StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Drug Allergy Issues - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay "Drug Allergy Issues" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues in the problem of drug allergy. This is a 62-year-old female with type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypothyroidism, morbid obesity, and osteoarthritis who had been operated on for a ruptured diverticulum…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.6% of users find it useful
Drug Allergy Issues
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Drug Allergy Issues"

After 4 days of discontinuation of the antibiotics, the patient became tachypnoeic with a rise in the neutrophil count and a fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit and the appearance of a pulmonary infiltrate. The initial therapeutic course was uneventful. Although the patient has a history of childhood penicillin allergy, no penicillin drug was utilized for this illness, and therefore, it can be taken for granted that there was no previous exposure to this illness, and it has appeared following several treatment days. These allergic drug reactions usually subside after discontinuation of the drug. The only point against this diagnosis is the absence of peripheral blood eosinophilia (Van Arsdel, Jr., 1982). This reaction can be classified as an unpredictable reaction since it is evident that this happened in a dose-independent fashion without any relation to the pharmacological action of these agents. This could be one of the three, idiosyncratic reactions, allergic reactions, or pseudoallergic reactions. Thus following the discontinuation of the drugs, there is a possibility of the development of drug-specific IgE antibodies which might have been responsible for nonspecific mast cell release. However, in this patient, it looks like it is a drug fever with organ-specific reactions that may indicate a multifactorial origin. Due to this allergic reaction, the patient developed pneumonitis, and there is the immense possibility that the renal failure that continued is an enhancement of baseline renal failure on which renal reactions of drug allergy had been superimposed. Most probably these drugs could have produced univalent chemical compounds as a result of phase I reactions, and these might have been activated to trigger the immune response with elimination affected by renal failure. In all probability, these molecules could have been bound to cell surface molecules or serum proteins to produce the reactions of pneumonitis and fever.

Despite getting 48 hours of antibiotic therapy involving all three agents that she had been treated before, the fever did not resolve. This indicates that the fever was not due to infection, nor were the pulmonary infiltrates. This was due to the fact, although it is not known in this case, which agent is the cause, given her renal function compromise, most probably, it was a multi-agent infection. Most likely, this patient had a pseudoallergic reaction since there is no evidence of an immunologic mechanism involved evidenced by no rise in eosinophil count. At this phase, it can also be a possibility that the patient has multiple drug allergy syndrome, which is the propensity to develop immune reactions to haptens and then to express a broad range of immunopathologic responses. Since the patient has a penicillin allergy, she is more likely to develop other allergies to a second unrelated agent. Patients with penicillin allergy may develop an allergy to an unrelated compound or non-beta-lactam antibiotic or even multiple agents (Asero, 2001), and it is prevalent in 21% of these patients. The drugs which she was treated were metronidazole, vancomycin, and levofloxacin, and these are unrelated chemically or immunologically to penicillin, and in this way, she has more propensities to react more frequently to drug haptens to lead to multiple drug allergy syndromes (Gruchalla, 2000). Another important feature of her reaction is that there is a probability of continuation of her symptoms despite discontinuation of the drug due to the formation of drug metabolites that are haptenic and get covalently linked to cell surface proteins. These were creating her fever and the infiltrate.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Drug Allergy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Drug Allergy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1549428-drug-allergy
(Drug Allergy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
Drug Allergy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1549428-drug-allergy.
“Drug Allergy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1549428-drug-allergy.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Drug Allergy Issues

Effective Communication Needed between Providers and Patients with Allergic Rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis is caused by an exposure to an outdoor allergen such as pollens, environmental molds, or sometimes, foods (Marple, Fornadley, Patel, Fineman, Fromer, Krouse, Lanier, Penna, PharmD, and the American Academy of Otolaryngic allergy Working Group on Allergic Rhinitis, 2007).... It was indicated in the study that in one out of five patients, they feel their health care provider downplay their allergy symptoms (Gallup Study of Allergies, 2005).... However, the most appropriate allergy treatment should be based on the results of allergy tests, medical history such as triggers and seasonality of symptoms, family history of allergies, past and current treatment, and severity....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Role of Homeopathy in the Management of Allergic Rhinitis

The main outcomes measured in this study were symptoms specific to allergy using suitable tools: rhinoconjunctivitis quality-of-life questionnaire (RQLQ), functional quality of life using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (MOS SF-36), and the work productivity and activity impairment (WPAI) questionnaire....
16 Pages (4000 words) Dissertation

Clinical Implications of Delayed Allergen Testing

The paper "Clinical Implications of Delayed Allergen Testing" states that the findings that were used can be used in the implementation of early allergen testing among surgical candidates, especially amongst those who have no knowledge of what is possible antigens could easily affect them.... ... ...
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Clinical immunology

This reaction causes the body to show symptoms of allergy.... Basophils produce histamine and by studying their release assay, the physician is able to determine the main allergy/asthma.... This makes it an important aspect when treatment of an allergy victim is done.... The release assay can show the intensity of the allergy hence helping the physician determine the best medication or therapy....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Kinetics and Dynamics of Hypersensitivity

This type describes the allergy as immediate hypersensitivity or anaphylactic hypersensitivity.... Kay (2001) gave a concise etiology of acute allergy.... The author of the current paper under the title "The Kinetics and Dynamics of Hypersensitivity" will begin with the statement that hypersensitivity is used to describe the adverse reactions of the immune system to different allergens or substances....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Habit or Addiction and Inflammation or Allergy

"Habit or Addiction and Inflammation or allergy" paper examines the terms habit and addiction which tend to be used interchangeably in substance abuse.... allergy and Inflammation.... An allergy is defined as 'abnormal sensitivity to a substance which is normally tolerated and generally considered harmless' (AAAAI Website)....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Severity of an Allergic Reaction: The Kinetics and Dynamics of Type I Hypersensitivity

his type describes the allergy as the immediate hypersensitivity or anaphylactic hypersensitivity.... The essay "Severity of an Allergic Reaction: The Kinetics and Dynamics of Type I Hypersensitivity" explains type I hypersensitivity or anaphylactic hypersensitivity, as well as the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the three agents mentioned above....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

New Drugs for Asthma

"New Drugs for Asthma" paper argues that the establishment of new drugs to treat asthma has been dependent on the improvement of the existing drugs or the development of totally new approaches and whatever the approach, the following are possible treatments for asthma.... ... ... ... Phosphodiesterases have a long record of synthesizing cyclic nucleotides that could otherwise slow down the process of cell activation....
7 Pages (1750 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us