I had a neutropenic patient today.
Perfectly fine a month ago, a neutrophil count of 0.6 today. Diagnosis “on
letrozole”.
I looked that one up. A common side
effect is neutropenia. Here’s an article on the matter.
One lives and learns…
This is (supposed to be) a reflective diary by a (not very) anonymous biomedical scientist who works somewhere in the south of England. One day this diary may well be submitted to the Health and Care Professions Council as evidence of ongoing continual professional development....
Showing posts with label New Drug ?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Drug ?. Show all posts
1 July 2026 (Wednesday) - Cladribine
I had a patient with an unexplained
neutropenia today. The diagnosis was “multiple sclerosis on cladribine”.
Taken orally as Mavenclad,
it is prescribed for adults with active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis to
reduce the frequency and severity of relapses. However Cladribine is also used
in lymphoid neoplasms. It mimics the nucleoside deoxyadenosine but resists
breakdown by the enzyme adenosine deaminase, causing it to accumulate inside
lymphocytes and interfere with DNA synthesis and repair.
Common side effects include a reduced
white blood cell count and an increased risk of viral infections such as
shingles or oral herpes.
And it can cause neutropenia too.
19 December 2025 (Friday) - Unexpected Thrombocytopenia
Temozolomide is a drug commonly used to
treat brain tumours. One of it’s less common side effects is that it
can cause thrombocytopenia.
Which would explain why a patient’s
platelet count dropped massively…
2 June 2023 (Friday) - Eltrombopag
A blood
film I was looking at today had the diagnosis “eltrombopag”. Well… I won’t
lile. That meant nothing to me. But Wikipedia came to the rescue.
Eltrombopag
is a medication used to treat thrombocytopenia and severe aplastic anemia. It
is a thrombopoietin receptor agonist.
“Agonist”?
Do they mean “Antagonist”? Apparently (according to Google) “An
agonist is a drug that binds to the receptor, producing a similar response to
the intended chemical and receptor. Whereas an antagonist is a drug that binds
to the receptor either on the primary site, or on another site, which all
together stops the receptor from producing a response”.
I’ve
learned something here…
31 March 2023 (Friday) - Hydroxycarbamide
Hydroxycarbamide
is a chemotherapeutic agent... It is the new name for Hydroxyurea.
When did that
get changed… as Zaphod Beeblebrox once remarked, it’s amazing what happens if
you don’t stay alert
15 March 2022 (Tuesday) - Tenofovir
As
I was peering down the microscope today I found a patient with neutropenia. Not
a massive neutropenia (it was 1.2 “whatever the units are”), and very
little (i.e. nothing) else of note.
The
diagnosis was “tenofovir”
Tenofovir
is an antiviral agent, and one of its side-effects is that it can cause
neutropenia in over ten per cent of people taking it. There’s an article about
that which you can see by clicking here.
I
shall bear this in mind…
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