Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0020538 (hypertension)
 170,190 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Sleep apnea is a surprisingly common disorder in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and chronic renal failure. The symptoms of sleep apnea frequently go unreported or may be misdiagnosed as uremia, depression, chronic illness, or insomnia. A review of the literature was performed to define the prevalence, morbidity, and treatment of sleep apnea syndrome in the ESRD patient. Sleep apnea occurs in at least 60% of ESRD patients. The known complications of sleep apnea include arrhythmias, pulmonary hypertension, and systemic hypertension. In addition, sleep apnea has been implicated in coronary artery disease and strokes. The contribution of sleep apnea to the high mortality from cardiac disease and stroke in peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients is unknown. The causes of the increased prevalence of sleep apnea in ESRD patients are unknown and likely differ from the general population, but the treatment is similar. The literature suggests that modality of renal replacement therapy does not matter; however, large nocturnal volume peritoneal dialysis may worsen sleep apnea. Renal transplantation may be curative. In conclusion, sleep apnea may be an under-diagnosed disease in patients on dialysis. There are significant reasons to suspect that sleep apnea may worsen the morbidity and mortality of ESRD, and there are potential successful therapies.
 ...
PMID:Sleep apnea in renal failure. 936 Jun 57

Patients with neuromuscular disease may suffer from nocturnal respiratory failure despite normal daytime respiratory function. The physiological reduction in muscle tone during sleep may be life-threatening in a patient with impaired muscle strength. Nocturnal respiratory failure may occur in patients with the postpolio syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, myotonic dystrophy, and muscular dystrophy. Diagnosis of obstructive, central and mixed apneas, hypopneas, and hypoventilation is best made using polysomnography. Therapeutic options include noninvasive ventilation such as continuous positive airway pressure, bilevel positive airway pressure, intermittent positive pressure ventilation and, rarely, tracheostomy, oxygen, or protriptyline. Evaluation by a sleep specialist should be initiated in any neuromuscular patient with nocturnal symptoms such as air hunger, intermittent snoring or breathing, orthopnea, cyanosis, restlessness, and insomnia. Daytime symptoms may include morning drowsiness, headaches and excessive daytime sleepiness. Polycythemia, hypertension, and signs of heart failure may also be seen. Effective treatment is available, and may improve the quality of life, and possibly increase survival.
 ...
PMID:Nocturnal respiratory failure as an indication of noninvasive ventilation in the patient with neuromuscular disease. 967 Mar 10

Recent reports commissioned by the Australian Government have highlighted the need to improve medication use in both community and hospital settings. Nurses are placed ideally to promote safe and effective drug use. The aim of this project was to develop and evaluate a computer-assisted instruction package, to help undergraduate nursing students improve their knowledge of clinical pharmacology, and to enhance their ability to contribute to the quality use of medications. In a collaborative project, staff of the Tasmanian Schools of Pharmacy and Nursing have produced the program PharmaCAL, using HyperCard 2.2 for the Apple Macintosh. A wide range of clinical pharmacology units are covered extensively, concentrating on drugs in common use and based on body systems: cardiovascular pharmacology (including hypertension, cardiac failure and angina); respiratory pharmacology; alimentary tract pharmacology (including peptic ulcer, diarrhea, and constipation); central nervous system pharmacology (analgesia, anxiety and insomnia, depression, psychoses, and epilepsy); antibiotic chemotherapy; and diabetes mellitus. Many color illustrations have been included. Each unit has a set of multiple choice questions to provide feedback to students. The package was evaluated in two ways. First, a questionnaire was used to assess users' opinions of the package. Second, a validated multiple choice test on clinical pharmacology and therapeutics was administered to 24 third-year nursing students before and after a set of sessions using the package and to a control group of 28 nursing students who were not exposed to the PharmaCAL package. The package generally was well received by the nursing students. Clinical pharmacology test scores significantly improved after using the package and were significantly higher than for the control group of students. The program is a useful adjunct to the existing nursing curriculum. It also could be used in postgraduate nursing education and other health sciences.
 ...
PMID:Development and evaluation of a computer-assisted instruction package in clinical pharmacology for nursing students. 945 93

