Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0085593 (chills)
 4,268 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Exposure to cold can produce a variety of injuries that occur as a result of man's inability to adapt to cold. These injuries can be divided into localized injury to a body part, systemic hypothermia, or a combination of both. Body temperature may fall as a result of heat loss by radiation, evaporation, conduction, and convection. Hypothermia or systemic cold injury occurs when the core body temperature has decreased to 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) or less. The causes of hypothermia are either primary or secondary. Primary, or accidental, hypothermia occurs in healthy individuals inadequately clothed and exposed to severe cooling. In secondary hypothermia, another illness predisposes the individual to accidental hypothermia. Hypothermia affects multiple organs with symptoms of hypothermia that vary according to the severity of cold injury. The diagnosis of hypothermia is easy if the patient is a mountaineer who is stranded in cold weather. However, it may be more difficult in an elderly patient who has been exposed to a cold environment. In either case, the rectal temperature should be checked with a low-reading thermometer. The general principals of prehospital management are to (1) prevent further heat loss, (2) rewarm the body core temperature in advance of the shell, and (3) avoid precipitating ventricular fibrillation. There are two general techniques of rewarming--passive and active. The mechanisms of peripheral cold injury can be divided into phenomena that affect cells and extracellular fluids (direct effects) and those that disrupt the function of the organized tissue and the integrity of the circulation (indirect effects). Generally, no serious damage is seen until tissue freezing occurs. The mildest form of peripheral cold injury is frostnip. Chilblains represent a more severe form of cold injury than frostnip and occur after exposure to nonfreezing temperatures and damp conditions. Immersion (trench) foot, a disease of the sympathetic nerves and blood vessels in the feet, is observed in shipwreck survivors or in soldiers whose feet have been wet, but not freezing, for long periods. Patients with frostbite frequently present with multisystem injuries (e.g., systemic hypothermia, blunt trauma, substance abuse). The freezing of the corneas has been reported to occur in individuals who keep their eyes open in high wind-chill situations without protective goggles (e.g., snowmobilers, cross-country skiers).
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PMID:Cold injuries. 1571 18

Kratom is an unscheduled opioid receptor agonist that comes in the form of dietary supplements currently being abused by chronic pain patients on prescription opioids. Active alkaloids isolated from kratom such as mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine are thought to act on mu- and delta-opioid receptors as well as alpha-2 adrenergic and 5-HT2A receptors. Animal studies suggest that kratom may be more potent than morphine. Consequently, kratom consumption produces analgesic and euphoric feelings among users. In particular, some chronic pain patients on opioids take kratom to counteract the effects of opioid withdrawal. Although the Food and Drug Administration has banned its use as a dietary supplement, kratom continues to be widely available and easily accessible on the Internet at much less expensive rates than some opioid replacement therapies like buprenorphine. There are no federal regulations monitoring the sale and distribution of this drug, yet kratom has been associated with severe signs and symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, depressions, myalgias, chills, nausea/vomiting, respiratory hepatoxicity, seizures, coma, and death. A search of the pain literature shows past research has not described the use and potential deleterious effects of this drug. Many pain physicians are not familiar with kratom and as providers who take care of high-risk chronic pain patients using prescribed opioids, knowledge of current unregulated opioid receptor agonists with abuse potential is of paramount importance. The goal of this article is to introduce kratom to pain specialists and to spur a conversation on how pain physicians may take the lead to help curb the opioid abuse and overdose epidemic. Further studies may be required to help better understand the clinical and long-term effects of kratom use among chronic pain patients.Key words: Opioid receptor agonist, Kratom, Mitragynine, opioid overdose, chronic pain, substance abuse.
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PMID:Is Kratom the New 'Legal High' on the Block?: The Case of an Emerging Opioid Receptor Agonist with Substance Abuse Potential. 2807 12