The American journal of emergency medicine
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Intravenous lipid rescue therapy (LRT) may be implemented to attenuate drug toxicity. Little is known about LRT interference with laboratory tests in overdose settings. A 54-year-old man with a history of depression consumed unknown amounts of diphenhydramine, amitriptyline, and acetaminophen (APAP). ⋯ This conclusion is limited by the lack of repeat measurement of liver enzymes or measurement of serum lipid levels. Lipid rescue therapy may cause lipemia that interferes with the assay for liver enzymes. Suspected abnormal laboratory values should be repeated, or other techniques can be used to remove lipemic interference.
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It is known that patients with convulsion often present hyperammonemia. The elevation of ammonia levels in convulsion is considered to occur along with extensive muscle contractions, but the details remain unclear. In emergency pathologies, such as cardiopulmonary arrest or hemorrhagic shock without muscle contraction, red blood cells are known to produce ammonia through acidosis, leading to hyperammonemia. A similar effect would be considered to be involved in idiopathic epileptic seizure patients as well. ⋯ Idiopathic epileptic seizures can present with prominent hyperammonemia with acidosis. Because high ammonia level in epileptic seizure was strongly correlated with pH and BE, we speculate that hyperammonemia is not only because of extensive muscle contractions but is also related to ammonia production in the red blood cells through acidosis like other emergency conditions.