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

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxycarbamide

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…