This article examines the association between ethnicity and psychiatric symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Data from a cross-sectional study of patients evaluated at nine California Department of Health Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (ADDTCs) were used. Using the ADDTC patient database, sociodemographic and clinical variables in 207 black patients and 1818 white patients with probable and possible Alzheimer's disease were compared. Logistic and linear regression analysis indicated the following results: 1) black patients had fewer years of education and more often had hypertension, 2) black patients reported shorter duration of illness at the time of initial diagnosis of dementia, 3) black patients had lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores and higher Blessed Roth Dementia Rating Scale scores at the time of initial diagnosis, and 4) black patients more frequently reported insomnia and less frequently reported anxiety. Additional studies are needed to validate these findings and to generate hypotheses about the role of cardiovascular disease and pathophysiology of psychiatric symptoms in ethnic populations with Alzheimer's disease.
 ...
PMID:Clinical aspects of Alzheimer's disease in black and white patients. 951 Jun 21

While conventional hormone replacement therapy provides certain benefits, it is not without significant risks. Estriol has been found to provide some of the protection without the risks associated with stronger estrogens. Depending upon the situation, estriol may exert either agonistic or antagonistic effects on estrogen. Estriol appears to be effective at controlling symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, insomnia, vaginal dryness, and frequent urinary tract infections. Results of research on its bone-density-maintaining effects have been contradictory, with the most promising results coming from Japanese studies. Estriol's effect on cardiac risk factors has also been somewhat equivocal; however, unlike conventional estrogen prescriptions, it does not seem to contribute to hypertension. Although estriol appears to be much safer than estrone or estradiol, its continuous use in high doses may have a stimulatory effect on both breast and endometrial tissue.
 ...
PMID:Estriol: safety and efficacy. 957 46

Selegiline (deprenyl), a selective, irreversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase type B (MAO-B) is widely used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. As the first MAO-B inhibitor approved for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, concerns were raised about the safety of the drug based on the adverse effect profiles of older, nonselective MAO inhibitors. Unlike the nonselective MAO inhibitors, selegiline does not significantly potentiate tyramine-induced hypertension (the 'cheese effect') at the dosages (5 to 10 mg daily) used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Selegiline has been well tolerated when given alone. The most frequent adverse events seen during monotherapy have been insomnia, nausea, benign cardiac arrhythmias, dizziness and headache. When combined with levodopa, selegiline can potentiate the typical adverse effects of levodopa, if the dose of levodopa is not reduced sufficiently. Thus, the most common adverse effects associated with this combination are nausea, dizziness, fatigue, constipation and insomnia. At the later stages of Parkinson's disease when fluctuations in disability occur, peak dose dyskinesias, psychiatric complications like hallucinations and insomnia, and orthostatic hypotension are further potentiated by selegiline. Mortality was recently reported to be increased when selegiline and levodopa were given together in comparison with treatment with levodopa alone, but a large meta-analysis of 5 long term studies and 4 separate studies did not support this conclusion. Selegiline seems to be generally well tolerated in combination with other drugs. However, when pethidine (meperidine) has been given to patients who are receiving selegiline therapy, severe adverse effects have been reported. Thus, the concomitant use of these drugs is not recommended. A low tyramine diet is recommended if selegiline is used together with nonselective MAO inhibitors or the selective, reversible MAO-A inhibitor, moclobemide. Several adverse effects have been reported when fluoxetine and selegiline have been used together. A recent survey revealed that the incidence of a true serotonin syndrome is, however, very low with this combination. Concomitant use of selegiline and other selective serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like citalopram, which have generally less interactions than fluoxetine, seems to be well tolerated. Nevertheless, caution is advised when combining a SSRI or a tricyclic antidepressant and selegiline.
 ...
PMID:Safety of selegiline (deprenyl) in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. 967 55

