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Biomedical subjects

Dennis F Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to Dennis F Thompson.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Soluble or insoluble prussian blue for radiocesium and thallium poisoning?

OBJECTIVE: To review the available English-language literature concerning the efficacy of soluble and insoluble Prussian blue used as a therapeutic agent in radiocesium and thallium poisoning. DATA SOURCES: A thorough search of MEDLINE, Toxline, and EMBASE databases (1960s-August 2003) was performed. Search terms included Prussian blue, thallium, and radiocesium poisoning. Bibliographies of relevant papers were reviewed for additional citations. study selection AND DATA EXTRACTION: Reports and studies of human trials and cases, along with animal and relevant in vitro data, were sought. Data were categorized as insoluble and soluble Prussian blue and by thallium and radiocesium poisoning. DATA SYNTHESIS: The majority of evidence describing the efficacy of Prussian blue for radiocesium poisoning is based on the use of the insoluble form. In contrast, the majority of data supporting the efficacy of Prussian blue in thallium poisoning involves the use of the soluble form. CONCLUSIONS: Insoluble Prussian blue has recently been approved in the US for treatment of both thallium and radiocesium poisoning. While there is sufficient evidence that the insoluble form of Prussian blue is effective in radiocesium poisoning, there is a paucity of analogous data supporting its use in thallium poisoning. Whether the physicochemical differences between soluble and insoluble Prussian blue have any effect on outcomes in human poisoning is not known.

Animals↗

A review of methotrexate-induced accelerated nodulosis.

OBJECTIVE: To review the English-language literature on methotrexate-induced accelerated nodulosis, compile case reports of its occurrences, and make recommendations on the clinical management of patients. METHODS: A comprehensive search of MEDLINE, TOXLINE, and EMBASE databases was performed, along with a bibliographic search of key articles. Case reports were compiled separately. The Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale was used to assess causality. RESULTS: Twenty-seven case reports of patients with methotrexate-induced accelerated nodulosis were identified along with one series of 10 patients and one series of 21 patients. Probability assessment for most of the case reports was weak and left room for doubt regarding causality. Most patients were older than 50 years, were positive for rheumatoid factor, and had nodules on their fingers but did not have concurrent vasculitis. Some unusual sites of nodulosis were the larynx, lungs, Achilles tendon, and heart. Of 19 patients given hydroxychloroquine, colchicine, sulfasalazine, azathioprine, or D-penicillamine, all except two showed regression of the nodules; the response was unknown for one patient. CONCLUSION: Controversy surrounds the management of patients who develop accelerated nodulosis while receiving methotrexate therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Our review of these data does not allow definitive conclusions because the available case reports and clinical trials are fragmented and incomplete.

Aged↗

The institutional turn in professional ethics.

The traditional ideal in which professionals alone or in small groups serve their patients and clients in accord with a public-spirited goal is giving way to practice in which professionals serve in organizations that value mainly their expertise and expect them to act in accord with the organization's goals. The study of professional ethics has not kept pace with this trend and, as a result, has neglected the institutional aspects of ethical problems. I focus attention on these aspects by considering a case that raises 2 problems that are particularly relevant in the context in which professionals now practice: the problem of representation (whom does the professional act for) and the problem of authority (who has the right to make the policy for the institution).

Administrative Personnel↗

Hospitals and moral imperatives: hospital ethics.

... Because institutional ethics has been neglected, there is a tendency in our institutional life to apply moral principles with which we are familiar from our personal life. However, principles from individual ethics often distort institutional ethics. Ethical problems in the hospital are not exactly the same as ethical problems that arise when individual doctors treat individual patients. And when the problems are similar, the ethical principles by which we should resolve them are likely to be quite different. To begin to make a case for taking hospital ethics seriously, I briefly examine two familiar principles of individual doctor-patient ethics that look different, or should look different, in the setting of a hospital. I then discuss ethics committees -- one of the most important ways in which hospital ethics is put into practice.

Administrative Personnel↗