Methimazole (MMI)-induced acute pancreatitis is very rare but severe adverse reaction. A 51-yr-old male developed a high fever, chills, and abdominal pain, two weeks after commencement on MMI for the treatment of Graves' disease. There was no evidence of agranulocytosis, and fever subsided soon after stopping MMI treatment. However, 5 hr after taking an additional dose of MMI, abdominal pain and fever developed again. His symptoms, biochemical, and imaging studies were compatible with acute pancreatitis. After withdrawal of MMI, he showed clinical improvement. This is the first case of MMI-induced acute pancreatitis in Korea. Clinicians should be aware of the rare but possible MMI-induced pancreatitis in patients complaining of fever and abdominal pain.
Abdominal Pain/*chemically induced/diagnosis ; Acute Disease ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Fever of Unknown Origin/*chemically induced/diagnosis ; Graves Disease/*drug therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Methimazole/*adverse effects/*therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; Pancreatitis/*chemically induced/diagnosis ; Treatment Outcome

Methimazole (MMI)-induced acute pancreatitis is very rare but severe adverse reaction. A 51-yr-old male developed a high fever, chills, and abdominal pain, two weeks after commencement on MMI for the treatment of Graves' disease. There was no evidence of agranulocytosis, and fever subsided soon after stopping MMI treatment. However, 5 hr after taking an additional dose of MMI, abdominal pain and fever developed again. His symptoms, biochemical, and imaging studies were compatible with acute pancreatitis. After withdrawal of MMI, he showed clinical improvement. This is the first case of MMI-induced acute pancreatitis in Korea. Clinicians should be aware of the rare but possible MMI-induced pancreatitis in patients complaining of fever and abdominal pain.
Abdominal Pain/*chemically induced/diagnosis ; Acute Disease ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Fever of Unknown Origin/*chemically induced/diagnosis ; Graves Disease/*drug therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Methimazole/*adverse effects/*therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; Pancreatitis/*chemically induced/diagnosis ; Treatment Outcome

Adult ; Drug Combinations ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; adverse effects ; Female ; Fever ; chemically induced ; Humans ; Injections ; Male ; Middle Aged

AIMTo study the possibility that responses of fever and discharge of neurons in PVN to intraperitoneal administration of LPS are mediated by vagal afferents.

METHODSRectal temperature of rat was detected by digital temperature detecting instrument. Glass micropipette placed in PVN was used to record unit discharges of neurons in it, before and after LPS was injected into PVN in normal rats and vagotomy rats.

RESULTSThe rectal temperature change value in vagotomy LPS group was significantly decreased compared with that in sham LPS group, and there was striking difference between them (P < 0.05). The discharges of neurons in PVN was increased in the normal rat in response to LPS. The discharges of neurons in PVN had no significant change in the vagotomy rats in response to LPS.

CONCLUSIONThe results indicate that vagus nerve may be one of the pathways of peripheral LPS signal communicating to CNS.

Animals ; Diaphragm ; innervation ; Fever ; chemically induced ; physiopathology ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Male ; Neurons ; physiology ; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus ; physiopathology ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Vagotomy, Truncal

Antiviral Agents ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Fatigue ; chemically induced ; Fever ; chemically induced ; Headache ; chemically induced ; Hepatitis C ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Interferon-alpha ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Pain ; chemically induced ; Polyethylene Glycols ; chemistry ; Recombinant Proteins ; Ribavirin ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use

Thais luteostoma has been utilized as a crude drug whose shell and soft tissue have been widely used for the treatment of heat syndrome in China for thousands of years. The present study was designed to investigate the antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activities of T. luteostoma. T. luteostoma was divided into shell (TLSH) and soft tissue (TLST) samples in the present study. The rat model of yeast-induced fever was used to investigate their antipyretic effects; and the rat model of hind paw edema induced by carrageenan was utilized to study their anti-inflammatory activities, and at the same time, the concentration variations of the central neurotransmitter [prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)], inflammatory mediators [tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), interleukin-1β (IL-1), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)] and ion (Na(+) and Ca(2+)) were also tested. The results showed that TLSH and TLST extracts significantly inhibited yeast-induced pyrexia in rats (P < 0.05), and exhibited more lasting effects as compared to aspirin, and TLSH had the better antipyretic activity than TLST, and that TLSH and TLST could significantly prevent against carrageenan induced paw edema in rats (P < 0.05); and markedly reduced levels of PGE2, cAMP, TNFα, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, and Na(+)/Ca(2+). In fever model, TLST could significantly reduce the levels of PGE2 (P < 0.01) in rats' homogenate and TNFα (P < 0.05), IL-1β (P < 0.01) in the plasma than TLSH, whereas TLSH could reduce the content of IL-2 (P < 0.01) and IL-6 (P < 0.01) in plasma and increase the content of Ca(2+) (P < 0.01) in plasma and homogenate more significantly than TLST. In conclusion, T. luteostoma extract has antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activities, which may be mediated through the suppression of production of PGE2, cAMP, Na(+)/Ca(2+), TNFα, IL-1β, IL-2, and IL-6.
Animal Shells ; chemistry ; Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; pharmacology ; Antipyretics ; pharmacology ; Carrageenan ; Complex Mixtures ; pharmacology ; Edema ; chemically induced ; drug therapy ; Fever ; chemically induced ; drug therapy ; Hindlimb ; Inflammation Mediators ; blood ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; Snails ; chemistry

