Malignant Hyperthermia = pharmacogenetic disease of skeletal muscle induced by exposure to certain anaesthetic agents; incidence 1:5,000 -> 1:65,000 anaesthetics (suspected); mutation in the gene coding for the ryanodine receptor
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome: life-threatening extrapyramidal complication of using neuroleptic drugs
Anticholinergic Syndrome
Sympathomimetic toxidrome
Much of what we do in toxicology is because we think it works, not because we know it works. Clinical toxicology has traditionally been based on animal studies, case reports and case series based on clinical observation rather than clinical trials
Iron overdose can have local gastrointestinal effects as well as characteristic systemic toxicity (metabolic acidosis, liver failure, shock and multi-organ failure). Risk assessment is based on the amount of elemental iron ingested
Tick paralysis is a rare life-threatening disorder caused by envenoming from ixodid tick bites. Can cause respiratory paralysis
Severe toxicity from plants is rare in humans; risk assessment is often difficult - plant identification may be difficult; - toxin quantification may be impossible
immunosuppression is increasingly common in the ICU and in the community; due to conditions such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation for cancer, solid organ transplantation, and therapies for autoimmune and rheumatological diseases; such patients are susceptible to the common pathogens seen as well as opportunistic pathogens
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common of the 7 types of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP)
The numbers of immunocompromised patients is increasing c/o improved solid-organ and haemopoietic transplants and the expanded use of immunomodulatory therapies. Pulmonary infections = most frequent complication with high mortality