A new method: measurement of pancreas volume in computerised tomography as a diagnostic guide for acute pancreatitis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether measuring pancreas volume with abdominal tomography in patients with severe abdominal pain can predict acute pancreatitis. METHODS: The case-control study was conducted at Adnan Menderes University from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2017, and comprised patients who were diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. Pancreas volume measurements of patients and control group were made with Telemed Ekinoks software using freehand technique. Presence of a correlation between pancreas volume and pancreatitis was found in patients aged <57 years and a cut-off value was calculated for pancreatitis in this particular patient group. RESULTS: Of the 183 subjects, 132(72%) were patients with a mean age of 59.6±16.5 years, and 51(28%) were controls with a mean age of 55.8±18.6 years (p=0.170). The difference between the groups in terms of pancreas volume was significant (p<0.001). There was a negative correlation between age and pancreas volume among the patients (p<0.001), the correlation was not significant among the controls (p=0.898). Among the subjects aged <57 years, the cut-off value was calculated at 95.055, and sensitivity to pancreas volume was 70.91% while specificity was 82.14%. Positive predictive value was 88.6%. CONCLUSIONS: High pancreas volume with pancreatitis was observed in patients aged <57 years.

Which is the best in carbamazepine overdose?

Intravenous lipid emulsion treatment is safer, faster, and easier to apply and could be a powerful alternative to extracorporeal treatment methods in carbamazepine intoxication.

Treatment methods following suicidal self-administration of IV organophosphate: What can additional lipid administration change?

Organic phosphor compounds are highly toxic and life-threatening compounds that are widely used in agriculture, households and gardens worldwide. While oral intakes are observed frequently, toxic effects can also be seen through contract or inhalation. However, toxic cases through the parenteral route have rarely been reported. We had three main aims: first, to present a male patient who self-administered 2ml of monocrotophos intravenously to commit suicide. Our second goal was to present the current multiple treatment methods, such as fast general support, antidote treatment, lipid emulsion treatment, and plasmapheresis along with the literature. Third, we aimed to emphasize that with these treatments, patients' intensive care needs, intermediate symptoms, and hospitalization periods can be decreased and thus mortality and morbidity increase can be prevented.

A rare complication of scorpion venom: atrial fibrillation.

Although the clinical findings of scorpion stings are often mild, they may lead to multiorgan failure and even cardiogenic shock. The toxin has both local and systemic effects. Local effects include edema, bruising(ecchymosis), and burning pain,whereas systemic effects include nausea,vomiting, hypotension or hypertension, cardiovascular toxicity, renal failure,and hemorrhage at different areas. The toxins have been implicated in a number of cardiac arrhythmias, including torsade de pointes, long QT syndrome, and atrial fibrillation. Here, we present a 90-year-old woman with no history of drug use or complaints due to dysrhythmias who developed atrial fibrillation after being stung by a scorpion.

Phenytoin intoxication with no symptoms correlated with serum drug level: a case study.

In high-dose intake of phenytoin, which is used frequently to treat epilepsy, nystagmus, diplopia, nausea-vomiting, lethargy, confusion, seizure, and coma can be observed. In recent studies on phenytoin intoxication, in which seizure and coma were observed in drug levels greater than 50 ug/mL. The serum phenytoin level of a patient, who consumed approximately 100 pcs of 100 mg phenytoin tablets in an effort to commit suicide, and who had no pathological finding in her neurologic examination, was 124 ug/mL. High drug level and the absence of toxic effect (or the absence of toxic effect correlated with the drug level) indicates that cytochrome P450 is functioning, but there can be a mutation in the MDR1 gene. In our case study, we report on phenytoin intoxication in a patient having a high level of phenytoin but no symptoms correlated with serum drug level, as supported by the findings in the literature.