Clinical toxicology : the official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology and European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists
-
Clin Toxicol (Phila) · Mar 2012
Multicenter StudyMulticenter assessment of the revisit risk for a further drug-related problem in the emergency department in cocaine users (MARRIED-cocaine study).
Emergency departments (EDs) in Spanish hospitals daily attend a large number of patients for adverse reactions or clinical complications resulting from cocaine use. After discharge, some of these patients revisit the ED for the same reason within a year. The objective of the present study was to quantify the rate of such revisits and identify the factors associated with them. ⋯ The study included 807 patients, of whom 6.7% revisited the ED within 30 days, 11.9% within 3 months and 18.9% within 1 year. The variables significantly associated with ED revisits were: presence of clinical manifestations directly related to cocaine (p < 0.05), ED attendance on a working day (p < 0.05), history of ED visits related with the consumption of alcohol (p < 0.001) or drugs (p < 0.001), and the need for urgent consultation with a psychiatrist (p < 0.001), although only the last four were independent predictors in multivariate analysis. We derived a score based on these variables to predict risk of revisits (MARRIED-score, ranging from 0 to 400 points), which had a reasonably good predictive value for revisit (area under ROC of 0.75; 95% CI 0.71-0.79).
-
Clin Toxicol (Phila) · Mar 2012
The usefulness of the serum s100b protein for predicting delayed neurological sequelae in acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
Some patients with acute carbon monoxide poisoning will experience delayed neurological sequelae. Several factors associated with delayed neurological sequelae have been reported, but these factors are unsatisfactory for the assessment of unconscious patients. ⋯ In the present study, the level of serum S100B protein was found to be useful for evaluating acute CO poisoning patients and was found to be an independent predictor of the development of DNS after acute CO poisoning.
-
Clin Toxicol (Phila) · Mar 2012
Letter Case ReportsIntravenous lipid emulsion for intentional Chloroquine poisoning.
-
Clin Toxicol (Phila) · Feb 2012
Emergency department visits due to pesticide poisoning in South Korea, 2006-2009.
The objective of this study is to estimate the numbers and rate of emergency department visits in South Korea that are the result of pesticide poisoning and to describe their epidemiologic characteristics. ⋯ This study provide estimates for emergency department visits due to pesticide poisoning at the national level and suggests that pesticide poisonings, both intentional and unintentional, require significant public health interventions in South Korea.
-
Clin Toxicol (Phila) · Feb 2012
'Ivory wave' toxicity in recreational drug users; integration of clinical and poisons information services to manage legal high poisoning.
Novel psychoactive substances or 'legal highs' can be defined as psychoactive substances that have been developed to avoid existing drug control measures. Consistency of name, but with change in the content of the product, may cause harm. This could result in clusters of users being poisoned and developing unexpected physical and psychiatric symptoms. We describe such an event and the clinical phenotypes of a cluster of patients poisoned with a novel psychoactive substance in 'ivory wave' and analyze data from the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) to estimate use across the United Kingdom. In addition, the likely active ingredient in this cluster of 'ivory wave' poisonings was identified. ⋯ Novel psychoactive substances can produce significant toxicity and data from poisons centres may be used to indirectly detect new 'legal highs' that are causing clinical toxicity.