Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology最新文献

New psychoactive substances (NPS) are health-hazardous through unpredictable toxicity and effects and largely unknown epidemiology, motivating studies of the latter.

Up to 138 NPS were retrospectively identified using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry data from all 34 183 oral fluid drug samples collected in one Swedish health care region 2019–2020 representing 9468 psychiatric and addiction care patients. In total, 618 findings representing 58 NPS were detected in 481 samples from 201 patients. Male gender and age ≥25 years correlated positively with NPS use. Ketamine correlated positively with all NPS classes except cannabinoids; additionally, fentanyl, methadone, tapentadol and clonazepam correlated with multiple NPS classes. More numerous traditional drugs of abuse (DoA) correlated positively with sedative/hypnotic NPS, indicating that these are used in broader patient groups than other NPS. Mitragynine correlated negatively with other NPS in general and with several traditional DoA, but positively with the potential opioid abstinence remedies buprenorphine, loperamide and tapentadol aside from ketamine. In conclusion, NPS use is infrequent but occur also at higher ages, certain traditional DoA and particularly ketamine could have clinical value as NPS use signals, and mitragynine exhibited an atypical NPS consumption pattern indicating significant use as an opioid abstinence remedy.

Mkhize, SA, Nthlane, RA, Xhakaza, SP, et al. Decreased Blood Pressure With Acute Administration of Quercetin in L-NAME-Induced Hypertensive Rats. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2025; 136(1):e14113. https://doi.org/10.1111/bcpt.14113

In the article cited above, Figure 7 was published with an incorrect label on the x-axis. The corrected figure and legend are published below.

We apologize for this error.

The media–lumen diameter ratio of small arteries is increased in hypertension, diabetes and obesity. It is likely that both shear stress on the endothelial cells, transmural pressure and smooth muscle cell tone are important for the altered vascular structure. However, the precise interaction and importance of these factors are incompletely understood. At the molecular level transglutaminases, metalloproteinases, integrins, NO and several other factors have been suggested to be important, but our understanding of how the many factors together control vascular structure is surprisingly limited. The media–lumen diameter ratio of the small arteries has prognostic value, which is independent of the classical risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Importantly this is also the case in patients treated pharmacologically for high blood pressure. It is therefore relevant to consider small artery structure as a potential target in relation to prevention of cardiovascular disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have increased anticoagulant initiation due to the thrombogenic nature of the disease or decreased due to the societal impact of the pandemic. We aimed to study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on initiation of anticoagulants in Sweden. We conducted a single interrupted time series analysis on the monthly cumulative incidence of nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOAC), warfarin, or heparins, before and after March 2020, using SCIFI-PEARL dataset. For anticoagulants in total, there were no statistically significant changes or differences in the trends of initiation after the start of the pandemic. There was a slight numerical decrease in initiation after the onset of the pandemic, particularly for NOACs. For individuals aged ≥ 65 years, however, the immediate decrease in initiation was considerable for NOACs. The prepandemic declining trend of warfarin initiation seemed to attenuate, that is, became less negative, after March 2020. We did not find any profound effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the initiation of anticoagulants in total. However, among individuals aged ≥ 65 years, a notable immediate decrease in initiation of NOACs was observed. Furthermore, the onset of the pandemic may have attenuated the downward temporal trend in initiation of warfarin use.

We examined the number of patients tested for serum ethanol concentration (SEC) at admission to a large Emergency Department (ED) and the relationship of SEC with sex and age. SEC was analysed by enzymatic method. We retrieved SEC in patient samples from the ED during 2015–2020 from the laboratory information system. Altogether, 174 378 patients were admitted, and 7.3% were tested for SEC. Of these, 35.3% had a positive test. The percentage of patients tested increased from 4.8% in 2015 to 14.4% in 2020. A total of 416 patients had more than one positive SEC. For individual data, we included the first positive test per patient, n = 3607. Of these, 73% were men and 27% were women. The median SEC for both men and women was 1.9 g/L. About 4.4% had a SEC ≥ 3.5 g/L. The median SEC in patients aged 30–59 years was 0.2 g/L higher than the 12–29 and ≥ 60 age groups. In conclusion, the increase in the percentage of patients tested did not lead to a corresponding increase in ethanol-positive tests. There was a large predominance of men, the median SEC was the same for men and women and highest in the 30–59 age group.