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Hypersensitivity reactions
Author(s) -
Tan Eng M.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1002/cpt1974165part2980
Subject(s) - procainamide , medicine , hydralazine , drug , disease , hypersensitivity reaction , immunology , autoantibody , autoimmune disease , lupus erythematosus , pharmacology , antibody , blood pressure
There are many well‐known hypersensitivity reactions to drugs such as penicillin and sulfa drugs, but this paper will emphasize other aspects of hypersensitivity reactions to drugs that are not as widely known. Certain drugs such as hydralazine and procainamide are widely used in the treatment of hypertension and cardiac arrhythmia. It has become increasingly clear that these drugs are implicated in a hypersensitivity reaction that is different in its manifestations from most drug hypersensitivity reactions. Hydralazine and procainamide produce an untoward clinical syndrome that resembles spontaneous systemic lupus erythematosus. These drugs, therefore, arc able to induce an autoimmune reaction that results not only in clinical manifestations of a spontaneous autoimmune disease but also in the production of autoantibodies in the sera of patients with drug‐induced disease. The pathogenetic mechanisms by which drugs such as hydralazine and procainamide can produce autoimmune reactions are the subject of increasing interest to immunologists, since there is a possibility that understanding this reaction may lead to the elucidation of the factors that produce spontaneous autoimmune disease in man.