Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019163 (hepatitis B)
 38,309 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Four patients, aged 17 to 25 years, obtained lead and opium pills which had been stolen from retail pharmacists. They crushed them, suspended them in water an injected them intravenously. They developed general malaise, vomiting and constipation, and blood tests several weeks after injection of the pills showed raised alkaline phosphatase and aspartate transaminases. All four patients had negative tests for the hepatitis B surface antigen. Liver biopsy specimens showed persistent hepatitis in one and resolving hepatitis in the remaining three. Liver lead levels were grossly elevated in every case. The liver lead levels found it the patients described here were up to 35 times greater than levels which have been reported in industrial lead poisoning. It is postulated that the livers of patients with chronic lead poisoning are able to withstand this insult whereas in the cases described the overwhelming dose of lead was sufficient to cause hepatic damage.
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PMID:Acute lead poisoning: an unusual cause of hepatitis. 55 20

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is the stage of renal failure at which an individual requires dialysis therapy or a renal transplant to survive. The prevalence of ESRD is disproportionately higher among patients aged > 65 years, and the average age of new ESRD patients is continually rising in the US Medicare population. Medication management in this population is challenging because of the combination of multiple comorbid disease states, a plethora of medications and the added dimension of dialysis therapy, as well as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes attributable to the aging process. Cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and arrhythmias are common in elderly patients with ESRD, and account for most of the deaths in this population. Constipation is common in patients aged > 65 years, and its incidence is even higher among those receiving dialysis. Pain management is of particular concern because elderly dialysis patients are frequently prescribed inappropriate pain relief regimens. Many healthcare practitioners do not realise that patients with uraemia are at a higher risk of bleeding caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs than are patients with normal renal function. In addition, most practitioners do not appreciate that virtually all opioids (narcotics) and their active metabolites accumulate in patients with renal failure, leading to an increased risk of narcosis. Infectious complications are frequent in the ESRD population, with dialysis access infections and pneumonia being the 2 most common infections seen in hospitalized patients receiving dialysis treatment. The establishment of vaccination programmes for the prevention of hepatitis B, influenza and pneumococcal infections is important because of the increased risk of these disease in this population. Unfortunately, these high-risk patients display, in general, a decreased immunogenic response to vaccinations. This article addresses some of the practical issues that surround the medication management or prevention of these particular diseases in elderly patients undergoing haemodialysis. Specifically, we discuss the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes that occur with specific medications in such patients. Drug dialysability is also discussed.
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PMID:Drug therapy in haemodialysis patients. Special considerations in the elderly. 963 93

50 children under the age of 15 years were studied who had been hospitalized in two hospitals in the Dominican Republic with HIV diagnosed by the presence of biphasic hyperbilirubinemia and elevation of glutamic-pyruvic and glutamic-oxalacetic transaminases. The sera of the patients were examined for the presence of leptospirotic immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies by means of the enzymatic immunoassay method (UREASA-ELISA). The Leptospira-positive sera were also investigated for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and for the IgM antibody (ab) of the hepatitis A virus (ab-HAV) by ELISA. 5 cases were positive for IgM Leptospira antibodies (10%), not finding in this percentage the presence of HBsAg; 3 of the 5 Leptospira-positive samples demonstrated the presence of ab-HVA-IgM. Only 2 cases (4%) presented IgM Leptospira antibodies. Out of the 5 cases with IgM antibodies, males predominated (3/5). When compared to negative cases, however, there were more rural elements among them than in negative cases: regarding origins (10% vs. 16%), agricultural workers (40% vs. 20%), contact with cattle and fresh water (80% vs. 40%), and daily contact with humid soil in living quarters (60% vs. 48%). The clinical picture of the 5 positive cases featured myalgia (p = 0.05) and abdominal pain (p = 0.05). The stiffness of neck was relatively more frequent in positive cases (20%) than in negative cases (7%); also, fever (100% vs. 80%), vomiting (60% vs. 22%), headache (80% vs. 56%), constipation (20% vs. 9%), and hepatomegaly (100% vs. 71%). There was clear evidence that leptospirotic infection must be watched and also its association with acute infectious hepatitis.
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PMID:[IgM Leptospira antibodies in acute infectious hepatitis cases in children]. 1229 May 51

