic type of thymoma has a propensity for local invasion and metastasis and can have a wide variety of paraneoplastic manifestations, myasthenia being the most common. We present a unique case of a 34-year-old African-American female who initially presented with a history of profound weakness with repetitive motion, shortness of breath, horizontal nystagmus, persistent anemia, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, and what was initially thought to be azithromycin-induced hepatitis. Upon left anterior thoracotomy with biopsy of the mediastinal mass, pathology yielded a lymphocyte-predominant (B1), Masaoka stage IVA invasive thymoma with pericardial extension. This case illustrates the clinical significance of considering a multitude of extrathymic paraneoplastic manifestations, each with a unique physiological mechanism.
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PMID:Polyparaneoplastic Manifestations of Malignant Thymoma: A Unique Case of Myasthenia, Autoimmune Hepatitis, Pure Red Cell Aplasia, and Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca. 2874 21