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BMC Psychiatry Apr 2023Methamphetamine is an addictive drug with various effects on the neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy in the absence...
BACKGROUND
Methamphetamine is an addictive drug with various effects on the neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy in the absence of hyperammonemia presents a unique challenge in a clinical setting. Previously published cases of methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy suggested that methamphetamine-induced hepatotoxicity and subsequent hyperammonemia may be the cause of encephalopathy. However, the literature is limited on methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy without hyperammonemia.
CASE
This case presents a disoriented patient with methamphetamine use disorder in acute toxicity, unable to ambulate independently, and poorly responsive to verbal stimuli. The patient was found to have normal ammonia levels.
DISCUSSION
This patient's presentation and laboratory findings, namely normal ammonia levels, suggest a different pathophysiological pathway for methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy. One potential pathway is through the direct action of methamphetamine on the central nervous system through acute disruption of neurotransmitter signaling and disruption of the blood-brain barrier.
CONCLUSION
Further research should be conducted into the prevalence and pathophysiology of methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy in the absence of hyperammonemia.
KEY POINTS
Methamphetamine-induced encephalopathy (MIE) in the absence of hyperammonemia presents a unique challenge in a clinical setting. Previously published cases of MIE suggest that methamphetamine-induced hepatotoxicity and subsequent hyperammonemia may be the cause of encephalopathy. Further research should be conducted into the prevalence and pathophysiology of MIE in the absence of hyperammonemia.
Topics: Humans; Hyperammonemia; Methamphetamine; Ammonia; Brain Diseases; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury
PubMed: 37081388
DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-04764-2 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Sep 2018
Topics: Air Pollutants; Air Pollution; Ammonia; Farms; Maryland; Seasons; Smog; Utah
PubMed: 30213895
DOI: 10.1126/science.361.6407.1060 -
The Journal of Experimental Biology Oct 2018Squid are thought to obtain a large portion of their oxygen via simple diffusion across the skin in addition to uptake at the gills. Although this hypothesis has support...
Squid are thought to obtain a large portion of their oxygen via simple diffusion across the skin in addition to uptake at the gills. Although this hypothesis has support from indirect evidence and is widely accepted, no empirical examinations have been conducted to assess the validity of this hypothesis. In this study, we examined cutaneous respiration in two squid species, and , using a divided chamber to physically separate the mantle cavity and gills from the outer mantle surface. We measured oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion rates in the two compartments and found that, at rest, squid only obtain enough oxygen cutaneously to meet the demand of the skin tissue locally (12% of total) and excrete little ammonia across the skin. The majority of oxygen is obtained via the traditional branchial pathway. In light of these findings, we re-examine and discuss the indirect evidence that has supported the cutaneous respiration hypothesis.
Topics: Ammonia; Animals; Decapodiformes; Oxygen Consumption; Species Specificity
PubMed: 30111556
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.185553 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Apr 2022SignificanceAgricultural systems are already major forces of ammonia pollution and environmental degradation. How agricultural ammonia emissions affect the...
SignificanceAgricultural systems are already major forces of ammonia pollution and environmental degradation. How agricultural ammonia emissions affect the spatio-temporal patterns of nitrogen deposition and where to target future mitigation efforts, remains poorly understood. We develop a substantially complete and coherent agricultural ammonia emissions dataset in nearly recent four decades, and evaluate the relative role of reduced nitrogen in total nitrogen deposition in a spatially explicit way. Global reduced nitrogen deposition has grown rapidly, and will occupy a greater dominant position in total nitrogen deposition without future ammonia regulations. Recognition of agricultural ammonia emissions on nitrogen deposition is critical to formulate effective policies to address ammonia related environmental challenges and protect ecosystems from excessive nitrogen inputs.
Topics: Agriculture; Air Pollutants; Ammonia; Ecosystem; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Pollution; Nitrogen
PubMed: 35344440
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2121998119 -
Environmental Toxicology Feb 2022Ammonia is one of the major environmental pollutants in the pig industry that seriously affects the airway health of pigs. In this study, we aimed to investigate the...
