Latest news with #Verapamil
Medscape
29-05-2025
- General
- Medscape
Rapid Rx Quiz: Calcium-Channel Blockers
Calcium-channel blockers (CCBs) play a central role in the treatment of hypertension, angina, and certain cardiac arrhythmias and are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. Beyond their US Food and Drug Administration–approved uses, CCBs have found a place in treating several off-label conditions. With their widespread use, however, comes the responsibility of understanding their pharmacodynamics, drug-drug interactions, and potential toxicities. How much do you know about CCBs? Test yourself with this short quiz. Off-label uses for CCBs include Raynaud phenomenon, migraines, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. CCBs do not treat depression; in fact, their use has been associated with depression. Verapamil might reduce diastolic dysfunction, but this is not a mainstream use. The most common CCBs are relatively weight neutral. Learn more about Raynaud phenomenon. Including lightheadedness, specific adverse and serious adverse events from CCB use are bradycardia, constipation, headaches, flushing, worsening cardiac output, and peripheral edema, possibly from fluid redistributing from the intravascular space. Learn more about dizziness and vertigo. A recent study found that amlodipine was involved in the majority of overdose cases, accounting for 62% of all CCB overdoses. This far surpasses other agents such as lercanidipine (12%), diltiazem (11%), verapamil (10%), and felodipine (5%). The lower incidence of overdoses involving lercanidipine, diltiazem, verapamil, and felodipine corresponds with their declining presence in current hypertension treatment guidelines. Although amlodipine is involved in more overdose cases overall, the study underscores that the severity of overdose varies significantly by CCB class. Nondihydropyridines, such as diltiazem and verapamil, were associated with markedly higher rates of life-threatening complications, including dysrhythmias (33-35% of cases) and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions (52% and 30%, respectively). In contrast, amlodipine showed much lower rates of dysrhythmias (1%) and ICU admissions (18%). Learn more about CCB toxicity. Many of the signs and symptoms of CCB toxicity are similar to normal CCB adverse events, making diagnosis challenging. A blood test can aid in diagnosis; abnormal findings that suggest CCB toxicity include acidosis, hyperglycemia, and hypokalemia. Neutrophilia has no established connection. Learn more about CCB toxicity. Combining diltiazem or verapamil with direct oral anticoagulants might increase risk for bleeding or clotting complications, though previous research has shown mixed results. A recent study found no evidence of increased risk when direct oral anticoagulants were used alongside diltiazem or verapamil. However, patients who began direct oral anticoagulant therapy while already taking diltiazem had higher rates of overall mortality and cardiovascular-related death within 30 days, compared with those taking anticoagulants alone. Learn more about diltiazem.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Human Skin Can Taste Things, And Scientists Just Figured Out Why
Ever set off too many of the bitter taste receptors on your tongue? You probably spat out whatever it was in your mouth, and that's our best guess for why we even have them: to stop us from ingesting things that might be harmful. Our skin cells have the same receptors, which serve a similar purpose on a cellular level: to detect bitter substances. New research led by Okayama University of Science biologists builds on our knowledge of the type-2 taste receptors (TAS2Rs) found in the skin's keratinocytes, finding their role is also to keep potentially harmful materials from sticking around and causing damage. Once thought to be confined to the tongue, TAS2Rs are actually spread much further throughout the body. They line your colon, your stomach, and your upper airways. A 2015 paper discovered them not just lurking but bristling with activity in the keratinized epithelial cells of human skin. The new research gets into the question of what exactly they are doing there. Lab-grown human keratinocytes were fed the quintessential 'bitter pill,' phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), which has been used in all sorts of studies around the genetics of bitter taste. On detecting and binding with the PTC, the receptors triggered production of a fleet of ABC transporters to shuttle the bitter compound across the membranes and back out of the cell. To determine whether this newly-installed exit was functional, the team administered a visible tracer dye which could be rapidly excreted from the cell via a specific ABC transporter. When the team treated the cells with a substance called verapmil which is known to inhibit the transporter, the tracer had no way out, allowing it to accumulate. The researchers think this chain of events set off by the TAS2Rs protects the cell from being damaged by potentially toxic bitter compounds, a premise that runs in line with theories about why we can taste 'bitter' at all. When it comes to taste on the tongue, the jury is still out on whether bitterness actually helps us detect harmful substances. Studies have found this flavor profile may not be such a helpful indicator of toxicity as we once thought, with many popular foods and drinks featuring a bitter flavour profile, and many toxic substances lacking it. But this latest study shows that among skin cells, at least, the receptors might have some benefit in surviving exposure to toxins. Cells that were given a toxic level of antihistamine had much better survival rates when their bitter receptors had been fired up prior. "Activation of TAS2Rs by bitter compounds, such as PTC and saccharin, enhances ABCB1 production, leading to the prevention of diphenhydramin-induced cell death via excretion of these compounds," the authors report. Verapamil also reversed this protective effect. "Altogether, harmless activators of TAS2Rs may be promising drugs that enhance the excretion of toxic substances from the human skin," the authors suggest. Coffee scrub, anyone? This research was published in FASEB BioAdvances. Just 3 Days of a 'Juice Fast' Could Be Doing You More Harm Than Good This Much Weekly Exercise Can Slash Your Dementia Risk by 41 Percent Head Lice Are Digging In, But There's a Simple Way to Get Rid of Them
