Publications by authors named "Peter D Akpunonu"
Article Synopsis
- Snakebite envenoming (SBE) causes over 500,000 deaths or serious injuries annually, and a phase II clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of varespladib methyl, an oral treatment, in patients bitten by venomous snakes.
- The trial, which was double-blind and placebo-controlled, enrolled patients in emergency departments in the USA and India, assessing changes in severity of snakebite symptoms using the Snakebite Severity Score (SSS) after treatment.
- Results indicated no significant difference in SSS improvement between the varespladib and placebo groups overall, but early treatment (within 5 hours of the bite) showed potential benefits in illness severity and recovery outcomes.
In this focused update, the American Heart Association provides updated guidance for resuscitation of patients with cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and refractory shock due to poisoning. Based on structured evidence reviews, guidelines are provided for the treatment of critical poisoning from benzodiazepines, β-adrenergic receptor antagonists (also known as β-blockers), L-type calcium channel antagonists (commonly called calcium channel blockers), cocaine, cyanide, digoxin and related cardiac glycosides, local anesthetics, methemoglobinemia, opioids, organophosphates and carbamates, sodium channel antagonists (also called sodium channel blockers), and sympathomimetics. Recommendations are also provided for the use of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
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- - Snakebite poses a serious global health crisis with high rates of sickness and death, and varespladib has been identified as a potential oral treatment to combat snakebite envenoming (SBE) through its mechanism of blocking venom enzymes.
- - The BRAVO study aims to assess the safety and effectiveness of oral varespladib-methyl compared to a placebo, using a randomized, double-blind approach involving patients aged 5 and up with acute SBE.
- - Regulatory approval has been secured for the study in both India and the US, ensuring ethical standards and good clinical practices are followed throughout the trial process.
Using natural language processing to identify opioid use disorder in electronic health record data.
Int J Med Inform
February 2023
Background: As opioid prescriptions have risen, there has also been an increase in opioid use disorder (OUD) and its adverse outcomes. Accurate and complete epidemiologic surveillance of OUD, to inform prevention strategies, presents challenges. The objective of this study was to ascertain prevalence of OUD using two methods to identify OUD in electronic health records (EHR): applying natural language processing (NLP) for text mining of unstructured clinical notes and using ICD-10-CM diagnostic codes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFΔ-THC: Legal Status, Widespread Availability, and Safety Concerns.
Cannabis Cannabinoid Res
October 2021
Article Synopsis
- Delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC) is a psychoactive compound similar to delta-9-THC, and it is widely available over-the-counter in the U.S. despite its questionable legal status due to federal classification as a Schedule I drug.
- The 2018 Farm Bill is often misinterpreted to suggest Δ-THC products are legal hemp products, leading to their unregulated sale in various markets without proper safety measures.
- The lack of regulation has resulted in serious health issues from high doses of Δ-THC, prompting medical emergencies and concerns about product safety; however, efforts to implement regulations at the state and national levels have seen little progress.
BACKGROUND In this scoping review, we identified and reviewed 23 original articles from the PubMed database that investigated the relationship between nonacute opioid use (NOU) and cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS We defined NOU to include both long-term opioid therapy and opioid use disorder. We summarized the association between NOU and 5 classes of cardiovascular disease, including infective endocarditis, coronary heart disease (including myocardial infarction), congestive heart failure, cardiac arrythmia (including cardiac arrest), and stroke.
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