Spice drugs as a new trend: Mode of action, identification and legislation. Vardakou I et al. Toxicol Lett 2010:197:157-162.
Spice, like K2, is a mixture of herbs laced with various synthetic cannabinoids. It is usually sold over the counter or via the internet, labelled as “incense” and “not for human consumption”. Although it is not clear…
Two Unusual Pediatric Causes of Dilutional Hyponatremia. Boetzkes S et al. Pediatr Emerg Med July 2010;26:503-505.
Hyponatremia, especially if it is acute and develops rapidly, can be associated with significant and sometimes severe consequences: nausea, vomiting, headache, decreased mental status, seizures and coma. Fatal cases have been reported. This paper, from Belgium, presents two cases of clinically severe…
Medical examiner and medical toxicologist agreement on cause of death. Manini AF et al. Forensic Sci Int (2010), doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.06.021
This is a somewhat interesting paper on a very important topic. The authors, all from New York City, identified 256 fatalities over a 7-year period that were evaluated by the medical examiner’s office (MEO) and the local poison…
Case Report: Is threshold for treatment of methemoglobinemia the same for all? A case report and literature review. El-Husseini A, Azarov N. Amer J Emerg Med 2010;28:748.e5-748.e10
This puzzling and ultimately unsatisfying case report is redeemed by some spectacular clinical pictures illustrating the findings in methemoglobinemia. A 78-year-old woman hospitalized for a CVA workup underwent transesophageal echocardiography, receiving…
Academic Life in Emergency Medicine has a very handy pocket card listing the causes of false positive results on the urine drug screen, and duration of positive tests after last drug use. It is suitable for printing out and carrying around in a notebook.
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