Clinical Toxicology

Drug conjugation in clinical toxicology.

Conjugation is an important mechanism for the rapid inactivation and extensive removal of drugs and poisons from the body, and as such it is of major significance in clinical toxicology. The capacity for conjugation of some drugs is large, but with others, saturation may occur with overdosage or even high therapeutic doses. Glutathione conjugation is an important mechanism of protection against...

Clinical toxicology in Kraków--Department of Clinical Toxicology: 35 years of activity.

Clinical pharmacology and toxicology of dichloroacetate.

Dichloroacetate (DCA) is a xenobiotic of interest to both environmental toxicologists and clinicians. The chemical is a product of water chlorination and of the metabolism of various drugs and industrial chemicals. Its accumulation in groundwater and at certain Superfund sites is considered a potential health hazard. However, concern about DCA toxicity is predicated mainly on data obtained in i...

Intravenous lipid emulsion in clinical toxicology

Intravenous lipid emulsion is an established, effective treatment for local anesthetic-induced cardiovascular collapse. The predominant theory for its mechanism of action is that by creating an expanded, intravascular lipid phase, equilibria are established that drive the offending drug from target tissues into the newly formed 'lipid sink'. Based on this hypothesis, lipid emulsion has been con...

The clinical toxicology of carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a dangerous exogenous poison and an essential endogenous neurotransmitter. This gas when inhaled has an anaesthetic effect, which is poorly understood, but which may be fatal if compensatory mechanisms are exhausted, if cardiac oxygen (O(2)) needs exceed myocardial oxygenation and/or if apnoea or asphyxia onsets. Although there is considerable evidence that hypoxia occur...