Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023380 (lethargy)
 5,697 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

At the two largest open air markets in Kumasi, Ghana, interviews were conducted with 143 women who had at least one child aged less than five years. Researchers wanted to examine their knowledge, attitude, and practices concerning acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children. The women tended to be married, Christian, from the Ashanti tribe, aged 20-29 years, and to have 2-3 living children. 73.4% had a child or children who had suffered from cough and fever within the last six months. 73.4% named exposure to cold as a direct cause of cough. Many women incorrectly blamed worm infestation for causing cough and fever (21%) and constipation for causing cough (25.9%). None mentioned pathogens as a cause of cough and fever. None said that good ventilation and avoidance of overcrowding prevent cough and fever. The more serious the symptoms, the more likely the mothers were to seek treatment at a health care facility (e.g., cough only, 0.7%; cough and fever, 6.3%; cough, fever, and anorexia, 30%; and cough, fever, and lethargy, 57.3%). Common home care practices for treating a runny nose included ephedrine or other types of nasal drops, herbal medicines, antipyretics, and antibiotics. 39.9% would use antibiotics to treat coughs. Honey and cough syrup were often used to treat cough and fever. Some herbal and home care therapies had potentially harmful effects. For example, 25.9% said that they used castor oil and enemas to prevent ARI. The women had an acceptable knowledge score on severity of symptoms (mode = 15/20; range = 11-18). These findings indicate a need for a health education program targeting mothers of children aged less than five years.
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PMID:Maternal knowledge, attitude and practices regarding childhood acute respiratory infections in Kumasi, Ghana. 788 91

2-Ethylhexanol (2EH) is a weak nongenotoxic hepatic peroxisome proliferator in the rat. It is a high-volume chemical intermediate in the preparation of the plasticizers bis-(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA), bis-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and tris-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEHP), which are weak hepatocellular tumorigens in female mice. In consequence, the oncogenic potential of 2EH was evaluated in male (M) and female (F) rats and mice (50 animals/sex/group). Oral gavage doses of 2EH in 0.005% aqueous Cremophor EL (polyoxyl-35 castor oil) were given five times a week to rats: 0 (water), 0 (vehicle), 50, 150, and 500 mg/kg for 24 months, and to mice: 0 (water), 0 (vehicle), 50, 200, and 750 mg/kg for 18 months. Statistical comparisons of data were made between vehicle controls and treatment groups. There were no differences of biological significance between data from vehicle and water control groups. In rats, there were no dose-related changes at 50 mg/kg. There was reduced body weight gain at 150 mg/kg (M, 16; F, 12%) and 500 mg/kg (M, 33; F, 31%) and an increased incidence of lethargy and unkemptness. There were dose-related increases in relative liver, stomach, brain, kidney, and testis weights at sacrifice. Female rat mortality was markedly increased at 500 mg/kg. There was marked aspiration-induced bronchopneumonia in rats at 500 mg/kg; hematologic, gross, and microscopic changes, including tumors, were otherwise comparable among all rat groups. In mice at 50 and 200 mg/kg there were no dose-related changes and essentially no time-dependent or time-independent adverse trends in liver tumor incidence at the 5% significance level. At 750 mg/kg mouse body weight gain was reduced (M, 26; F, 24%), and mortality increased (M and F, 30%) versus vehicle controls. At 750 mg/kg there was a slight increase in nonneoplastic focal hyperplasia in the forestomach of mice (M 5/50, F 4/50) versus vehicle controls (M 1/50, F 1/50). There were increases in mouse relative liver (F, 21%) and stomach (M, 13%; F, 19%) weights at 750 mg/kg. There was a 12% incidence of hepatic basophilic foci and an 18% incidence of hepatocellular carcinomas in male mice at 750 mg/kg, not statistically significant compared with either control by Fisher's exact test. There was a 12% incidence of hepatic basophilic foci and a 10% incidence of hepatocellular carcinomas in female mice at 750 mg/kg, statistically significant (p < 0.05) compared with vehicle but not with water controls by Fisher's exact test. There were no metastases. Time-dependent and -independent statistical analyses showed an adverse trend in the incidence of hepatocellular carcinomas in male and female mice, correlated with toxicity (expressed as mortality) at 750 mg/kg. The time-adjusted incidence of hepatocellular carcinomas in male mice (18.8%) was within the historical normal range at the testing facility (0-22%), but that in females (13.1%) lay outside the normal range (0-2%). Under the conditions of these studies 2EH was not oncogenic in rats, but there were weak adverse trends in hepatocellular carcinoma incidence in mice at high dose levels which may have been associated with toxicity. The major effects of chronic dosing were mortality in female rats at 500 mg/kg and in male and female mice at 750 mg/kg, accompanied by reductions in body weight gain in rats at 150 and 500 mg/kg and in mice at 750 mg/kg. Direct comparison of any tumorogenic effects of 2EH given alone to female mice with those due to 2EH formed in vivo from DEHA, DEHP, or TEHP is limited by the high mortality caused by 2ER in female mice at equivalent doses of 2EH. While 2EH may be a contributing factor in the hepatocellular carcinogenesis in female mice associated with the chronic administration of DEHA and DEHP, it is unlikely to be the entire proximate carcinogen.
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PMID:Oncogenicity testing of 2-ethylhexanol in Fischer 344 rats and B6C3F1 mice. 899 51

Ricin, a lectin from the castor bean plant (Ricinis communis), is considered one of the most potent plant toxins. Ingestion of masticated seeds results in high morbidity, with vomiting and watery to hemorrhagic diarrhea. The prognosis varies with the number of seeds ingested, the degree of mastication, individual susceptibility, and the delay in treatment. Low mortality restricts assessment of histologic lesions, and the literature on toxicologic analysis for ricin is limited. This report describes a fatal case of castor bean ingestion in a 12-week-old Mastiff puppy, with confirmation of ricin exposure through detection of the biomarker ricinine by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Despite supportive therapy, the puppy died several hours after presentation for acute vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. At necropsy, a segment of jejunum and mesenteric lymph nodes were congested. When the owner reported the presence of castor beans in the dog's feces, selected formalin-fixed and unfixed tissues were submitted for diagnostic evaluation. Histopathologic findings included superficial necrotizing enteritis of the jejunum and occasional, random foci of coagulative necrosis in the liver. The alkaloid ricinine was detected in gastric content by using a newly developed LC/MS method. This confirmation of exposure is important in the diagnosis of ricin toxicosis, because ingestion of castor beans is not always fatal, histologic lesions are nonspecific, and the degree of mastication can influence the effective dose of ricin.
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PMID:Fatal ricin toxicosis in a puppy confirmed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry when using ricinine as a marker. 1740 23