Pediatric thioridazine poisoning as a result of a pharmacy compounding error

The adverse effects or overdose of thioridazine including sudden death, fatal arrhythmia, or retinopathy, in addition to the neurological signs have been reported. A three-year-old boy with bronchitis was prescribed erythromycin by a local clinic, but he started to complain of severe drowsiness and became unconscious. It was decided that this was a result of a compounding error of thioridazine instead of erythromycin owing to their similar commercial names. The thioridazine concentration in the child's serum on admission was two to three times higher than the Cmax for adults with the same dosage. The concentration of the lavage saline on admission was only 0.3% of the ingested amount, indicating that the lavage was not effective in our case. Pharmacokinetic analysis revealed the parameters as Tmax, 1.5 hr; Cmax, 1700 ng/mL; Ka, 2.01 L/hr; Vd, 3.6 L/kg; and T1/2, 6.8 hr. Further investigations on clinical cases with a pharmacokinetic analysis should be done to confirm the pharmacokinetic evidence obtained here and to give specific therapeutic guidelines for overdose management especially in children

Associations between Comorbidities and Acute Exacerbation of Interstitial Lung Disease after Primary Lung Cancer Surgery

Acute exacerbation (AE) of interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a severe complication of lung resection in lung cancer patients with ILD (LC-ILD). This study aimed to assess the predictive value of comorbidities other than ILD for postoperative AE in patients with LC-ILD. We retrospectively evaluated 68 patients with LC-ILD who had undergone lung resection. We classified them into two groups: those who had developed postoperative AE within 30 days after resection and those who had not. We analyzed patient characteristics, high-resolution computed tomography findings, clinical data, pulmonary function, and intraoperative data. The incidence of postoperative AEs was 11.8%. In univariate analysis, performance status (PS), honeycombing, forced vital capacity (FVC), and high hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels without comorbidities were significantly associated with postoperative AE. Patients were divided into two groups according to cutoff levels of those four variables as determined by receiver operating characteristic curves, revealing that the rates of patients without postoperative AE differed significantly between groups. The present results suggested that preoperative comorbidities other than ILD were not risk factors for postoperative AE in patients with LC-ILD. However, a high preoperative HbA1c level, poor PS, low FVC, and honeycombing may be associated with postoperative AE of LC-ILD

Lymphocyte Responses to Chymotrypsin- or Trypsin V-Digested β-Lactoglobulin in Patients with Cow's Milk Allergy

<p/> <p>Chymotrypsin- or trypsin V- (a mixture of trypsin and chymotrypsin) digested β-lactoglobulin (BLG) peptides were prepared and were confirmed to have much less immunoglobulin (lg)G and lgE reactivity compared with intact BLG by IgG inhibition enzymelinked immunosorbent assay and IgE dot blotting. The lymphocyte responses to intact BLG and these peptides were examined using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 10 patients with cow's milk allergy. The PBMCs from most patients had lower lymphocyte responses to chymotrypsin- and trypsin V-digested BLG peptides than those to intact BLG. However, PBMCs from one and two patients retained significant proliferative responses to both peptides and to only the former peptide, respectively. Interferon-c production stimulated by chymotrypsin-digested peptides was still detectable in all five patients tested. Chymotrypsindigested BLG reduced lgE reactivity but still induced some lymphocyte responses.</p

Temperature Dependence of Zero-Bias Resistances of a Single Resistance-Shunted Josephson Junction

Zero-bias resistances of a single resistance-shunted Josephson junction are calculated as a function of the temperature by means of the path-integral Monte Carlo method in case a charging energy $E_{\rm C}$ is comparable with a Josephson energy $E_{\rm J}$. The low-temperature behavior of the zero-bias resistance changes around $\alpha=R_{\rm Q}/R_{\rm S}=1$, where $R_{\rm S}$ is a shunt resistance and $R_{\rm Q}=h/(2e)^2$. The temperature dependence of the zero-bias resistance shows a power-law-like behavior whose exponent depends on $E_{\rm J}/E_{\rm C}$. These results are compared with the experiments on resistance-shunted Josephson junctions

The PennState/Toru\'n Center for Astronomy Search for Planets Around Evolved Stars. Basic parameters of a sample of evolved stars

The objective of the PSU/TCfA Search for Planets Around Evolved Stars is to study evolution of planetary systems in the stellar evolution timescale. For such an analysis precise physical parameters of the hosts of the planetary systems are essential. In this paper we present an attempt to obtain basic physical parameters for a sample of evolved stars observed within our survey with the High Resolution Spectrograph of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.Comment: 2 pages, to appear in "Extreme Solar Systems", 2007 ASP Conference Series, eds. Debra Fischer, Fred Rasio, Steve Thorsett and Alex Wolszcza

旅行者血栓症 (いわゆるエコノミークラス症候群) 対応座席についての生理学的検討

Traveler\u27s thrombosis has posed a severe problem around the world. Much research has been conducted to find effective approaches to traveler\u27s thrombosis. We examined a proto-type ankle exerciser equipped on a plane seat in order to assess its effectiveness. The purpose of the first study is to determine a suitable exercise tempo. Three tempos of 30, 60, and 90 times per minute were examined with young male and female subjects by measuring heart rate and blood pressure during five-minute exercise. Heart rates at 90 times per minute were higher than those of other tempos. Blood pressure did not show any differences among the three tempos. We determined 60 times to be the suitable tempo because of the mildness and smoothness of the exercise. The second study is on changes of calf circumference during two-hour sitting and five-minute exercise. Calf circumference after two-hour sitting showed an increase of 1.4% in young male subjects, and 2.2% in young female subjects. The five-minute exercise made for a 0.5% decrease in men and a 1.3% decrease in women. There was a 0.9% improvement by each the exercise. Middle-aged men and women, however, did not show any improvement after exercise. The third study was on skin temperature and blood flow in the foot during two-hour sitting and five-minute exercise. Three of all six subjects showed a clear decrease in foot temperature during sitting and an increase during exercise. The results of two subjects, however, were contrary to the above-mentioned results. The temperature of another subject fluctuated up and down during sitting, and then steeply increased during exercise. Blood flow during exercise increased three to ten times in comparison with sitting. These results lead to the conclusion that the proto-type ankle exerciser connected to a plane seat might serve to prevent traveler\u27s thrombosis