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Biomedical subjects

D Rowbotham

Publications and source records attributed to D Rowbotham.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Colonic involvement in Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

Severe gastrointestinal tract involvement is a rare manifestation of Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS). The case is described of a 17 year old man who developed SJS secondary to phenytoin. In addition to the cutaneous, ocular, and oral mucosal lesions typical of SJS, he also developed persistent, bloody diarrhoea associated with life threatening malnutrition. Serial colonoscopy showed severe and progressive colitis. He was treated with a combination of long term nutritional support, probiotic therapy, and supportive measures. He was eventually discharged from hospital six months after admission when the diarrhoea improved and he began to gain weight.

Adolescent↗

Acute liver failure secondary to hepatic infiltration: a single centre experience of 18 cases.

BACKGROUND: Acute liver failure (ALF) secondary to malignant infiltration of the liver is rare and is diagnosed often only after death. AIMS: To determine diagnostic factors and particular clinical patterns of illness. METHODS: Review of case notes from all patients with ALF secondary to hepatic infiltration admitted to this unit over an 18 year period (1978-1995). RESULTS: From a total of 4020 admissions, 18 patients were identified with ALF attributable to hepatic infiltration. Mean age was 40.7 years. Aetiology was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in nine patients, Hodgkin's disease in three, infiltrative metastatic carcinoma in four, and haemophagocytosis with no precipitant cause in two cases. Prodromal symptoms were non-specific, but occurred at least two to four weeks before onset of ALF, making the presence of such symptoms of value in differential diagnosis of the cause of ALF. Clinical examination and investigations were unhelpful in distinguishing these cases from more usual causes of ALF. Usually, the clinical course was of rapid deterioration and death from multiorgan failure, and only one patient survived. Diagnosis was made during life in 15 patients. Histology showed evidence of widespread hepatocellular necrosis, with diffuse infiltration by tumour cells rather than focal cellular aggregation. CONCLUSIONS: Only with accurate histological diagnosis from liver biopsy and institution of specific therapy early in the management of such patients will the best chance of recovery be achieved. In every case of ALF with prodromal symptoms or abnormal imaging, hepatic histology should be obtained by liver biopsy as soon as possible to diagnose infiltrative hepatic disease.

Adolescent↗

Pharmacokinetic drug interactions with gastrointestinal motility modifying agents.

Drugs may affect gastrointestinal motility and, therefore, absorption of other concomitantly administered drugs. Gastrointestinal prokinetic agents increase the rate of gastric emptying and also upper intestinal motility. These effects would be expected to increase the initial rate of absorption of orally administered drugs, but reduce total bioavailability of the agents. Metoclopramide has been shown to increase the rate of absorption of several classes of drug, reflected by reduced time taken to achieve maximal plasma concentration (tmax) and increased maximal plasma concentration (Cmax). However, the effect of these agents on the area under the plasma concentration-time curve from zero to infinity (AUC0-infinity), when measured, is not consistent. Cisapride and domperidone appear to have similar effects, but there are relatively less data available regarding these products. Opioids may delay gastric emptying considerably, an effect which will often have significant clinical and therapeutic implications. Most of the data confirming this observation concern oral analgesics, but the effect should be considered when prescribing any oral medication. Drugs with anticholinergic or sympathomimetic activity are likely to have a similar effect and this is confirmed, in the main, by the limited data available. Although many effects reported in the literature are of limited clinical importance, they may be significant when prescribing a drug with a narrow therapeutic index, especially if it is absorbed poorly.

Absorption↗

Systemic lupus erythematosus presenting with myelofibrosis.

The 20-year-old girl we describe presented with myelofibrosis and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which initially responded to treatment with corticosteroids but during a relapse 9 months later a bone marrow biopsy revealed no improvement in her myelofibrosis. As the cytotoxic treatments used to treat severe SLE may be associated with bone marrow suppression, it is important to consider the possibility of myelofibrosis complicating SLE, which, even when it is a presenting feature, may not readily respond to corticosteroids. When this girl was subsequently treated with high dose steroid and azathioprine her myelofibrosis went into remission.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