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Deep Learning Technology: Sebastian Arnold, Betty van Aken, Paul Grundmann, Felix A. Gers and Alexander Löser. Learning Contextualized Document Representations for Healthcare Answer Retrieval. The Web Conference 2020 (WWW'20)
Funded by The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy; Grant: 01MD19013D, Smart-MD Project, Digital Technologies
Among US adults older than 55, 4% are taking medication and or supplements that put them at risk of a major drug interaction. Potential drug-drug interactions have increased over time and are more common in the low educated elderly even after controlling for age, sex, place of residence, and comorbidity.
Hippuric acid has long been used as an indicator of toluene exposure; however, there appears to be some doubt about its validity. There is significant endogenous hippuric acid production by humans; which shows inter- and intra-individual variation influenced by factors such as diet, medical treatment, alcohol consumption, etc. This suggests that hippuric acid may be an unreliable indicator of toluene exposure. It has been suggested that urinary hippuric acid, the traditional marker of toluene exposure is simply not sensitive enough to separate the exposed from the non-exposed. This has led to the investigation of other metabolites as markers for toluene exposure.
Urinary "o"-cresol may be more reliable for the biomonitoring of toluene exposure because, unlike hippuric acid, "o"-cresol is not found at detectable levels in unexposed subjects. o-Cresol may be a less sensitive marker of toluene exposure than hippuric acid. o-Cresol excretion may be an unreliable method for measuring toluene exposure because o-cresol makes up <1% of total toluene elimination.
Benzylmercapturic acid, a minor metabolite of toluene, is produced from benzaldehyde. In more recent years, studies have suggested the use of urinary benzylmercapturic acid as the best marker for toluene exposure, because: it is not detected in non-exposed subjects; it is more sensitive than hippuric acid at low concentrations; it is not affected by eating or drinking; it can detect toluene exposure down to approximately 15 ppm; and it shows a better quantitative relationship with toluene than hippuric acid or "o"-cresol.
Bile excretion is different from kidney excretion as it is always involves energy expenditure in active transport across the epithelium of the bile duct against a concentration gradient. This transport system can also be saturated if the plasma concentrations of the drug are high. Bile excretion of drugs mainly takes place where their molecular weight is greater than 300 and they contain both polar and lipophilic groups. The glucuronidation of the drug in the kidney also facilitates bile excretion. Substances with similar physicochemical properties can block the receptor, which is important in assessing interactions. A drug excreted in the bile duct can occasionally be reabsorbed by the intestines (in the entero-hepatic circuit), which can also lead to interactions with other drugs.
Paracetamol may be quantified in blood, plasma, or urine as a diagnostic tool in clinical poisoning situations or to aid in the medicolegal investigation of suspicious deaths. The concentration in serum after a typical dose of paracetamol usually peaks below 30 mg/l, which equals 200 µmol/L. Levels of 30–300 mg/L (200–2000 µmol/L) are often observed in overdose patients. Postmortem blood levels have ranged from 50–400 mg/L in persons dying due to acute overdosage. Automated colorimetric techniques, gas chromatography and liquid chromatography are currently in use for the laboratory analysis of the drug in physiological specimens.
A person's history of taking paracetamol is somewhat accurate for the diagnosis. The most effective way to diagnose poisoning is by obtaining a blood paracetamol level. A drug nomogram developed in 1975, called the Rumack-Matthew nomogram, estimates the risk of toxicity based on the serum concentration of paracetamol at a given number of hours after ingestion. To determine the risk of potential hepatotoxicity, the paracetamol level is traced along the nomogram. Use of a timed serum paracetamol level plotted on the nomogram appears to be the best marker indicating the potential for liver injury. A paracetamol level drawn in the first four hours after ingestion may underestimate the amount in the system because paracetamol may still be in the process of being absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, a serum level taken before 4 hours is not recommended.
Clinical or biochemical evidence of liver toxicity may develop in one to four days, although, in severe cases, it may be evident in 12 hours. Right-upper-quadrant tenderness may be present and can aid in diagnosis. Laboratory studies may show evidence of liver necrosis with elevated AST, ALT, bilirubin, and prolonged coagulation times, particularly an elevated prothrombin time. After paracetamol overdose, when AST and ALT exceed 1000 IU/L, paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity can be diagnosed. In some cases, the AST and ALT levels can exceed 10,000 IU/L.
Serious adverse behavioural effects are often associated with chronic occupational exposure and toluene abuse related to the deliberate inhalation of solvents. Long-term toluene exposure is often associated with effects such as: psychoorganic syndrome; visual evoked potential (VEP) abnormality; toxic polyneuropathy, cerebellar, cognitive, and pyramidal dysfunctions; optic atrophy; and brain lesions.
The neurotoxic effects of long-term use (in particular repeated withdrawals) of toluene may cause postural tremors by upregulating GABA receptors within the cerebellar cortex. Treatment with GABA agonists such as benzodiazepines provide some relief from toluene-induced tremor and ataxia. An alternative to drug treatment is vim thalamotomy. The tremors associated with toluene misuse do not seem to be a transient symptom, but an irreversible and progressive symptom which continues after solvent abuse has been discontinued.
