BACKGROUND Intravenous acetaminophen injection (paracetamol) is marketed in Europe for the management of acute pain. A repeated-dose, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, three-parallel group study was performed to evaluate the analgesic efficacy and safety of intravenous acetaminophen as compared with its prodrug (propacetamol) and placebo. Propacetamol has been available in many Euro...

objective(s): this study was performed aiming to investigate the effect of particle engineering via spray drying of hydroalcoholic solution on solid states and physico-mechanical properties of acetaminophen.   materials and methods: spray drying of hydroalcoholic solution (25% v/v ethanol/water) of acetaminophen (5% w/v) in the presence of small amounts of polyninylpyrrolidone k30 (pvp) (0, 1.2...

We read with interest the recent description of yet another case of bilirubin-related positive interference in an enzymatic colorimetric assay for acetaminophen (1 ). As a remedy, these authors suggest measuring bilirubin before every acetaminophen assay and removing it by ultrafiltration when the bilirubin concentration is higher than the reported cutoffs for interference. An alternative and p...

Acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of acute liver failure. One dose of 10-15 g causes severe liver damage in humans, whereas repeated exposure to acetaminophen in humans and animal models results in autoprotection. Insight of this process is limited to select proteins implicated in acetaminophen toxicity and cellular defence. Here we investigate hepatic adaptation to acetaminophen toxi...

background: opioid analgesics are the mainstay of the treatment of postoperative pain. appropriate monitoring of patients receiving opioid analgesics is essential to detect those with side effects such as respiratory depression. the discovery of acetaminophen as a cox-3 variant may represent a primary central mechanism by which acetaminophen decrease pain. the aim of this study was to assess th...

Hepatotoxicity caused by acetaminophen can be prevented by enzyme-catalyzed conjugation of its reactive metabolite with glutathione (GSH). Since we have shown in previous studies that 6-N-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) can substitute for GSH as a substrate for the GSH S-transferases, we examined the possibility that PTU might also protect against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity by direct chemical inter...

Paracetamol is commonly used for self poisoning, and the costs of treating the resulting liver failure in the few who develop it are high. The morbidity could be avoided by adding methionine to paracetamol tablets, but this would mean that the millions of people who take paracetamol responsibly would have to take methionine unnecessarily. Alison Jones and colleagues and Edward Krenzelok debate ...

AIM To investigate the factors associated with adverse clinical features presented by drug overdose/self-poisoning patients and the treatments provided. METHODS Historical patient records collected over 3 months from ambulance crews attending non-fatal overdoses/self-poisoning incidents were reviewed. Logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of adverse clinical features (reduced...

BACKGROUND Overdose is one of the commonest causes of medical admissions to UK hospitals. In Scotland (pop. 5.1 million), all NHS hospital discharge data is uniquely linked to enable identification of individuals re-presenting with the same diagnosis. AIM To examine trends in discharges for poisoning, in particular paracetamol, antidepressants and opioids from 1990-99. DESIGN Retrospective ...

In Oxford during the late 1970s and early 1980s a decline in rates of deliberate self-poisoning and self-injury in older female teenagers was followed by a steady increase between 1986 and 1989. Rates for male adolescents and young female adolescents remained relatively stable throughout 1976-89. Applying the Oxford rates to England and Wales suggest a total of 18,000-19,000 hospital-referred c...