Ammonia is one of the major environmental pollutants in the pig industry that seriously affects the airway health of pigs. In this study, we aimed to investigate the metabolic profiling changes of piglets' lung tissue after the exposure of 0 ppm (CG), 20 ppm (LG) and 50 ppm (HG) ammonia for 30 days. Compared with the control group, the obvious lung lesions were observed in HG, including interstitial thickening, inflammatory cell infiltration and focal hemorrhage. The significantly increased content of malondialdehyde in HG, combined with the significantly decreased mRNA expression of antioxidase and inflammatory-regulators in exposure groups, implied that ammonia exposure induced oxidative stress and diminished the anti-inflammatory response in lung tissues. Metabolomic analyses of lung tissues revealed 15 significantly altered metabolites among the three groups including multiple amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids. The accumulation of succinic acid, linoleic acid and phosphorylethanolamine and consumption of glucose, quinolinic acid and aspartic acid in ammonia exposure groups, indicated that energy supply from glucose aerobic oxidation was suppressed and the glycolysis and lipolysis were activated in lung tissues induced by chronic ammonia exposure.
Topics: Ammonia; Animals; Glycolysis; Lung; Metabolomics; Oxidative Stress; Swine
PubMed: 34806272
DOI: 10.1002/tox.23382 -
Chemosphere May 2021High levels of ammonia inhibit microbial activities and lead to process instability of traditional wastewater treatment. Nitrogen recovery via ammonia stripping is the...
High levels of ammonia inhibit microbial activities and lead to process instability of traditional wastewater treatment. Nitrogen recovery via ammonia stripping is the best developed method, but this approach requires large amounts of alkaline chemicals and substantial energy for stripping. In this study, we designed a simple electrochemical system that allows the facile accumulation of a neutral species of ammonia (NH), resulting in much lower overall stripping costs. In batch operation treatment of synthetic livestock wastewater (LW), the energy efficiency for total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) migration was found to be the best at a current density of 93.8 mA cm. Fed-batch operation, using synthetic or real LW, resulted in very high degrees of TAN accumulation (10,158 mg-N L for synthetic and 17,704 mg-N L for real LW) in catholyte after 400 min. It was found that TAN migration was responsible for 0.221 and 0.492 of total charge migration for synthetic and real LW, respectively. The nitrogen flux across a cation exchange membrane was 5975 g-N m d with an energy input of 28.2 kWh (kg-N) when using real LW. All this supported the conclusion that an electrochemical approach such as this makes it possible to achieve highly desirable ammonia recovery from wastewater in a sustainable manner.
Topics: Ammonia; Animals; Livestock; Nitrogen; Wastewater; Water Purification
PubMed: 33172673
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128631 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Mar 2022In this study, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was examined as an additional supplement to improve the ammonia stress resistance of S. pharaonis. Specifically, we added...
Effects of ammonia toxicity on the histopathology, detoxification, oxidative stress, and immune response of the cuttlefish Sepia pharaonis and the mitigation of γ-aminobutyric acid.
In this study, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was examined as an additional supplement to improve the ammonia stress resistance of S. pharaonis. Specifically, we added different doses of GABA (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 mg/kg) to food, cultivated S. pharaonis in regular seawater for 8 weeks and then in 8.40 mg/L ammonia seawater for 48 h and then investigated the accumulation of ammonia (the hepatic ammonia content), ammonia detoxification process (the urea content), antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) enzyme activities), immune response (the serum haemolytic complement (C3) and lysozyme (LYZ) contents), membrane lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde (MDA)) and histopathology of the liver. The results showed that ammonia poisoning could induce ammonia and MDA accumulation and subsequently lead to oxidative stress (decreases in SOD and CAT activities), immunosuppression (reductions in the haemolytic C3 and LYZ content), and histopathological injury in the liver. The application of GABA had a significant effect on alleviating the adverse effect of ammonia poisoning, and 80-100 mg/kg treatment exerted the best effect. This treatment significantly reduced the ammonia and MDA contents, significantly increased the urea content, increased the SOD, CAT, C3 and LYZ activities, reduced the MDA content, suppressed membrane lipid peroxidation, and significantly improved the histopathological injury to the liver. In summary, the results could provide a new method for mitigating liver damage, alleviating the physiological and metabolic disorders caused by ammonia stress in cuttlefish, and provide a theoretical basis for the application of GABA in alleviating ammonia poisoning.
Topics: Ammonia; Animals; Antioxidants; Catalase; Decapodiformes; Immunity; Oxidative Stress; Sepia; Superoxide Dismutase; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
PubMed: 35131585
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113256 -
Fish & Shellfish Immunology Jun 2017Ammonia is highly toxic to aquatic organisms, but whether ammonia excretion or ammonia metabolism to less toxic compounds is the major strategy for detoxification in...
