Medical conditions/diseases

Detection of preexisting diseases or medical conditions that place employees performing certain tasks at increased risk... 

Traditional herbal and homeopathic remedies that are supplied as natural treatments for medical conditions or diseases are subject to regulation as drugs, for example St. John s wort. 

The foundation for the more rational approach to drug discovery that is practised today comes from basic research into disease processes and medical conditions. Much of this research is carried out in universities and other research institutions, with funding coming from both government and pharmaceutical industry sponsors. 

General precautions for each medication that has been used for smoking cessation are listed in the sections describing each medication. All FDA-approved first-line medications for smoking cessation have a relatively good safety profile. Consensus opinions on the safety of the various medications for persons with cardiovascular disease, other medical conditions, and pregnancy are beyond the scope of this chapter but can be found elsewhere (Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco 2003). 

Uncomplicated, with delirium, with delusions, and with depressed mood Dementia due to HIV disease Dementia due to head trauma Dementia due to Parkinson s disease Dementia due to Huntington s disease Dementia due to Pick s disease Dementia due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Dementia due to a specific general medical condition (specify) Dementia that is substance-induced Dementia due to multiple etiologies Dementia not otherwise specified... 

Restless-legs syndrome occurs in 5% to 15% of the population, making it a common sleep disorder.11,12 The prevalence of RLS increases with age and in various medical conditions such as end-stage renal disease (ESRD), pregnancy, and iron deficiency.13 RLS appears to be more common in women than in men and has a genetic link. The majority of RLS patients (63% to 92%) report a positive family history.14... 

Medical history data may be used in either safety or efficacy analyses. The presence of historical medical conditions may be used as covariates for inferential analyses. Also, medical histories are typically summarized to show that the therapies under study come from study populations with comparable disease histories. Medical histories may be used to determine protocol compliance and to help define a protocol-compliant study population. Medical history is considered a finding from a CDISC perspective. 

The final meddra data set in this program contains the lower-level term code (llt code) that can then be merged with the adverse events or medical conditions database. By merging the MedDRA dictionary data with the disease data, you can match the verbatim event text captured on the case report form with the preferred term and associated body system. Then you can summarize these data by body system and preferred term you will see an example of this in Chapter 5. 

Table 10.7 Diseases (and other medical conditions) for which anaemia is one frequently observed symptom...

Treatment of defective growth caused by various diseases/medical conditions... 

Although blood clot formation is essential to maintaining haemostasis, inappropriate clotting can give rise to serious, sometimes fatal medical conditions. The formation of a blood clot (a thrombus) often occurs inappropriately within diseased blood vessels. This partially or completely obstructs the flow of blood (and hence oxygen) to the tissues normally served by that blood vessel. 

Polyclonal antibody preparations have been used for several decades to induce passive immunization against infectious diseases and other harmful agents, particularly toxins. The antibody preparations are usually administered by direct i.v. injection. While this affords immediate immunological protection, its effect is transitory, usually persisting for only 2-3 weeks (i.e. until the antibodies are excreted). Passive immunization can be used prophylactically (i.e. to prevent a future medical episode) or therapeutically (i.e. to treat a medical condition that is already established). An example of the former would be prior administration of a specific anti-snake toxin antibody preparation to an individual before they travel to a world region in which these snakes are commonly found. An example of the latter would be administration of the anti-venom antibody immediately after the individual has experienced a snake bite. 

Thus far, Lhe discussion relaling to the medical uses of monoclonals has focused exclusively upon cancer. Monoclonal antibodies (and their derivatives), however, have a far broader potential therapeutic application. Actual/potential additional uses include detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease, infectious agents, and various additional medical conditions (Table 13.2). 

General medical conditions Cardiovascular disease Drug therapy... 

So many drugs treat so many different medical conditions that a detailed and comprehensive coverage would likely be tiresome. Instead, I will address certain broad themes and diseases that offer both immense challenges and great potential for advances. Rather than review detailed experimental issues, I will confine myself to the big picture" issues, providing examples of specific research only in a few instances, drawing largely from areas I know best. 

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are DNA sequence variations among individuals. Research is under way to hnd out about specihc SNPs (or sets of SNPs) that are associated with various medical conditions and to study the differences in SNP patterns among various human populations. It is hoped that knowledge of SNPs will improve medical treatment by enabling prediction of disease risk and response to therapies. 

The real value in the genome sequence is to find out the regions of the genome that encode proteins. Proteomics, the study of the structures and functions of proteins, further enhances our understanding of proteins and their functions, leading to insights on how they are affected in normal and disease conditions. Exhibit A2.3 shows some of the medical conditions due to genetic problems. 

These somewhat simplified descriptions of mechanisms that initiate cellular injury, and of the ways in which cells and tissues respond to these injuries will, as noted at the outset, be helpful as we describe various manifestations of toxicity and carcinogenicity. We distinguish between toxic injuries, which are typically seen in animal experiments and are usually described in the terms defined in the foregoing, and the various medical conditions we call diseases. Many toxic responses can lead to disease, but we also consider toxic injuries to be adverse effects, whether or not they are known to lead to specific diseases. 

Mood Disorder Due to a General Medical Condition. Commonly called secondary manias, certain medical and neurological illnesses produce symptoms that mimic mania. Often, secondary manias occur when injury or disease interferes with right-sided brain function. As one might anticipate, this is in contrast to the predilection for left-sided brain injury to be associated with depressive symptoms. 

The result is that panic disorder, particularly when associated with agoraphobia, confers considerable social impairment. Patients with panic disorder are less productive at work, are prone to absenteeism, are less satished in family roles, and have higher mortality and suicide rates. In addition, the physical symptoms of panic disorder are frequently misattributed to medical conditions such as emphysema or heart disease and lead to the costly and inappropriate use of emergency room and other medical services. Panic disorder is costly both from an economic and a social perspective. 

What s often overlooked is that snch medical conditions and panic disorder are not mutually exclusive. For example, those with asthma or heart disease become conditioned to monitoring bodily signals very closely. At times, they may misinterpret a physical symptom as an impending attack of asthma or angina. This may result in an escalating spiral of anxiety that leads to a panic attack. Thns, those with true medically verified asthma or heart disease can also snffer from panic disorder as an indirect consequence of their medical condition. 

The discovery at the turn of the century that untreated syphilis was a common cause of many psychiatric illnesses including dementia revolutionized the field of psychiatry. Although the tools available to investigate brain function were limited at the time, it proved that diseases that attack the brain could cause mental illness. This in turn led to a search for other medical conditions that cause mental illness. 

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