Detection of New World Hantavirus Antibodies in Rodents of Eastern New Mexico, USA.

Hantaviruses, causal agents of the potentially lethal hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, have widely distributed rodent hosts. Using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we tested blood from 398 wild rodents captured in eastern New Mexico, US in 2015-17 and found 42 antibody-positive samples representing six genera.

Psychomotor deficits associated with hyponatremia: a retrospective analysis.

Hyponatremia (serum sodium concentration [Na+] < 136 mEq/L) is a potentially life-threatening condition. Recent evidence (Renneboog, Musch, Vandemergel, Manto, & Decaux, 2006) shows that even mild hyponatremia is associated with disorders of balance/gait. This retrospective analysis explored the influence of serum [Na+] on neuropsychological (NP) measurements at baseline from 44 patients with chronic hyponatremia who participated in an efficacy and safety study of an experimental compound over a decade ago. Group mean serum [Na+] was 124.8 ± 4.9 mEq/L. Age-adjusted partial correlations were computed between serum [Na+] and NP measurements, 39% of which were statistically significant--all involving psychomotor functioning. These findings replicate and extend previous observations that psychomotor deficits are, at least in part, associated with hyponatremia in these patients. While chronic hyponatremia is known to have deleterious effects on quality of life, motor and gait disturbances represent manifestations of mild hyponatremia that have until now gone unrecognized. A new class of medication, vasopressin antagonists, has been shown to correct hyponatremia. It will be important to explore the effects of correcting hyponatremia on psychomotor functioning in individuals with hyponatremia.

Vaptans: a potential new approach for treating chronic hyponatremia in psychotic patients.

OBJECTIVE: Hyponatremia (serum sodium concentration [Na+] <136 mEq/L) is a potentially life-threatening condition often found chronically in patients with psychotic disorders. Vasopressin antagonists have recently been shown in short-term studies to correct hyponatremia in diverse patient populations, including individuals with both psychosis and idiopathic hyponatremia. However, the safety and efficacy of long-term administration of vaptans is only beginning to be investigated. The objective of this study was to assess whether one of the vaptans, specifically tolvaptan, maintained its safety and efficacy over a prolonged period in patients with psychosis and chronic idiopathic hyponatremia. METHODS: SALTWATER was a multicenter, open-label extension of the Study of Ascending Levels of Tolvaptan in Hyponatremia. Of the 111 patients enrolled in SALTWATER, eight were patients with both psychosis and idiopathic hyponatremia. These eight subjects provided a total of 7,406 patient days of exposure to oral tolvaptan. RESULTS: Mean serum [Na+] in the eight psychotic patients increased from 131.6 mEq/L at baseline to >135 mEq/L throughout the observation period (p<0.05 versus baseline at most points). No drug-related adverse events led to study discontinuation. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic hyponatremia is known to have deleterious effects on the quality of life for many patient groups. These preliminary results suggest that oral tolvaptan provides rapid, effective, and safe treatment of chronic hyponatremia in patients with psychotic disorders and that the effect is safely sustained over long periods of time. These findings represent an important step forward in treating a significant unmet need in psychotic populations.