Soft tissue calcification secondary to imatinib mesylate in a patient with gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

Imatinib mesylate has been associated with the changes in bone turnover. We report a case of the development of tissue calcification in a patient on long-term therapy with this drug. A 48-year-old male patient with gastrointestinal stromal tumor and liver metastasis complained of abdominal pain. His treatment included hepatic artery chemoembolization and partial hepatectomy in addition to chronic imatinib mesylate for 4 years. On physical examination, he had a peritoneal mass just beneath the laparotomy incision scar that, after resection, was found to be dystrophic bone formation. Based on the previous studies suggesting bone changes due to chronic therapy with imatinib mesylate, we believe that the patient's new bone formation was causally related to the use of this drug. To our knowledge, there are no similar reported cases in the literature.

The use and misuse of prescription stimulants as "cognitive enhancers" by students at one academic health sciences center.

PURPOSE: Prescription stimulant use as "cognitive enhancers" has been described among undergraduate college students. However, the use of prescription stimulants among future health care professionals is not well characterized. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of prescription stimulant misuse among students at an academic health sciences center. METHOD: Electronic surveys were e-mailed to 621 medical, pharmacy, and respiratory therapy students at East Tennessee State University for four consecutive weeks in fall 2011. Completing the survey was voluntary and anonymous. Surveys asked about reasons for, frequency of, and side effects of nonprescription misuse of prescription stimulants. Given the sensitive material, an opportunity to win one of ten $50 gift cards was used as an incentive. RESULTS: Three hundred seventy-two (59.9%) students completed the survey from three disciplines (47.6% medical, 70.5% pharmacy, and 57.6% respiratory therapy). Overall, 11.3% of responders admitted to misusing prescription stimulants. There was more misuse by respiratory therapy students, although this was not statistically significant (10.9% medicine, 9.7% pharmacy, 26.3% respiratory therapy; P = .087). Reasons for prescription stimulant misuse included to enhance alertness/energy (65.9%), to improve academic performance (56.7%), to experiment (18.2%), and to use recreationally/get high (4.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Prescription stimulant misuse was prevalent among participating students, but further research is needed to describe prevalence among future health care workers more generally. The implications and consequences of such misuse require further study across professions with emphasis on investigating issues of academic dishonesty (e.g., "cognitive enhancement"), educational quality, and patient safety or health care quality.