There is some evidence that low-level toluene exposure may cause disruption in the differentiation of astrocyte precursor cells. This does not appear to be a major hazard to adults; however, exposure of pregnant women to toluene during critical stages of fetal development could cause serious disruption to neuronal development.
ADT tachyphylaxis specifically occurs in depressed patients using SSRIs and MAOIs. Currently, SSRIs are the preferred treatment for depression among clinicians, as MAOIs require the patient to avoid certain foods and other medications due to the potential for interactions capable of inducing dangerous side effects. Provided is a list of medications known to be subject to Poop-out.
Following a declination or total extinction in response to a previously therapeutic dose of an antidepressant, the issue is clinically addressed as stemming from tolerance development. Several strategies are available, such as exploring drug options from a different drug class used to treat depression. The patient can also choose to switch to another SSRI (or MAOI, if applicable) while maintaining proportionate dose. If tolerance develops in a drug from the same class, the clinician may recommend a regular cycle consisting of all effective treatments within the SSRI or MAOI classes, in order to minimize transitional side effects while maximizing therapeutic efficacy.
Other options include increasing dose of the same medication, or supplementation with another antidepressant. Dual reuptake inhibitors, also known as tricyclic antidepressants have been shown to have lower rates of tachyphylaxis.
Painful red swelling of the hands and feet in a patient receiving chemotherapy is usually enough to make the diagnosis. The problem can also arise in patients after bone marrow transplants, as the clinical and histologic features of PPE can be similar to cutaneous manifestations of acute (first 3 weeks) graft-versus-host disease. It is important to differentiate PPE, which is benign, from the more dangerous graft-versus-host disease. As time progresses, patients with graft-versus-host disease progress to have other body parts affected, while PPE is limited to hands and feet. Serial biopsies every 3 to 5 days can also be helpful in differentiating the two disorders (Crider et al., 1986).
6-Pyruvoyltetrahydropterin synthase deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder that causes malignant hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency.
It belongs to the rare diseases. It is a recessive disorder that is accompanied by hyperphenylalaninemia. Commonly reported symptoms are initial truncal hypotonia, subsequent appendicular hypertonia, bradykinesia, cogwheel rigidity, generalized dystonia, and marked diurnal fluctuation. Other reported clinical features include difficulty in swallowing, oculogyric crises, somnolence, irritability, hyperthermia, and seizures. Chorea, athetosis, hypersalivation, rash with eczema, and sudden death have also been reported. Patients with mild phenotypes may deteriorate if given folate antagonists such as methotrexate, which can interfere with a salvage pathway through which dihydrobiopterin is converted into tetrahydrobiopterin via dihydrofolate reductase. Treatment options include substitution with neurotransmitter precursors (levodopa, 5-hydroxytryptophan), monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and tetrahydrobiopterin. Response to treatment is variable and the long-term and functional outcome is unknown. To provide a basis for improving the understanding of the epidemiology, genotype/phenotype correlation and outcome of these diseases their impact on the quality of life of patients, and for evaluating diagnostic and therapeutic strategies a patient registry was established by the noncommercial International Working Group on Neurotransmitter Related Disorders (iNTD).
The cooling of hands and feet during chemotherapy may help prevent PPE (Baack and Burgdorf, 1991; Zimmerman et al., 1995). Support for this and a variety of other approaches to treat or prevent acral erythema comes from small clinical studies, although none has been proven in a randomised controlled clinical trial of sufficient size.
This remains a challenge in clinical practice due to a lack of reliable markers. Many other conditions lead to similar clinical as well as pathological pictures. To diagnose hepatotoxicity, a causal relationship between the use of the toxin or drug and subsequent liver damage has to be established, but might be difficult, especially when idiosyncratic reaction is suspected. Simultaneous use of multiple drugs may add to the complexity. As in acetaminophen toxicity, well established, dose-dependent, pharmacological hepatotoxicity is easier to spot. Several clinical scales such as CIOMS/RUCAM scale and Maria and Victorino criteria have been proposed to establish causal relationship between offending drug and liver damage. CIOMS/RUCAM scale involves a scoring system that categorizes the suspicion into "definite or highly probable" (score > 8), “probable” (score 6-8), “possible” (score 3-5), “unlikely” (score 1-2) and “excluded” (score ≤ 0). In clinical practice, physicians put more emphasis on the presence or absence of similarity between the biochemical profile of the patient and known biochemical profile of the suspected toxicity (e.g., cholestatic damage in amoxycillin-clauvonic acid ).
Reversion of lipodystrophy does not occur after withdrawal of protease inhibitors.
Tissue biopsy is the diagnostic modality of choice. Due to a high incidence of lymph node involvement, a sentinel lymph node biopsy is often performed. A common characteristic of epithelioid sarcoma (observed in 80% of all cases) is the loss of function of the SMARCB1 gene (also termed BAF47, INI1, or hSNF5). Immunohistochemical staining of INI1 is available and can be used for the diagnosis of epithelioid sarcoma. MRI is the diagnostic modality of choice for imaging prior to biopsy and pathologic diagnosis, with the primary role being the determination of anatomic boundaries.
