Toxicology Flashcards
“Good to know” Antidotes
Benzodiazepines = Flumazenil (Romazicon)
Beta BLockers = Glucagon
Calcium Channel Blockers = Calcium
Cyanide = Hydroxocabalamin
Opiods = Narcan
Tricyclic Antidepressants = Sodium Bicarbonate
Dystonic Reaction = Benadryl
Alcohol use Disorder (AUD)
Nutrition deficiencies: Mainly Thiamine
Wernicke Encephalopathy
Develops sudden with ataxia, nystagmus, speech disturbances, signs of neuropathy, stupor, coma
Korsakoff’s Psychosis
Mental disorder found with Wernicke Encephalopathy
Apathy, poor memory, retrograde amnesia, confabulation (story telling), dementia
Usually considered irreversible
Permanently handicapped by memory loss
Hypoglycemia in the Alcoholic patient
Administer Thiamine (100mg slow IV or IM) along with glucose
unable to metabolize glucose without adequte thiamine
Cirrhosis of the liver
Alcoholics are prone to cirrhosis (scarring of the liver)
Cirrhosis is the #1 cause of esophageal varices
Esophageal Varices
Swollen veins in the esophagus
Often rupture and hemorrhage
35% mortality rate with hemorrhage
Black Widow Spider
Red hour glass on back
Female = venomous
<1 hour, muscle spasms and cramps (neurotoxin) diazepam and calcium gluconate
Brown recluse spider
Fiddle-shaped
Localized pain in 1-2 hours
Bite is surrounded by an ischemic ring,outlined by a red halo may cause death
Poisonous snakes
Pit Vipers: Rattlesnake, cottonmouth or water moccasin, and copperhead
Vertical, elliptical pupils and a triangular head
Hemolysis
Intravascular coagulation
Convulsions
Acute renal failure
Management:
ABC’s, IV access, extremity: immobilize in neutral position, do not use ice packs or tourniquets
Pharmacology
The science of drugs used to prevent, diagnose, and treat
Pharmacodynamics
The study of how a drug actrs on a living organism
Pharmacokinetics
The study of how the body handles a drug over a period of time, including the process of absorption, distribution, biotransformation, and excretion
Affinity
Drug’s desire to attach to a receptor O2 vs. CO
Efficacy
Drug’s ability to create an action once it has attached itself to a receptor
Agonist
A drug with both affinity and efficacy that attaches to a receptor and causes some effect to occur
Antagonist
A drug that inhibits other drugs from attaching to a given receptor site
Official Name
The name that appears in the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) or the National Formulary (NF). Most often, the offical name is the same as the generic name and is not capitalized
Generic Name
Non-proprietary - furosemide