1/16. calcium carbonate toxicity: the updated milk-alkali syndrome; report of 3 cases and review of the literature. OBJECTIVE: To describe 3 patients with calcium carbonate-induced hypercalcemia and gain insights into the cause and management of the milk-alkali syndrome. methods: We report the clinical and laboratory data in 3 patients who presented with severe hypercalcemia (corrected serum calcium > or = 14 mg/dL) and review the pertinent literature on milk-alkali syndrome. RESULTS: The 3 patients had acute renal insufficiency, relative metabolic alkalosis, and low parathyroid hormone (PTH), PTH-related peptide, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D concentrations. No malignant lesion was found. Treatment included aggressive hydration and varied amounts of furosemide. The 2 patients with the higher serum calcium concentrations received pamidronate intravenously (60 and 30 mg, respectively), which caused severe hypocalcemia. Of the 3 patients, 2 were ingesting acceptable doses of elemental calcium (1 g and 2 g daily, respectively) in the form of calcium carbonate. In addition to our highlighted cases, we review the history, classification, pathophysiologic features, and treatment of milk-alkali syndrome and summarize the cases reported from early 1995 to November 2003. CONCLUSION: milk-alkali syndrome may be a common cause of unexplained hypercalcemia and can be precipitated by small amounts of orally ingested calcium carbonate in susceptible persons. Treatment with hydration, furosemide, and discontinuation of the calcium and vitamin d source is adequate. Pamidronate treatment is associated with considerable risk for hypocalcemia, even in cases of initially severe hypercalcemia. ( info) |
| The risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is extremely high in patients with preexisting renal insufficiency. gadolinium-based coronary angiography has been proposed as an approach to prevent CIN in this high risk subgroup. We report the use of gadodiamide-based coronary angiography in a patient with severe renal insufficiency and in vitro comparisons of combinations of iodinated contrast with gadodiamide and saline. ( info) |
| immunosuppression is a main determinant for the increased hepatitis c Virus (HCV) replication after liver transplantation and the accelerated course of recurrent HCV liver disease. We present two patients both with diabetes, renal dysfunction with proteinuria converted to sirolimus therapy, who cleared serum HCV rna without antiviral treatment. This is a potentially important observation that should stimulate study into factors that may help viral clearance from blood. ( info) |
4/16. Is low-dose methotrexate nephrotoxic? Case report and review of the literature. methotrexate (MTX) has become the most commonly prescribed disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug. However, toxicity is an important drawback of MTX therapy and permanent discontinuation of MTX for adverse effects occurs in 1 patient out of 10. Although high-dose MTX is known to be nephrotoxic, data on low-dose MTX renal effects are scanty. We report an insidious and progressive deterioration of renal function during long-term low-dose MTX in a 59-year-old woman. kidney biopsy revealed advanced kidney fibrosis with extensive interstitial and glomerular fibrosis, and vascular sclerosis. We suggest that patients on low-dose MTX therapy even alone, should be periodically monitored for creatinine levels. ( info) |
5/16. tumor lysis syndrome in a patient with metastatic, androgen independent prostate cancer. tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) is an uncommon, but well described, clinical entity that typically occurs following chemotherapy in patients with rapidly growing hematological malignancies. It is rarely described in patients with solid tumors. We report a case of TLS in a patient with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the prostate after treatment with paclitaxel chemotherapy. ( info) |
6/16. Successful treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with fluconazole and allopurinol in a patient with renal failure. Standard treatments for visceral leishmaniasis (antimonials, amphotericin b and pentamidine) pose several problems. Failure of antimonials or severe toxicity is particularly troublesome in patients with renal insufficiency. We report a case of visceral leishmaniasis and renal insufficiency successfully treated with fluconazole and allopurinol for 4 months. ( info) |
| OBJECTIVE: To report a case in which vancomycin clearance was used to determine the daptomycin dosing interval in a morbidly obese patient with renal impairment. CASE SUMMARY: A 46-year-old man (209 kg; 178 cm) failed a 42 day course of vancomycin therapy for treatment of a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus-infected wound and cellulitis. The median trough vancomycin concentration was 12.6 microg/mL (range 7.3-24.1) through his course of therapy. Estimation of creatinine clearance (Cl(cr)) was confounded in this clinical scenario, given the patient's weight and a lack of valid equations in this patient population. daptomycin was administered empirically at 6 mg/kg dosed every 48 hours based on estimated clearance from measured vancomycin concentrations. Steady-state plasma concentrations of daptomycin were determined, and the daptomycin half-life in this patient was more accurately