iothalamate-meglumine and Hemorrhage

There are few reports of hemorrhagic central nervous system complications after chymopapain injection in humans. Two patients are reported who developed hemorrhagic complications after the lumbar injection of chymopapain. The first developed a hemorrhagic encephalomyelopathy followed by clinically suspected acute arachnoiditis, which responded to high doses of dexamethasone. The second patient developed subarachnoid hemorrhage secondary to vertebral artery aneurysm rupture after the injection of chymopapain.

Topics: Adult; Arachnoiditis; Cerebral Hemorrhage; Chymopapain; Diatrizoate Meglumine; Drug Interactions; Endopeptidases; Hemorrhage; Humans; Intervertebral Disc Displacement; Iothalamate Meglumine; Male; Metrizamide; Spinal Cord Diseases; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Twenty-eight consecutive patients with a first attack of alcohol-induced pancreatitis were studied using contrast-enhanced CT. The findings on CT were then related to the course of the disease. The patients with acute hemorrhagic-necrotizing pancreatitis showed significantly lower enhancement values of the pancreatic parenchyma than those with milder forms of the disease. The next 20 patients with severe pancreatitis were scanned using a slightly modified procedure. The enhancement values were calculated and plotted on the graphs for the 2 former groups. Two categories of pancreatic enhancement were found: "low enhancement" and "high enhancement." In all 10 patients with "low-enhancement" values surgery revealed hemorrhagic-necrotizing pancreatitis. In the 10 patients with "high-enhancement" values conservative treatment was continued, and the clinical course was nonfulminant in all of them.

Topics: Acute Disease; Alcoholism; Hemorrhage; Humans; Iothalamate Meglumine; Necrosis; Pancreatitis; Radiographic Image Enhancement; Tomography, X-Ray Computed