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Purpose: Oral oncolytics come with significant concerns of noncompliance due to complex regimens, adverse effects, and high overall costs. The Geisinger Oral Chemotherapy Clinic is a fully telephone-based medication therapy disease management (MTDM) program designed to integrate pharmacists as advanced practitioners in hematology/oncology clinics for comanagement of oral chemotherapy., Summary: To date, Geisinger has 11 oncology clinics and 3 full-time pharmacists designated to the management of oral chemotherapy. Pharmacists receive referrals for comanagement of patients starting oral oncolytics. Under a collaborative practice agreement, they can order laboratory tests as well as supportive care medications and refills. Pharmacists review planned therapies, perform medication reconciliations, and provide medication counseling. Once treatment has been initiated, pharmacists contact patients for laboratory and toxicity assessments. The clinic incorporates the use of customized smart data elements within the electronic medical record to collect data regarding pharmacist interventions and time allocations in the clinic. As of March 31, 2021, the clinic was actively following approximately 1,100 patients, resulting in an average of 80 to 90 encounters per day for new referrals, chemotherapy education, and laboratory and toxicity assessments. Approximately 2,113 patients were followed from December 1, 2019, to March 31, 2021, with 46,929 interventions documented., Conclusion: By obtaining provider buy-in for pharmacy services, acquiring enough personnel resources to meet the needs of the growing patient population and respective therapies, and proper utilization of technology, the program has thrived, allowing for increased provider and patient satisfaction. Future goals include expanding collection of pharmacist intervention metrics and analysis of patient perceptions of services provided by the clinic., (© American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 2022. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Dermatological disorders are common in patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU). However, they are often neglected in context of a critically ill patient. Very few studies focusing on these dermatoses have been undertaken., Objectives: To determine the prevalence and spectrum of dermatological disorders in patients being treated in medical ICU of a tertiary care centre., Methods: This was a descriptive study conducted over a period of one year. All the patients admitted in the medical ICU were examined for the presence of any preexisting or newly developed dermatological disorder. Dermatological disorders were initially classified into infective and non-infective disorders. Patients with dermatological findings were classified into two groups: those who survived and those who died; which were compared with each other with respect to age and sex distribution, length of ICU stay and dermatological findings., Results: Out of 776 cases admitted in ICU during the study period, dermatological disorders were observed in 164 (21.13%) cases. Life-threatening dermatological disorders were seen in 3.05% cases. Twenty nine (17.68%) patients with dermatological findings died. Amongst these cases, infectious dermatological disorders were significantly less common; while no significant difference was noticed in context of reactive dermatological disorders., Conclusion: Dermatological disorders in ICU are common and have a wide spectrum. They often need treatment and may be indicative of underlying potentially fatal systemic illness. Besides, a subset of cutaneous lesions may develop in response to various medical interventions, immunosuppression and immobility. Knowledge of such dermatoses is thus, essential, both for the intensivist and dermatologist., (© Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 2011.)

