Complete heart block and death following lamotrigine overdose

Context.?Lamotrigine is used for both seizure and psychiatric disorders. Overdoses typically follow a benign course. Case details.?A 19-year-old male with bipolar disorder ingested 4?g of lamotrigine. The patient suffered from multiple seizures, charcoal aspiration, respiratory arrest, prolongaton of the QRS interval on electrocardiogram, complete heart block, multiorgan failure and ultimately death. Discussion.?We describe the emergency department (ED) and ICU course for this patient and briefly review the toxic effects of lamotrigine and the pharmacokinetics with and without hemodialysis.     

Prevalence of Subjectively Experienced Symptoms in a Population Sample of Women with Special Reference to Women with Arterial Hypertension

The patients' reasons for encounter were recorded in 10278 personal doctor—patient contacts in nine Norwegian municipalities over a two-month period, and were classified according to a simplified version of the WHO “Reason for Encounter Classification”. A two-dimensional classification system was used where each reason was classified according to the location and type of problem. Symptoms and complaints made up 64.9% of all encounters. Most of the encounters were related to the musculo-skeletal, circulatory and female genital systems. The most frequent single reason for encounter was pain in the musculo-skeletal system (15.5% of all encounters). Psychological and social reasons were rather infrequent 3.1% and 0.3%. Compared with the frequencies of psychiatric and social diagnoses recorded in general practice, this indicates a discrepancy between the patient's own opinion of problems and the doctor's interpretations. Females had a significantly higher contact rate than males, mainly due to problems related to the genital system, inclusive of the breast.     

The effects of physical exercise training and cardiac education on levels of anxiety and depression in the rehabilitation of coronary artery bypass graft patients

Objective: to evaluate whether an exercise and education-based rehabilitation programme is sufficient treatment for individuals with clinically significant levels of anxiety or depression following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Design: follow-up and repeated assessment after surgery. Setting: outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programme. Patients: all 88 attenders after CABG surgery. Assessments: structured interview and Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale (using 8 as the cut-off) administered by rehabilitation nurses at start of course and HAD repeated at 12 weeks and 6 and 12 months (by post after discharge). Results: return rates of 76 and 80% at 6- and 12-month assessments, respectively; statistically significant reductions in levels of anxiety and depression found between first and all subsequent assessments; subdividing into groups revealed significant reduction in anxiety and depression in the anxious and depressed groups at 12 weeks and 6 months, respectively, but at 12 months there was no significant reduction. Conclusions: there is a need to address the problems of anxiety and depression directly by screening and treatment, and to provide more psychologically-orientated cardiac rehabilitation programmes.     

The prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with chronic renal failure is increased and associated with impaired psychological general well-being.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition occurs frequently in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms may lead to reduced food intake, resulting in malnutrition and impaired well-being in these patients. The prevalence of GI symptoms in various chronic renal failure (CRF) groups is unexplored. We assessed the prevalence of GI complaints in patients on either haemodialysis (HD), peritoneal dialysis (PD), or in the pre-dialysis stage. Patients with and without diabetic nephropathy were also compared. METHODS: A total of 233 patients with CRF (128 HD, 55 PD, and 50 pre-dialytic patients) completed two self-administered questionnaires: the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) index and the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), which measures GI symptoms. The values were compared with reference values obtained from the general population. The association between GI symptoms and serum (s-)albumin was also studied. RESULTS: The total GSRS score in patients with CRF was significantly higher than the reference values (HD 2.14 (1.97-2.31), PD 2.24 (2.00-2.48), and pre-dialytic patients 2.03 (1.82-2.25) vs controls 1.53 (1.50-1.55; P<0.001). When comparing CRF subgroups there was no overall difference between the groups, but PD patients had more severe reflux and eating dysfunction. In patients with diabetic nephropathy, only eating dysfunction was significantly more common than in the non-diabetic patients. There was a negative correlation between GI symptoms and psychological general well-being in CRF patients (Rho=-0.46, P<0.001) indicating that patients with a high GI symptom profile have impaired psychological general well-being. A negative correlation was found between eating dysfunction and s-albumin (Rho=-0.33, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of GI symptoms is high in patients with CRF and is associated with impairment in psychological general well-being. Presence of dialysis or not, type of dialysis, and presence or absence of diabetes mellitus seem to have limited impact on GI symptoms.     