GHRH analogs such as tesamorelin can be used to treat HIV-associated lipodystrophy.
The staging for epithelioid sarcoma takes into account size and location of the primary tumor, lymph node involvement, presence and location of metastasis, and histologic grade (a measure of disease aggressiveness)
In most cases, liver function will return to normal if the offending drug is stopped early. Additionally, the patient may require supportive treatment. In acetaminophen toxicity, however, the initial insult can be fatal. Fulminant hepatic failure from drug-induced hepatotoxicity may require liver transplantation. In the past, glucocorticoids in allergic features and ursodeoxycholic acid in cholestatic cases had been used, but there is no good evidence to support their effectiveness.
An elevation in serum bilirubin level of more than 2 times ULN with associated transaminase rise is an ominous sign. This indicates severe hepatotoxicity and is likely to lead to mortality in 10% to 15% of patients, especially if the offending drug is not stopped (Hy's Law). This is because it requires significant damage to the liver to impair bilirubin excretion, hence minor impairment (in the absence of biliary obstruction or Gilbert syndrome) would not lead to jaundice. Other poor predictors of outcome are old age, female sex, high AST.
Apitoxins are under preliminary research for their potential biological effects, such as in cancer.
Drug-induced angioedema is a known complication of the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin II antagonists (ARBs), and Angiotensin-Neprilysin Inhibitor LCZ969. The angioedema appears to be dose dependent as it may resolve with decreased dose.
Some common ACE Inhibitors are:
- Benazepril (Lotensin)
- Captopril (Capoten)
- Enalapril (Vasotec)
- Lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril)
- Ramipril (Altace)
Some common ARBs are:
- Candesartan (Atacand)
- Losartan (Cozaar)
- Olmesartan (Benicar)
- Valsartan (Diovan)
Angioedema presents itself as an abrupt onset of non-pitting, non-itchy swelling that involves the mucosal layers. Some common locations of angioedema are the face, particularly the lips and around the eyes, hands and feet, and genitalia. A rare, yet serious complication is one inside the abdomen, the symptom usually being severe stomach upset, which is much less obvious than the other locations.
The chance of drug-induced angioedema is extremely uncommon, however, as studies show incidence of less than 1%. The reason this adverse effect may occur is due to the build-up of bradykinin, a vasodilator. This causes blood vessels to dilate and allow for fluid buildup in the mucosal surfaces.
CML accounts for 8% of all leukaemias in the UK, and around 680 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2011.
Symptoms can last for more than 4 weeks and typically resolve within a day of restoring the medication.
As one route to reducing TAMs CSF1R inhibitors have been developed as a possible cancer therapy and many are in early clinical trials. CSF1R inhibitors in clinical trials include : Pexidartinib, PLX7486, ARRY-382, JNJ-40346527, BLZ945, Emactuzumab, AMG820, IMC-CS4. (MCS110 is a CSF1 inhibitor)
Another CSF1R inhibitor that targets/depletes TAMs is Cabiralizumab (cabira; FPA-008) which is a monoclonal antibody and is in early clinical trials for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Antidepressants, including SSRIs, can cross the placenta and have the potential to affect the fetus and newborns, presenting a dilemma whether pregnant women should take antidepressants at all, and if they do, whether tapering them near the end of pregnancy could have a protective effect for the newborn.
Postnatal adaptation syndrome (PNAS) (originally called “neonatal behavioral syndrome”, “poor neonatal adaptation syndrome”, or "neonatal withdrawal syndrome") was first noticed in 1973 in newborns of mothers taking antidepressants; symptoms in the infant include irritability, rapid breathing, hypothermia, and blood sugar problems. The symptoms usually develop from birth to days after delivery and usually resolve within days or weeks of delivery.
The first red flag that indicates M2 acute myeloblastic leukemia with maturation is the skewed ratio of white blood cells to red blood cells. Leukemia is initially diagnosed by a peripheral blood smear, a procedure used to check for cell count and cell shapes. Then a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy would be conducted to collect and view the bone, bone marrow, and blood under a microscope. Cytogenetic assays, such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) would help evaluate the structure and function of the cell’s chromosomes.
The criteria for an acute myeloid leukemia case to fall under the M2 subtype is the following: 20%+ nonerythroid cells in peripheral blood or bone marrow are myeloblasts; monocytic precursors are < 20% in bone marrow and granulocytes are 10%+ of cells (Mihova, 2013).
Most patients with "ETV6-ACSL6"-related disease present with findings similar to eosinophilia, hypereosinophila, or chronic eosinophilic leukemia; at least 4 cases presented with eosinophilia plus findings of the red blood cell neoplasm, polycythemia vera; three cases resembled acute myelogenous leukemia; and one case presented with findings of a combined Myelodysplastic syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasm. Best treatments for "ETV6-ACSL6"-related disease are unclear. Patients with the polycythemia vera form of the disease have been treated by reducing the circulating red blood cell load by phlebotomy or suppressing red blood cell formation using hydroxyurea. Individual case studies report that "ETV6-ACSL6"-associated disease is insensitive to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Best treatment currently available, therefore, may involve chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantion.