Annali italiani di medicina interna : organo ufficiale della Societa italiana di medicina interna最新文献

We describe a 68-year-old male patient, treated with amoxicillin-clavulanic acid for 18 days and oral anticoagulants. He developed a cholestatic hepatitis with conjugated bilirubin of 11 mg/dL and a concomitant overdose of oral anticoagulants (INR 7). Nausea, vomiting, jaundice and large ecchymoses occurred 41 days after treatment with amoxicillin-clavulanic acid; the clinical manifestations resolved within 1 week and the liver tests returned to normal 48 days after therapy withdrawal. The mechanism of the amoxicillin-clavulanate-induced hepatitis is probably immunoallergic; this complication occurs mainly in subjects with a metabolic and/or immunologic idiosyncrasy. The pharmacokinetics of this antibiotic, which is not directly metabolized by cytochrome P450, may be affected by the concomitant use of drugs under cytochrome P450 control. When using amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, one should take into account its potential hepatic toxicity and possible interaction with oral anticoagulants. However, it appears to be crucial to follow the correct indications for both drugs. In fact, in the patient described above amoxicillin-clavulanic acid was wrongly administered as prophylaxis after a cutaneous biopsy of the nose. The same occurred with the oral anticoagulants prescribed to the patient for a single episode of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation which had occurred one year previously.

Iron overload diseases are due to a progressive increase in total body iron stores that leads to deposition of iron in parenchymal organs and to subsequent damage to these organs. The commonest inherited form of iron overload is hereditary hemochromatosis (HH), an autosomal recessive disorder affecting the white population. Although in the western world and in northern Europe the majority of cases of HH are associated with an HFE gene mutation (C282Y and H63D), there are families with a familial iron overload disorder in whom neither the C282Y nor the H63D mutations were found. Recently, other forms of HH that are not related to HFE, but are due to mutations in genes coding iron transport proteins (ferroportin-1, TfR2, hepcidin) have been described. The clinical presentation of the disorder is highly variable, depending on the severity of iron overload. In fact, the inappropriate absorption and deposition of dietary iron may result in the development of hepatic and non-hepatic end-organ injury, leading to liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, diabetes, arthritis, skin pigmentation and cardiac diseases. HH and its sequelae are preventable with an early diagnosis and treatment. Patients with evidence of iron overload, a family history of HH or other risk factors should be screened by genotype testing for the HFE mutation. Nowadays, HH is recognized as being a complex genetic disease with probable significant environmental and genetic modifying factors, such as hepatitis C virus infection and alcohol abuse, and it has been shown that HFE mutations represent an independent risk factor for fibrosis and cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis C.

B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a disease characterized by an accumulation of monoclonal B cells that are resistant to apoptosis. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the prognosis depends on the stage of the disease, according to the classifications of Rai and Binet. However, in recent years, the number of patients with very early disease (stage 0 of Rai) and without any clinical symptom, has considerably increased because of the extensive use of automatic apparatus for leukocyte counting and immunophenotypic analysis of lymphocytes. It has become, therefore, useful to find new prognostic criteria particularly for these patients. In the present study, 30 patients with B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia were investigated for stage of the disease, survival, immunoglobulin gene rearrangements, presence of nurse like cells in in vitro cultures and spontaneous clinical lymph node regression. We observed that all these criteria are useful prognostic indexes for the disease.