Purpose: To evaluate neuro-oncology clinician time utilization for medication management and identify a cost beneficial role for integration of a dedicated pharmacy specialists., Methods: A pharmacist was temporarily integrated into a neuro-oncology clinic for a 30-day period to evaluate the clinical practice and perform a 14-day clinical chart evaluation and patient interactions as part of a single institutional exploratory analysis. The pharmacist completed screenings for drug-drug interactions, new therapies, medication reconciliation, and advanced interventions as part of a collaborative practice agreement for pharmacist autonomy. Pharmacist time spent was calculated and documented within the patient encounters to support physician decision-making. A comparative estimate of pharmacist versus physician time utilization and cost for each was completed to derive a savings analysis for integration of a dedicated clinic pharmacist., Result: During the 14-day clinical assessment, the pharmacist completed 147 encounters with 338 interventions. Of the encounters, 90% (n = 132) were higher complexity requiring plan modification, and approximately 48% (n = 162) of all interventions required ≥10 minutes of the pharmacist's time. Physician non-patient-facing time devoted to medication tasks was 5-hours weekly (0.125 FTE, full time equivalents), an estimated direct salary cost of $937/week ($45,000 yearly). Hire of a part-time pharmacist at 0.50 FTE would cover the clinical need with supported documentation and medication monitoring at a cost of $45,000/year., Conclusion: Defining the roles for dedicated neuro-oncology clinic pharmacists allows for cost-savings through re-allocation of physician time and improves subspecialty clinic operations as well as patient care.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that has significant overlap with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Mutations in specific genes have been identified that can cause and/or predispose patients to ALS. However, the clinical variability seen in ALS patients suggests that additional genes impact pathology, susceptibility, severity, and/or progression of the disease. To identify molecular pathways involved in ALS, we undertook a meta-analysis of published genetic modifiers both in patients and in model organisms, and undertook bioinformatic pathway analysis. From 72 published studies, we generated a list of 946 genes whose perturbation (1) impacted ALS in patient populations, (2) altered defects in laboratory models, or (3) modified defects caused by ALS gene ortholog loss of function. Herein, these are all called modifier genes. We found 727 modifier genes that encode proteins with human orthologs. Of these, 43 modifier genes were identified as modifiers of more than one ALS gene/model, consistent with the hypothesis that shared genes and pathways may underlie ALS. Further, we used a gene ontology-based bioinformatic analysis to identify pathways and associated genes that may be important in ALS. To our knowledge this is the first comprehensive survey of ALS modifier genes. This work suggests that shared molecular mechanisms may underlie pathology caused by different ALS disease genes. Surprisingly, few ALS modifier genes have been tested in more than one disease model. Understanding genes that modify ALS-associated defects will help to elucidate the molecular pathways that underlie ALS and provide additional targets for therapeutic intervention., (Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a type of cancer originating in the lymph nodes. The preferred therapy for advanced HL is a combination of chemotherapies including doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (ABVD). ABVD has been standard therapy for advanced HL. It is generally considered as safe and rarely has been reported to cause acute liver failure. We present a case of 79-year-old woman with HL, who developed acute liver failure secondary to first cycle of ABVD chemotherapy., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2018. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Introduction: There are conflicting reports in literature about correlation of CSF viral RNA levels with neurological manifestations in HIV positive patients. Many studies in animals and human subjects have shown that CSF HIV-1 RNA can be useful as a specific marker of HIV induced neuropathology. To the contrary there are studies which show that neurological disease states can occur in absence of significant increase of CSF HIV RNA., Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study conducted at Base hospital Delhi Cantt, New Delhi, a tertiary care hospitals for HIV patients. The study period was from 16 May 2006 to16 Jun 2011. The current study included forty (40) patients (Twenty HIV positive patients with neurological manifestations and twenty HIV positive patients clinically without any neurological manifestation). All potential study subjects and controls were explained the nature of this study and enrolled thereafter with written consent., Results: In our study all the cases (HIV/AIDS patients with Neuro AIDS) and controls (HIV/AIDS patients without Neuro manifestations) were males only. 45% of the cases and 60% of controls were in the age group of 25 to 35 yrs and 35 % of cases and 40% of controls were in age group of 36 to 45 yrs. Among cases (HIV patients with neurological manifestations), The neurological manifestations in our 20 patients included; dementia-5, cryptococcal meningitis-4, Tubercular meningitis-4, CVA-3, Headache-3, (without CSF abnormality), 1 case each of pyogenic meningitis, Candida meningitis, Tremors and Herpes Zoster. Among the 20 cases fourteen patients had abnormal CSF (70%) whereas only one patient among the controls showed CSF abnormality (5%). Out of 20 cases, radio-imaging (CT Scan/ MRI) of brain was done in 18 cases. Twelve cases (66.66) had some abnormality on CT/ MRI. Various abnormalities seen were as under Calcified granuloma-1, Infarcts-5, Hydrocephalus-2, TBM (meningeal enhancement)-2, Candidiasis (Focal hypodensities in subcortical white matter of cerebral hemispheres)-1, Cryptococcoma-1, Cerebral atrophy-1, Focal enhancing lesions-2. In our study, mean CSF viral load in cases was 5236.3 copies/ml and in controls 502.4 copies/ml. Viral load in CSF among cases was significantly higher than viral load in CSF among controls., Conclusions: CSF HIV-1 RNA viral load estimation can be a useful tool for clinicians in confirming neurological involvement in HIV infected patients. Hence, in HIV positive patients suspected to have neurological involvement, CSF viral load studies should be done. Serial estimations of CSF HIV-1 RNA levels can be of prognostic significance. Estimation of CSF HIV-1 RNA level before and serially during administration of HAART can be useful to judge the efficacy of HAART.

Other than suppurative organisms, atypical mycobacteria are also known to cause injection abscesses following vaccinations, injections, tattooing and even after implants. Though the usage of disposable needles is practised universally, sporadic cases do occur. The disease entity should be considered, while dealing with injection abscesses, to institute specific therapy. Acid-fast bacilli should be looked for in the pus and mycobacterial culture of the material from injection abscesses should be done for a definitive diagnosis.

Objectives: Outbreaks are known to occur after Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccination. An outbreak of suppurative lymphadenitis in 18 infants, following BCG vaccination is reported from Sikkim, with incidence of 8.6%. The outbreak occurred after a change of vaccine., Methods: In a prospective study the cases of suppurative lymphadenitis were diagnosed by needle aspiration cytology and culture of the material aspirated and managed only with repeated needle aspiration and no antitubercular treatment was given., Results: Cytomorphology revealed necrosis alone in 66.6% and necrotizing granulomas in 22.2%. Acid and alcohol fast bacilli were detected in 77.7% cases. Mycobacterium bovis was isolated in eight cases. One case of staphylococcal suppurative lymphadenitis was detected. Sixteen cases were managed with weekly aspiration with mean period of resolution in eight weeks., Conclusions: Needle aspiration is useful in the diagnosis and effective in the management of these cases. No antitubercular treatment is desired and required in the cases of suppurative lymphadenitis following BCG vaccination.