Podostroma cornu-damae is a rare fungus that houses a fatal toxin in its fruit body. In this case report, two patients collected and boiled the wild fungus in water, which they drank for one month. One patient died, presenting with desquamation of the palms and soles, pancytopenia, severe sepsis and multiple organ failure. The other patient recovered after one month of conservative care after admission. We found a piece of Podostroma cornu-damae in the remaining clusters of mushrooms. Mushroom poisoning by Podostroma cornu-damae has never been previously reported in Korea.
Agaricales/metabolism ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Ascomycota/*metabolism ; Fatal Outcome ; Female ; Fever ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mushroom Poisoning/*diagnosis ; Pancytopenia/chemically induced ; Republic of Korea

To observe the antipyretic effect of Reduning injection (RDN) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced fever rats and its impact on centric fever medium. Rats were randomly divided into the blank control group, the model group, the Metamizole group, and high and low-dose RDN groups. Except for the blank control group, all of the rats were injected intraperitoneally with LPS (80 microg x kg(-1)) to observe their body temperature changes. The double-antibody sandwich ELSIA method was adopted to determine cAMP content in hypothalamus and MPO in lung tissues of fever peak rats. The high-dose RDN group can obviously reduce the temperature rise in fever rats, and cAMP and MPO content in hypothalamus. RDN showed significant antipyretic effect, which may be related with the reduction of cAMP content in hypothalamus and MPO in lung tissues.
Animals ; Antipyretics ; pharmacology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Fever ; chemically induced ; drug therapy ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Male ; Plants, Medicinal ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

AIMTo determine whether bombesin prevents IFN-alpha-induced fever and it's possible mechanism.

METHODSEffects of BN on changes in body temperature and arginine vasopressin(AVP) content in the ventral septal area(VSA) and hypothalamus were measured in the rats following intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of IFN-alpha.

RESULTS(1) IFN-alpha produced a dose-dependent rise in colonic temperature simultaneously with increase in AVP content in the VSA in the rats. (2) BN produced a dose-dependent hypothermia and significantly elevated AVP content in the VSA in rats. (3) BN injected intracerebroventricularly at 30 min after IFN-alpha prevented the increase in colonic temperature which recovered to the control level as well as AVP content in the VSA in rats at 150 min.

CONCLUSIONAVP in the VSA may play a role in IFN-alpha-induced fever. AVP in the VSA may play a partial role in the BN antipyretic action and hypothermic action.

Animals ; Arginine Vasopressin ; metabolism ; Body Temperature Regulation ; drug effects ; Bombesin ; pharmacology ; Brain ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Fever ; chemically induced ; physiopathology ; Interferon-alpha ; adverse effects ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

BACKGROUNDA wealth of evidence has indicated that labor epidural analgesia is associated with an increased risk of hyperthermia and overt clinical fever. Recently, evidence is emerging that the epidural analgesia-induced fever is associated with the types of the epidural analgesia and the variations in the epidural analgesia will affect the incidence of fever. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of epidural analgesia with 0.075% or 0.1% ropivacaine on the maternal temperature during labor.

METHODSTwo hundred healthy term nulliparas were randomly assigned to receive epidural analgesia with either 0.1% ropivacaine or 0.075% ropivacaine. Epidural analgesia was initiated with 10 ml increment of the randomized solution and 0.5 µg/ml sufentanyl after a negative test dose of 5 ml of 1.5% lidocaine, and maintained with 7 ml bolus doses of the above mentioned mixed analgesics every 30 minutes by the patient-controlled epidural analgesia. The measurements included the maternal oral temperature, visual analog scale pain scores, labor events and neonatal outcomes.

RESULTSEpidural analgesia with 0.075% ropivacaine could significantly lower the mean maternal temperature at 4 hours after the initiation of analgesia and the oxytocin administration during labor compared with the one with 0.1% ropivacaine. Moreover, 0.075% ropivacaine treatment could provide satisfactory pain relief during labor and had no significant adverse effects on the labor events and neonatal outcomes.

CONCLUSIONEpidural analgesia with 0.075% ropivacaine may be a good choice for the epidural analgesia during labor.

Adult ; Amides ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Analgesia, Epidural ; adverse effects ; Analgesia, Obstetrical ; adverse effects ; Body Temperature ; drug effects ; Female ; Fever ; chemically induced ; Humans ; Labor, Obstetric ; Pregnancy ; Young Adult