Vincristine, referred to as a vinka alkaloid, has been used as a component of the various chemotherapeutic regimens. The major side effects of the usual dosage of vincristine are bone marrow suppression, gastrointestinal disorder, and neurotoxicity. A 53-year-old cervical cancer patient received 14 mg (4 mg/m2/day for 2 days) of vincristine instead of vinblastine because of the similarity between the two names. Then life threatening toxicities including paresthesias, bone marrow depression, severe oral mucositis, paralytic ileus, bladder atony, myalgia, muscle weakness, high fever, derangements of various organs (liver, heart), hypertension, and insomnia were encountered. But hypotension and syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) were not observed. Other than paresthesias in the extremities, the patient recovered completely from toxic impairments with intensive symptomatic and supportive care. In order to prevent the administration of the overdosed drug, it would be advisable for chemotherapy to be administered only by an experienced physician who is able to check the dose and concentration.
 ...
PMID:Overdose of vincristine: experience with a patient. 968 18

Fifty patients with elevated blood pressure were classified according to 3 sub-groups as follows: 11 with borderline hypertension, 8 with systolic hypertension, and 31 with diastolic hypertension. So far, they have been observed for one year while being treated with an antihypertensive preparation containing pargyline hydrochloride and methyclothiazide. Response to treatment depended in large measure upon the type of hypertension; the borderline type was virtually unchanged; in the systolic type there was some diminution in the systolic, but less in the diastolic pressure; and in the diastolic type there was a reduction in both systolic and diastolic pressures. Side effects (faintness, nervousness, mouth dryness, insomnia, genitourinary disturbances and elevated blood uric acid level), when they occurred, were usually relieved by appropriate alteration of the antihypertensive drug dosage, by a change in the time of administration, or by adding medication directed at treatment of the side effect. Evaluation of cardiac output before and after therapy showed no change in this parameter. The results suggest: (a) that the antihypertensive effect probably was achieved by diminishing the peripheral resistance rather than by reducing the cardiac output, and (b) that there was no deterioration of myocardial efficiency, as measured by cardiac output, during the one-year period of antihypertensive therapy. More knowledge of the natural history of hypertension in each of the 3 sub-groups is required for better assessment of the influence of antihypertensive therapy on the outcome of the disease. Judgment as to the desirability of initiating therapy can in some measure be based on the classification of patients into appropriate sub-groups.
 ...
PMID:Effect of antihypertensive (pargyline hydrochloride-methyclothiazide) therapy in three types of hypertension: preliminary report after one year of observation. 975 84

Unsafe and potentially safe herbal therapies are discussed. The use of herbal therapies is on the rise in the United States, but most pharmacists are not adequately prepared educationally to meet patients' requests for information on herbal products. Pharmacists must also cope with an environment in which there is relatively little regulation of herbal therapies by FDA. Many herbs have been identified as unsafe, including borage, calamus, coltsfoot, comfrey, life root, sassafras, chaparral, germander, licorice, and ma huang. Potentially safe herbs include feverfew, garlic, ginkgo, Asian ginseng, saw palmetto, St. John's wort, and valerian. Clinical trials have been used to evaluate feverfew for migraine prevention and rheumatoid arthritis; garlic for hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and infections; ginkgo for circulatory disturbances and dementia; ginseng for fatigue and cancer prevention; and saw palmetto for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Also studied in formal trials have been St. John's wort for depression and valerian for insomnia. The clinical trial results are suggestive of efficacy of some herbal therapies for some conditions. German Commission E, a regulatory body that evaluates the safety and efficacy of herbs on the basis of clinical trials, cases, and other scientific literature, has established indications and dosage recommendations for many herbal therapies. Pharmacists have a responsibility to educate themselves about herbal therapies in order to help patients discern the facts from the fiction, avoid harm, and gain what benefits may be available.
 ...
PMID:Unsafe and potentially safe herbal therapies. 1003 May 29

An 11 year old girl presented with hypertension and tachycardia. Excess urinary catecholamine excretion suggested phaeochromocytoma but imaging studies failed to demonstrate a tumour. Other symptoms included insomnia and weight loss, and she was found to have a raised concentration of mercury in blood and urine. Mercury intoxication should be considered in the differential diagnosis of hypertension with tachycardia even in patients presenting without the skin lesions typical of mercury intoxication and without a history of exposure.
 ...
PMID:Mercury intoxication presenting with hypertension and tachycardia. 1033 7


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>