Ammonia is highly toxic to aquatic organisms, but whether ammonia excretion or ammonia metabolism to less toxic compounds is the major strategy for detoxification in marine fish against chronic ammonia exposure is unclear to date. In this study, we investigated the metabolism and excretion of ammonia in marine medaka Oryzias melastigma during chronic ammonia exposure. The fish were exposed to 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, and 1.1 mmol l NHCl spiked seawater for 8 weeks. Exposure of 0.3-1.1 mmol l NHCl had deleterious effects on the fish, including significant reductions in growth, feed intake, and total protein content. However, the fish could take strategies to detoxify ammonia. The tissue ammonia (T) in the 0.3-1.1 mmol l NHCl treatments was significantly higher than those in the 0 and 0.1 mmol l NHCl treatments after 2 weeks of exposure, but it recovered with prolonged exposure time, ultimately reaching the control level after 8 weeks. The amino acid catabolic rate decreased to reduce the gross ammonia production with the increasing ambient ammonia concentration. The concentrations of most metabolites remained constant in the 0-0.6 mmol l NHCl treatments, whereas 5 amino acids and 3 energy metabolism-related metabolites decreased in the 1.1 mmol l NHCl treatment. J steadily increased in ambient ammonia from 0 to 0.6 mmol l and slightly decreased when the ambient ammonia concentration increased to 1.1 mmol l. Overall, marine medaka cope with sublethal ammonia environment by regulating the tissue T via reducing the ammonia production and increasing ammonia excretion.
Topics: Ammonia; Animals; Eating; Growth; Oryzias; Toxicity Tests, Chronic; Water Pollutants, Chemical
PubMed: 28428060
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsi.2017.04.010 -
Journal of Environmental Management Feb 2015Ammonia emissions are a major problem associated with animal slurry management, and solutions to overcome this problem are required worldwide by farmers and... (Review)
Review
Ammonia emissions are a major problem associated with animal slurry management, and solutions to overcome this problem are required worldwide by farmers and stakeholders. An obvious way to minimize ammonia emissions from slurry is to decrease slurry pH by addition of acids or other substances. This solution has been used commonly since 2010 in countries such as Denmark, and its efficiency with regard to the minimization of NH3 emissions has been documented in many studies. Nevertheless, the impact of such treatment on other gaseous emissions during storage is not clear, since the studies performed so far have provided different scenarios. Similarly, the impact of the soil application of acidified slurry on plant production and diffuse pollution has been considered in several studies. Also, the impact of acidification upon combination with other slurry treatment technologies (e.g. mechanical separation, anaerobic digestion …) is important to consider. Here, a compilation and critical review of all these studies has been performed in order to fully understand the global impact of slurry acidification and assess the applicability of this treatment for slurry management.
Topics: Acids; Agriculture; Ammonia; Animals; Denmark; Environmental Pollution; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Manure; Soil
PubMed: 25463570
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.10.001 -
Chemosphere Dec 2022Although membrane contactors (MCs) have been recognized to be an efficient approach for the removal of ammonia from water streams, factors affecting the MCs performance...
Although membrane contactors (MCs) have been recognized to be an efficient approach for the removal of ammonia from water streams, factors affecting the MCs performance were not clearly investigated. In this study, the effects of stripping solution chemistry (acid types and concentration), feed solution chemistry (pH, temperature, and ammonia concentration), and stages of MCs system have been comprehensively evaluated. Interestingly, the type of stripping solutions significantly affected the removal of ammonia, and the comparative effectiveness were in the order of HPO > HSO > HCOOH. However, the concentration of stripping solutions and ammonia in the feed has little impact to the performance of MCs. Among the feed solution chemistry, pH and temperature were the most crucial factors for ammonia removal in MCs, because the increase of pH and temperature enhanced the free ammonia fraction in the solution and facilitated the mass transfer through pores. At the absorbent concentration of 0.5 M HPO, pH of 10, and temperature of 40 °C, single-stage MCs could achieve 51% of ammonia removal within 40 s, and the ammonia removal rate in two-stage MCs reached 90% at the 1.5 min of hydraulic retention time (HRT). The results suggested the superior feasibility of multi-stage MCs system compare to the conventional stripping processes for the removal of ammonia in various waste or wastewater.
Topics: Ammonia; Wastewater; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Temperature; Water
PubMed: 36183878
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136648