Hiccup

Objective:  To report a case of persistent hiccups associated by azithromycin therapy.Case summary:  A 76-year-old man presented with persistent hiccups after beginning azithromycin for the treatment of pharyngitis. Hiccups were persistent and exhausting. Discontinuation of azithromycin and therapy with baclofen finally resolved hiccups. No organic cause of hiccups was identified despite extensive investigation.Discussion:  Pharmacotherapeutic agents have been uncommonly associated with hiccups. Corticosteroids (dexamethasone and methylprednisolone), benzodiazepines (midazolam) and general anaesthesia have been the specific agents mentioned most frequently in the literature as being associated with the development of hiccups. Few cases of drug-induced hiccups have been reported related to macrolide antimicrobials. Using the Naranjo adverse effect reaction probability scale this event could be classified as possible (score 5 points), mostly because of the close temporal sequence, previous reports on this reaction with other macrolides and the absence of any alternative explanation for hiccups. Our hypothesis is that a vagal mechanism mediated by azithromycin could be the pathogenesis of hiccups in our patient.Conclusions:  Diagnosis of drug-induced hiccups is difficult and often achieved only by a process of elimination. However, macrolide antimicrobials have been reported to be associated with hiccups and vagal mechanism could explain the development of this side-effect.

Interventional spine procedures are nonsurgical interventions that are commonly used to treat acute and chronic pain. These procedures generally are considered to be safe, but patients may experience transient and minor complications. Hiccups previously have been reported in the pain management setting as a complication after lumbar and thoracic epidural steroid injections and an intrathecal morphine pump infusion. In this case series of 8 patients, we describe hiccups after various interventional procedures, including cervical and lumbar epidural steroid injections, facet joint injections, and sacroiliac joint injections. A comprehensive literature review of hiccups associated with interventional pain procedures is provided, along with the known pathophysiology, etiologies, and treatment options for hiccups. The objective of this case series presentation and literature review is to highlight the importance of recognizing hiccups as a potentially under-reported adverse reaction in the setting of various interventional spine procedures.

This study aims to examine how teachers’ mathematical and pedagogical knowledge develop as they learn to use a multi-representational technological tool, the TI-Nspire handheld device and computer software.  It is conducted as an enquiry into the learning trajectories of a group of secondary mathematics teachers as they begin to use the device with a focus on their interpretations of mathematical variance and invariance. The research is situated within an English secondary school setting and it seeks to reveal how teachers’ ideas shape, and are shaped by, their use of the technology through a scrutiny of the lesson artefacts, semi-structured interviews and lesson observations. Analysis of the data reveals the importance of the idea of the ‘hiccup’; that is the perturbation experienced by teachers during lessons stimulated by their use of the technology, which illuminates discontinuities within teachers’ knowledge. The study concludes that the use of such a multi-representational tool can substantially change the way in which both the teachers and their students perceive the notions of variance and invariance within dynamic mathematical environments. Furthermore, the study classifies the types of perturbations that underpin this conclusion. The study also contributes to the discourse on the design of mathematical problems and their associated instrumentation schemes in which linked multiple representations offer a new environment for developing mathematical meanings. This thesis makes an original contribution to understanding what and how teachers learn about the concept of mathematical variance and invariance within a technological environment.
KEYWORDS
Hiccup, instrumental genesis, mathematics education, mathematical generalisation, multiple representational technology, teacher development, variance and invariance.

Chronic hiccup is an infrequent but distressing symptom in patients with advanced cancer. A series of drugs (chlorpromazine, haloperidol, nifedipine, metoclopramide, baclofen) have been used to treat hiccup without definitive results. Some authors have suggested a possible role of baclofen in the treatment of chronic hiccup. We report three cases of chronic hiccup in patients with cancer successfully treated with baclofen.

Optic neuropathy and transverse myelitis (TM) are common symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) but may also be seen in association with the antibody-mediated autoimmune disorder, neuromyelitis optica (NMO). We report a female patient presenting with intractable vomiting and hiccups and TM shortly followed by an acute encephalopathy, most likely due to NMO spectrum disorder. Serum and cerebrospinal fluid NMO antibodies were negative. Serial MRI abnormalities included longitudinally extensive TM of the cervical cord, focal T2-weighted hyperintensity of the area postrema and lesions in both thalami and the hypothalamus. Clinical and MRI involvement of these brain regions, which have high aquaporin expression, in conjunction with a spinal lesion extending over three vertebral segments strongly favoured a diagnosis of NMO. She required several courses of intravenous methylprednisolone and plasmapheresis before receiving intravenous rituximab therapy. NMO spectrum disorder should be conside...

Epidural steroid injections are commonly used to treat lumbosacral radicular and discogenic pain. When used in this manner, these agents can cause minor, transient systemic side effects and rarely result in any serious complications. Because adverse reactions are uncommon and transient, epidural injections are considered a safe therapeutic intervention. We describe the first case of persistent hiccups as a consequence of a thoracic epidural steroid injection in a patient with thoracic discogenic pain.

Although common and usually benign, hiccups can be an extremely uncomfortable disease. There is not much information about persistent and refractory hiccups. To report clinical features of patients admitted in a hospital due to hiccup. A retrospective study and prospective follow up of patients admitted for hiccup in Hospital Clínico de Santiago de Compostela between January 1998 and May 2005. Twenty four patients (age 47 to 91 years, 23 males) were studied. Nineteen (79%) were admitted because of persistent hiccups. In twenty one patients, at inverted exclamation markeast one organic etiology was identified, and thirteen patients presented two or more possible associated conditions. The most common possible causes were digestive tract disorders, followed by central nervous system diseases. Twelve patients had a history of exposure to drugs that potentially could cause hiccups, mainly corticosteroids and benzodiazepines. Chlorpromazine was the first choice treatment in 23 patients, ...

We explored a possible link between the cardiac cycle and the timing of recurrent hiccups in 10 patients with chronic, intractable hiccups. Recordings made during daytime naps in a sleep laboratory included sleep state; electrocardiogram; and respiration by means of a thermistor to detect airflow, bands around the rib cage and abdomen to assess expansion, and a bipolar surface electrode electromyogram over parasternal intercostal muscles. Hiccups could be detected on the abdominal bands and the parasternal electromyogram. The time of occurrence of each hiccup and each R wave in a continuous tracing of 100 or more hiccups were recorded and analyzed together with semiquantitive estimates of the phase of hiccup respiration. Whereas the hiccup rate ranged from approximately one-third to one-eighth of heart rate and was more variable than heart rate, hiccups showed a tendency, stronger in some subjects than others, to occur in midsystole. Variation in R-wave-R-wave (R-R) interval in asso...