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several new drugs in the past 2 years. This article provides an overview of some of the newer drugs that are likely to find wider use in the future. The drugs reviewed in this article can be used to treat cardiovascular system problems, diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis B infection, hyponatremia, Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, pain, constipation, and insomnia. Another drug discussed can be used to help a patient stop smoking. The article also discusses Gardasil, the recombinant vaccine against human papilloma virus (types 6, 11, 16, and 18).
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PMID:What's new in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. 1859 82

Classical polyarteritis nodosa (cPAN) refers to a rare, potentially fatal systemic transmural necrotizing vasculitis that usually affects medium-sized, and occasionally small, muscular arteries, primarily involves the kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, skin, nervous system, joints, and muscles, and is rarely, if ever, expressed in the lungs. The incidence of mortality has significantly decreased with recently developed treatment modalities, in particular antiviral medications. Sudden death due to previously undiagnosed cPAN is rarely encountered. We report a case of a young man who had been evaluated on three occasions by medical personnel in the 3 weeks prior to his death. He had complained of nonspecific symptoms of abdominal and perineal/suprapubic pain, nausea, vomiting, sensation of chilling, and constipation. The spectrum of diagnoses included "gastroenteritis," enteric infection, and prostatitis. Found agonal at home and dying despite immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), he underwent a medicolegal autopsy, which revealed vasculitis of various organs, including heart (myocardium and epicardium) and extramural coronary arteries, liver, spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands, stomach and bowel, omentum, gallbladder, and pancreas. His sudden death was cardiac in nature due to PAN associated clinically with hepatitis B surface antigen positivity (hepatitis B virus-associated PAN [HBV-PAN]). A complete autopsy with thorough histopathological examination is necessary to diagnose this uncommon yet potentially fatal vasculitis.
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PMID:Sudden death due to polyarteritis nodosa. 2205 59

Purple urine bag syndrome (PUBS) is a rare syndrome characterized by production of indigo (blue) and indirubin (red) pigments due to bacterial colonization in urinary catheter. The pathogenesis of PUBS is related to the combination of these two pigments produced from the metabolism of tryptophan. Tryptophan turns into indole by deamination, indole turns into indoxyl sulphate by hepatic conjugation and indoxyl sulphate is secreted into urine. Sulphatases and phosphatases enzymes produced by bacteria like Providencia stuartii and Providencia rettgeri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp., Morganella morganii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Citrobacter spp. and group B streptococci convert indoxyl sulphate to indoxyl. In the urinary tract, oxidation of indoxyl results in the production of indigo and indirubin pigments. These pigments react with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) lining of the urinary catheter bag and the reaction results purple discoloration of urine. Urine discoloration is very important clinical sign in the differential diagnosis of several pathological conditions such as hematuria, urinary system tumors and drug side effects and may be disquieting for patients, families and healthcare workers. Purple urine discoloration is rarely reported in the literature and it is generally associated with urinary tract infection. In this report, a 60 years old woman with a past medical history of significant chronic kidney disease undergoing regular hemodialysis, chronic constipation and hepatitis B was admitted to our neurology clinic because of acute intracerebral hemorrhage. She had confusion and right hemiplegia in her neurological examination and required urinary catheterization due to immobilization. Red coloration was observed in urine on the tenth hospital day. Although this coloration was thought to be hematuria, according to urine examination it was not hematuria. Then urine color turned into purple within two days. The next day, because of fever, full blood count and other blood investigations were performed and urine was sent to the laboratory for culture. Empirical piperacillin-tazobactam and teicoplanin antibiotic treatments were commenced. In the urine culture, 105 cfu/ml Enterococcus faecalis was isolated. According to the antibiotic susceptibility results the therapy was changed and meropenem was added to the treatment. For her constipation, supportive managements such as hydration, nutrition and laxative treatment were applied. After all the treatments, the patient's constipation regressed, the urine had become normal colored and the following urine cultures were not revealed any bacterial growth. As in this case, when the urine discoloration occurs, PUBS should be kept in mind which is especially seen in elderly female patients with chronic constipation, urinary catheterization, urinary tract infection and renal failure.
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PMID:[Purple Urine Bag Syndrome: A Rare Clinical Case]. 3170 43