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Short answer question case series: the perils of urine toxicology testing
  1. Moses Graubard,
  2. Paul Rohdenberg,
  3. Timothy Jang
  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Torrance, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Timothy B Jang, Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 1000 W Carson St, Torrance, CA 90509, USA; tbj{at}ucla.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2011-200276

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    Case vignette

    A 32-year-old man is brought in by ambulance with altered mental status. He has pinpoint pupils that are minimally reactive, and apnoea. He receives high-dose naloxone with improvement in his respiratory status. Upon awaking, he states that someone slipped him a ‘mickey,’ but his friends believe he ingested some ‘old pain pills’ on the night of presentation. An hour later, the patient is found to be apnoeic and difficult to arouse, despite a normal blood glucose level. Consequently, further investigation is pursued with a normal head CT, blood chemistry tests, cerebrospinal fluid analysis and urine toxicology testing. The patient is given additional naloxone and awakens again.

    Key questions

    1. What is a ‘mickey’ and would it show up on a urine toxicology screen?

    2. What are the chances this patient had opioid toxicity given that he had a normal urine toxicology screen?

    3. Does the response to naloxone help us with the diagnosis?

    4. Is there a role for flumazenil in this case?

    5. How should this patient be further managed?

    Discussion

    1. ‘Mickey’ is a term for an alcoholic beverage laced with a sedative-hypnotic …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.