estimated using vancomycin clearance as a surrogate. In addition, a 4 mg/kg dose of daptomycin would have been sufficient based on plasma concentrations. The patient demonstrated rapid clinical improvement and remained free of cellulitis for 6 months after completion of daptomycin and a 12 week course of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. DISCUSSION: The dosing interval of daptomycin is adjusted based on Cl(cr). However, estimation of Cl(cr) is difficult in morbidly obese patients with renal impairment, given a lack of valid equations. In this clinical scenario, vancomycin concentrations were used to estimate Cl(cr) and served as a surrogate measure to determine the daptomycin dosing interval. Measured daptomycin concentrations validated this approach and confirmed the inadequacy of commonly used Cl(cr) equations. CONCLUSIONS: In this clinical scenario, vancomycin concentrations more accurately estimated Cl(cr), thereby facilitating determination of the daptomycin dosing interval. ( info) |
8/16. Management of fluid overload in congestive heart failure: learning from a case report. A case of refractory fluid overload due to congestive heart failure and consequent renal insufficiency is reported. The case was approached multidisciplinarily, at the beginning with conservative and pharmacological therapy, subsequently with extracorporeal fluid removal in which a specific attention was payed to the maintenance of circulating blood volume and achievement of dry weight, and finally with chronic peritoneal dialysis as a maintenance therapy. The case seems to summarize the pathway of many patients seen initially in intensive care and cardiology departments and subsequently in nephrological wards. ( info) |
9/16. Severe arrhythmia as a result of the interaction of cetirizine and pilsicainide in a patient with renal insufficiency: first case presentation showing competition for excretion via renal multidrug resistance protein 1 and organic cation transporter 2. A 72-year-old woman with renal insufficiency who was taking oral pilsicainide (150 mg/d) complained of feeling faint 3 days after she was prescribed oral cetirizine (20 mg/d). She was found to have a wide QRS wave with bradycardia. Her symptoms were relieved by termination of pilsicainide. The plasma concentrations of both drugs were significantly increased during the coadministration, and the cetirizine concentration decreased on cessation of pilsicainide despite the fact that treatment with cetirizine was continued, which suggested that the fainting was induced by the pharmacokinetic drug interaction. A pharmacokinetic study in 6 healthy male volunteers after a single dose of either cetirizine (20 mg) or pilsicainide (50 mg), or both, found that the renal clearance of each drug was significantly decreased by the coadministration of the drugs (from 475 /- 101 mL/min to 279 /- 117 mL/min for pilsicainide and from 189 /- 37 mL/min to 118 /- 28 mL/min for cetirizine; P = .008 and .009, respectively). in vitro studies using xenopus oocytes with microinjected human organic cation transporter 2 and renal cells transfected with human multidrug resistance protein 1 revealed that the transport of the substrates of these transporters was inhibited by either cetirizine or pilsicainide. Thus elevated concentrations of these drugs as a result of a pharmacokinetic drug-drug interaction via either human multidrug resistance protein 1 or human organic cation transporter 2 (or both) in the renal tubular cells might have caused the arrhythmia in our patient. Although cetirizine has less potential for causing arrhythmias than other histamine 1 blockers, such an interaction should be considered, especially in patients with renal insufficiency who are receiving pilsicainide. ( info) |
10/16. Successful maintenance of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis in a patient after fungal peritonitis and dialysate leakage. Fungal peritonitis (FP) and dialysate leakage have often been reported in association with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), which has to be discontinued in many cases due to these complications. This report describes the first case of dialysate leakage into the urinary bladder of a 70-year-old male patient, after the area of the left ureteral ostium had been very deeply resected. The leakage probably led to severe fungal peritonitis developing 1 day after the ostium resection. The ostium resection was performed in November 2003 after detection of a carcinoma in situ (Cis) in this area and after previous bilateral nephroureterectomies due to multifocal urothelial carcinoma in the kidneys, ureters and bladder. In spite of prior fungal peritonitis and dialysate leakage, CAPD could be successfully initiated 41 days after biochemical manifestation of peritonitis and could be maintained in the patient because of the following reasons: early and effective treatment of FP with fluconazole and voriconazole, spontaneous occlusion of the slitted ostium area, allowance of enough healing time after 2 major abdominal surgeries, during which the patient was placed on extracorporal hemodialysis (which had been started 1 day after nephroureterectomy and ended after the antimycotic treatment) and thorough monitoring of the patient after starting CAPD. In January 2004, the patient could be placed on a cycler peritoneal dialysis and was fully rehabilitated 1 year later. ( info) |