Archive for June 2010

CroFab reconstitution – a faster method

June 29, 2010, 3:07 pm

★★★½☆

Improving Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab reconstitution times. Quan AN et al Am J Emerg Med 2010;28:593-595.

Abstract

The package insert for Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab (CroFab [Protherics Inc.]) recommends that each vial be reconstituted with 10 mL of Sterile Water for Injection USP (SWI) and mixed by continuous gentle swirling (to avoid foaming).  The insert goes on…

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Tox Tunes #23: Tonight’s the Night (Neil Young)

June 28, 2010, 12:38 am

‘Cause people let me tell you
It sent a chill
up and down my spine
When I picked up the telephone
And heard that he’d died
out on the mainline.

Neil Young’s work at the time “Tonight’s the Night” came out was haunted by guilt and the deaths and drug problems of multiple friends, including . . .

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Cocaine-associated arrhythmias

June 26, 2010, 6:40 pm

★★★★☆

Treatment of patients with cocaine-induced arrhythmias: bringing the bench to the bedside. Hoffman RS  Br J Clin Pharmacol May 2010;69:448-457.

Abstract

Cocaine can cause cardiotoxicity and arrhythmias by way of several mechanisms. Blockade of the sodium channel impairs myocardial cell depolarization, prolonging the QRS interval.  Potassium channel blockade impairs repolarization, as reflected in a prolonged QT interval.  Increased catecholamine…

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Dramatic poisonings

June 25, 2010, 4:36 pm

★★★☆☆

Death by Poison in Elizabethan Theatre. Ricci GR  Vesaslius: acta internationales historiae medicinae 2009;15(2):80-83.

Abstract

This survey of poison in Elizabethan-age drama begins with what is of course the essential example — Hamlet’s encounter with his father’s ghost:

Ghost. Sleeping within my orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ear did pour . . .

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Unusual complication of cocaine abuse

June 24, 2010, 9:11 pm

★★★☆☆

Levamisole-Induced Occlusive Necrotizing Vasculitis of the Ears After Use of Cocaine Contaminated with Levamisole. Buchanan JA et al. J Med Toxicol [published online: 12 June 2010]

Abstract

A very large percentage of cocaine that enters the United States is contaminated with the veterinary anti-helminthic agent levamisole.  A well recognized complication of levamisole exposure is agranulocytosis and development

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