CPB诱发犬急性肺损伤时肺组织转化生长因子β1 mRNA表达的变化

Objective To observe the changes in the transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1 ) mRNA expression in the lung in a dog model of cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB)-induced acute lung injury. Methods Thirty-six healthy adult mongrel dogs of both sexes weighing 15-16 kg were randomly assigned into control group and CPB group ( n = 18 each) . Lung injury was produced by CPB according to the method described by Williams. Six animals were killed at each of the following time points: before CPB (T0 ) and 30 and 60 min after termination of CPB (T1 , T2) in each group. Lung specimens were obtained for microscopic examination and determination of TGF-β1 mRNA expression (by RT-PCR) and MDA content. The lungs were lavaged and the protein concentration in the brancho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was determined and pulmonary permeability index (PPI) was calculated. Results Microscopic examination showed massive inflammatory cell infiltration, alveolar capillary dilatation, congestion, widened alveolar septum, massive RBC in the alveolar space and focal atelectasis in the lung in CPB group. The TGF-β1 mRNA expression and MDA content and PPI were significantly higher in CPB group than in control group. The TGF-β1 mRNA expression and MDA was positively correlated to PPI (MDA: r = 0.867, P < 0.01; PPI: r = 0.821, P < 0.01) . Conclusion TGF-β1 mRNA expression in the lung is significantly up-regulated after CPB and is an important factor contributing to CPB-induced acute lung injury.     

Community reintegration following acquired brain injury

Objective: To evaluate the interventions and strategies used to enable transition from acute care or post-acute rehabilitation to the community following brain injury.

Methods and main outcomes: A systematic review of the literature from 1980-2005 was conducted focusing on ABI rehabilitation. Five major aspects of community reintegration, including: independence and social integration, caregiver burden, satisfaction with quality of life, productivity and return to driving were considered.

Results: With the exception of one, the majority of interventions are supported by only limited evidence, denoting an absence of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the literature. Of 38 studies evaluated for this review, only one RCT was found. That RCT provided moderate evidence that behavioural management, coupled with caregiver education, did not help to improve caregiver burden. Conclusions: Further research, using an interventional approach, is required to advance the evidence base of reintegration into the community following brain injury.     

Long-term outcomes following laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding: Postoperative psychological sequelae predict outcome at 5-year follow-up

Background: NICE guidelines state that patients with psychological contra-indications should not be considered for bariatric surgery, including Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) surgery as treatment of morbid obesity, although no consistent correlation between psychiatric illness and long-term outcome in LAGB has been established. This is to our knowledge the first study to evaluate long-term outcomes in LAGB for a full range of DSM-IV defined psychiatric and eating disorders, and forms part of a research portfolio developed by the authors aimed at defining psychological predictors of bariatric surgery in the short-, medium- and long-term.^1,2 Methods: Case notes of 37 subjects operated on between April 1997 and June 2000, who had undergone structured clinical interview during pre-surgical assessment to yield diagnoses of mental and eating disorders according to DSM-IV criteria were analyzed according to a set of operationally defined criteria. Statistical analysis was carried out to compare those with a poor outcome and those considered to have a good outcome in terms of psychiatric profile. Results: In this group of mainly female, Caucasian subjects, ranging in age from 27 to 60 years, one-third were diagnosed with a mental disorder according to DSM-IV criteria. The development of postoperative DSM-IV defined binge eating disorder (BED) or depression strongly predicted poor surgical outcome, but pre-surgical psychiatric factors alone did not. Conclusion: Although pre-surgical psychiatric assessment alone cannot predict outcome, an absence of preoperative psychiatric illness should not reassure surgeons who should be mindful of postoperative psychiatric sequelae, particularly BED. The importance of providing an integrated biopsychosocial model of care in bariatric teams is highlighted.     

Troubleshooting adult ECMO

The following scenarios explore some of the common problems encountered during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in adults. In each scenario, the circuit is comprised of a centrifugal pump and a polymethylpentene oxygenator.     

Diabetes and sexual dysfunction: results from the Olmsted County study of urinary symptoms and health status among men

PURPOSE: We examined the association of diabetes and domains of sexual dysfunction in a population based sample of men residing in Olmsted County, Minnesota. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cohort of 2,115 white men 40 to 79 years old as of January 1, 1990 was randomly selected from the Olmsted County population. Men who had a history of prostate or bladder surgery, urethral surgery or stricture, or medical or other neurological condition that could affect normal urinary function were excluded from analysis. Diabetes itself was not used as an exclusionary criterion, although those with end stage organ failure as a result of diabetes were excluded. A previously validated male sexual function index was included in the questionnaires administrated to the cohort in 1996, which consisted of 11 questions on the 5 sexual function domains of sexual drive, erectile function, ejaculatory function, sexual problem assessment and sexual satisfaction. The baseline questionnaire also included whether they had ever been diagnosed by a physician as having diabetes. Only men with regular sexual partners were included. RESULTS: Individuals with diabetes at baseline had significantly greater dysfunction in all 5 sexual function domains. In multivariate adjusted analyses diabetes was significantly associated with all sexual dysfunction domains. The associations remained significant after adjusting for numerous predictors of sexual dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of diabetes at baseline was significantly associated not only with erectile dysfunction but with all aspects of sexual dysfunction, including sexual drive, ejaculatory function, sexual problems and sexual satisfaction in this population based sample of men residing in Olmsted County.