A 36-year-old Chilean woman with depressive disorder was prescribed treatment with lamotrigine starting at a dosage of 25 mg/d and increasing 25 mg per week. When she reached 75 mg/d at the third week, she presented with an acute abdominal skin eruption. She was evaluated in an emergency department and received 1 dose of sodium phosphate betamethasone and dexchlorpheniramine maleate, 5.3 mg, in...

Betamethasone is a synthetic corticosteroid designed to exert a marked glucocorticoid activity. As the free alcohol, betamethasone finds widespread clinical applications related to its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant activity. In the present study, a fast, sensitive, robust method was developed for the determination and quantification of betamethasone in human plasma by liquid chromatog...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of potential clinically relevant drug- drug interactions in adult oncological inpatients, as well as to describe the most  frequent interactions. A standard database was used. METHOD An observational, transversal, and descriptive study including patients  admitted to the Oncology Service of a reference hospital. All prescriptions were  collected twice a w...

Effects of histamine H1-receptor antagonists on L-dopa-induced behavioral excitement were examined in mice to confirm behaviorally the inhibition of dopamine uptake by these compounds. L-Dopa (100-300 mg/kg, s.c.) combined with pargyline hydrochloride (80 mg/kg, i.p.) caused a dose-dependent behavioral excitement. The marked excitement induced by L-dopa (300 mg/kg) plus pargyline was significan...

The present study suggests that newly synthesized histamine is involved in the development of some animal tumors (e.g., Lewis lung carcinoma in mice and Morris hepatoma in rats). A marked induction of histidine decarboxylase (HOC) and an in crease in the histamine concentration were observed in the tumors approximately 1 week after inoculation, and there were parallel increases in ornithine dec...

BACKGROUND There is appreciable utilisation of antihistamines (H1) in European countries, either prescribed by physician and purchased by patients for self-medication. Terfenadine and astemizole underwent regulatory restrictions in '90 because of their cardiac toxicity, but only scarce clinical data are available on other antihistamines. AIM To investigate the pro-arrhythmic potential of anti...

Dr. R. Peces, Servicio de Nefrologia, Hospital Covadonga, Celestino Villamil s/n, E-33006 Oviedo (Spain) Dear Sir, Intravenous methylprednisolone is currently used before transplantation as well as for the treatment of acute rejection episodes. Hypersensitivity to methylprednisolone is extremely rare and the reported cases were mostly in atopic or asthmatic patients [1–7]. Among them, only 2 ca...