Medical emergencies: the drug box, equipment and basic principles

Which drug tests in medical emergencies?

Three patients present to an emergency department. One has claimed to have overdosed on acetaminophen, one is maintained on theophylline but recently started taking erythromycin, and one is dehydrated but receives lithium. Which patient would benefit from quantitative determination of serum drug concentrations? Each of them would; in every case, measurement of drug concentrations in serum or pl...

Basic Principles of Hiv Drug Resistance

Similar to all antiretroviral drugs, failure of raltegravirbased treatment regimens to fully supress HIV replication almost invariably results in emergence of HIV resistance to this new drug. HIV resistance to raltegravir is the consequence of mutations located close to the integrase active site, which can be divided into three main evolutionary pathways: the N155H, the Q148R/H/K and the Y143R/...

Medical Emergencies

Drug related medical emergencies in the elderly: role of adverse drug reactions and non-compliance.

BACKGROUND Adverse drug reactions and non-compliance are important causes of admissions in the elderly to medical clinics. The contribution of adverse drug reactions and non-compliance to admission by the medical emergency department was analysed. METHODS A total of 578 consecutive elderly patients admitted to the medical emergency department were interviewed to determine the percentage of ad...

Medical Emergencies