Step I Treatment for Giardiasis

Started by Cliff Huxtable
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Cliff Huxtable said:
What is it?

FA says Metronidazole but I thought it was Bismuth?
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Giardiasis and C. difficile infections are classically tx w/ metronidazole (Flagyl is the brand name).

Metronidazole, by the way, has an important MOA that, while not well elucidated, may be a Board question:

MOA: Diffuses into the organism and causes loss of helical DNA structure as well as strand breakage, which leads to inhibition of protein synthesis.

Buzz words: mountain streams and day-care centers for giardiasis.
Clindamycin, erythromycin use (C. diff overgrowth); pseudomembranes / white sticky membranes on colonoscopy
 
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theophylline said:
Giardiasis and C. difficile infections are classically tx w/ metronidazole (Flagyl is the brand name).

Metronidazole, by the way, has an important MOA that, while not well elucidated, may be a Board question:

MOA: Diffuses into the organism and causes loss of helical DNA structure as well as strand breakage, which leads to inhibition of protein synthesis.

Buzz words: mountain streams and day-care centers for giardiasis.
Clindamycin, erythromycin use (C. diff overgrowth); pseudomembranes / white sticky membranes on colonoscopy
Click to expand...

Metronidazole is also used as a first-line treatment against anaerobes in general. So not just C-diff, you should also be thinking it if they ask about abdominal sepsis or Bacteroides infections.
 
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theophylline said:
Giardiasis and C. difficile infections are classically tx w/ metronidazole (Flagyl is the brand name).

Metronidazole, by the way, has an important MOA that, while not well elucidated, may be a Board question:

MOA: Diffuses into the organism and causes loss of helical DNA structure as well as strand breakage, which leads to inhibition of protein synthesis.

Buzz words: mountain streams and day-care centers for giardiasis.
Clindamycin, erythromycin use (C. diff overgrowth); pseudomembranes / white sticky membranes on colonoscopy
Click to expand...

Just to speak to the MOA of metronidazole a bit more: it's anaerobes and protozoa that are able to reduce the drug's azo group, which results in free radical formation (and activation of the drug) and subsequent DNA damage, leading to bacteriostasis.
 
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