Agranulocytosis is a life-threatening disorder characterised by a greatly decreased number of circulating neutrophils below 500/μL. This article presents two cases of agranulocytosis in patients treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin due to chronic hepatitis C. Interferon induced hyperthyroidism, which required the use of a tyreostatic. Anti-thyroid drugs (ATD) used to treat hyperthy...

PHENYLINDANEDIONE is one of several oral anticoagulants in wide use at the present time. It is generally considered to be non-toxic, but adverse reactions to the drug have been reported. We have been able to find six instances of agranulocytosis, two of jaundice,' and six of rash without fever 13 in the world literature. One of the instances of agranulocytosis was fatal. The purpose of this com...

Agranulocytosis is a rare adverse effect associated with prolonged vancomycin therapy, and is potentially serious, especially in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. We describe a continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patient that developed vancomycin-induced agranulocytosis during treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-associated external cuff infection...

The relation between the incidence of methimazole (methylmercaptoimidazole; MMI)-induced agranulocytosis and initial MMI dose was evaluated in a group of 514 patients with Graves' disease who were treated between 1995 and 2005. One hundred and forty-six (28.40%) patients had received an initial dose of 30 mg MMI and 277 (53.89%) patients had been treated with 15 mg MMI. Nine patients (1.75%) de...

BACKGROUND Nonchemotherapy drug-induced agranulocytosis is a rare adverse reaction that is characterized by a decrease in peripheral neutrophil count to less than 0.5 x 10(9) cells/L due to immunologic or cytotoxic mechanisms. PURPOSE To systematically review case reports of drugs that are definitely or probably related to agranulocytosis. DATA SOURCES English-language and German-language r...

Seven cases of agranulocytosis and two of liver damage that were probably due to amodiaquine treatment were studied. In five cases agranulocytosis was combined with liver damage, and in one case of primary liver damage moderate neutropenia was present. Three patients died. High total doses or prolonged duration of treatment, or both, appear to favour the occurrence of these reactions. The clust...

When elderly patients are prescribed many different medications, the risk for developing serious adverse events should be kept in mind. One of these adverse events is agranulocytosis, which, although rare, can be life-threatening if left untreated. The majority of agranulocytosis cases are caused by drugs, including antibiotics. Here, we report a case of severe agranulocytosis in a 96-year-old ...

Agranulocytosis is a rare and serious adverse effect of antithyroid drugs (ATD), in particular methimazole (MMI), and usually develops within 3 months following the start of uninterrupted ATD treatment. Agranulocytosis may also develop for the first time following interruption and subsequent resumption of the same ATD treatment. In this case report, a 27-year-old female, who was treated for thy...

Levamisole is a known contaminant of cocaine and, via this route, has been associated with otherwise unexplained agranulocytosis. Levamisole is currently present in the majority of cocaine samples seized by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. We identified 20 cases of unexplained agranulocytosis in our practice locations of Albuquerque, NM, and Vancouver, Canada. Epidemiologic investigation reveale...