[Drug-induced fever caused by hydroxyurea. Apropos of 3 new cases].

Drug-induced fever is a frequent (3-5% of all adverse effects) but under recognized adverse effect of several drugs. Hydroxyurea, an antimetabolite cytostatic agent, has rarely been involved in the occurrence of fever. We report three additional cases of hydroxyurea-induced fever including one case with pulmonary involvement (acute alveolitis).

Noninvasive pressure support ventilation (NIPSV) with face mask in patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (ACPE).

Objectives: To assess (1) the short-term hemodynamic, respiratory and arterial blood gas effects of NIPSV in patients with ACPE who were likely to require endotracheal intubation, (2) the initial causes of failure and (3) the side effects and the difficulties of this technique.

Design: Uncontrolled, prospective clinical study.

Setting: Teaching hospital intensive care unit.

Drug-induced autoimmunity: experience of the French pharmacovigilance system.

Spontaneous reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions to a pharmacovigilance structure is a reasonable tool to detect new associations between drugs and a given toxic effect. An analysis of the French national database of pharmacovigilance was undertaken to evaluate how such a system is relevant to survey and/or detect drug-associated autoimmune disorders. Only 0.

Antibiotic-associated hepatitis: update from 1990.

Objective: To review the literature on the recent available evidence of antibiotic-associated acute liver injury.

Data Sources: All published articles from January 1990 to July 1995 were extracted from the monthly updated HEPATOX database. Additional articles were found using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PASCAL searches.

[Duodenal perforations by the hooks of a Kimray-Greenfield filter].

A case is reported of a duodenal perforation by a Kimray-Greenfield filter hook in a 66-year-old female patient. This device had been inserted four years before, after a pulmonary embolism. The patient presented with epigastric pain, vomiting and extracellular dehydration with renal failure.

First-trimester in utero exposure to anorectics: a French collaborative study with special reference to dexfenfluramine.

A collaborative study with 8 Teratology Information Centres was undertaken to collect data on anorectic exposures (amfepramone, clobenzorex, dexfenfluramine, fenfluramine, fenproporex) during pregnancy. Two hundred and ninety seven prospective enquiries were analysed of which 285 exposures occurred during the first trimester. Outcome of pregnancy was known for 164 of these cases.

Transient non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema following massive ingestion of ethylene glycol butyl ether.

A case of acute poisoning with ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE) is reported in a chronic alcohol abuser. On admission the 53-year-old patient was comatose with metabolic acidosis, shock, and noncardiogenic pulmonary edema confirmed by haemodynamic study. Following supportive treatment and haemodialysis the outcome was favorable.

[Sleep disorders and use of psychotropic drugs in 6-year-old children].

The purpose of this prospective survey, conducted over a two years period, was to study the use of psychoactive drugs among six year-old children in the Bas-Rhin administrative "département", of eastern France. The factors analysed were family environment, after-school time, the child's sleep, the locality where the child lived and the drugs used. The child was examined by school doctors, in the presence of the parents, at the compulsory consultation at the start of first-year infant school.

[Acute verapamil poisoning. 6 cases. Review of the literature].

Six cases of acute verapamil poisoning are reported. The dose ingested ranged between 1.2 and 9.

[Acute diltiazem poisoning: kinetic and hemodynamics study].

The authors report three cases of diltiazem overdose with hypotension and atrio-ventricular conduction disturbances. Hemodynamic study in 2 cases showed a hyperkinetic state with a decrease of systemic vascular resistances. Diltiazem kinetics studied in 2 cases showed a plasma half life of 5.

[Toxicity of calcium inhibitors].

Calcium antagonists decrease the intracellular concentration of calcium ions. They act essentially on the smooth vascular muscle, on the cardiac muscle and on the automatic and conducting cells in the heart. At toxic doses these effects induce hypotension, shock and disturbances of sinusal automatism and atrio-ventricular conduction.

Toxicokinetics in clinical toxicology.

Toxicokinetics is an essential step in clinical toxicology. The methodology is based on the same parameters which are used in pharmacokinetics. However, the interpretation and the aims are different.