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Trump rally shooting casts shadow over Canadian political scene
The shadow of violence in the United States will be hanging over Canada's political scene this week in the wake of an attempted assassination on former president Donald Trump.
In an unusual case study, a woman developed a black and hairy tongue after cancer treatment.
The rare phenomenon was described in a new paper published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Case Reports last month.
Doctors were first alerted to the issue when a woman in her 60s presented to a health-care facility for the treatment of hepatitis B. While doctors were assessing her, they noticed that she had grey, mottled patches on her skin that had not been there when she previously was at the facility three months earlier.
Upon further examination, they discovered that she had a patch of black pigmentation covering much of her tongue, and the bumps on her tongue had become prominent and hair-like.
Her tongue didn’t just look different than usual — it was painful as well, she told doctors.
A photo of the reaction shows a woman with a grey cast to her skin sticking out her tongue to show that it had changed colour, with darkness spreading out from the centre of her tongue like a stain.
She was diagnosed with black hairy tongue (BHT), which is a rare but reversible condition in which the tongue bumps (papillae) elongate and there is discolouration on the surface of the tongue.
The cause? A recent change in her cancer medication, according to the case report.
The woman has a 14 month history of post-operative chemotherapy for cancer with liver metastases, the report said, which had been undergone at a different hospital. But in the last four months, her chemotherapy was switched to new medications: panitumumab with irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil.
Although these are common medications associated with cancer and chemotherapy, the woman was also prescribed 100mg/day of minocycline to prevent skin lesions that can be caused by panitumumab.
At first, doctors were uncertain what the source was, as it could have been either the minocycline or the panitumumab that caused her BHT and hyper-pigmentation.
Both have been linked to BHT before, although the link between antibiotics such as minocycline is clearer. The facial hyper-pigmentation separate from the BHT led doctors to lean more towards minocycline, as it can lead to skin discolouration, with a 3-15 per cent incidence rate as a side effect.
She was immediately taken off of minocycline, and was given trifluridine and tipiracil hydrochloride plus bevacizumab combination therapy instead.
Her pigmentation and BHT had cleared up significantly at a check-in six weeks later, with the skin returned to a healthier tone and only a slight darkness remaining at the centre of the tongue.
According to the Mayo Clinic, BHT is a temporary and usually harmless oral condition in which the tongue takes on a “dark, furry appearance.” Part of the problem is a buildup of dead skin cells on the papillae, which can trap bacteria which exacerbates the discolouration. Possible causes include changes in the normal oral bacteria after antibiotic use, but BHT can also be caused by poor oral hygiene, overuse of mouthwashes with irritants such as peroxide, tobacco use and even eating too many soft foods that don’t allow dead skin cells to be sloughed off of the tongue due to friction.
The shadow of violence in the United States will be hanging over Canada's political scene this week in the wake of an attempted assassination on former president Donald Trump.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., as the suspect in Saturday's attempted assassination of former U.S. president Donald Trump at a campaign rally.
The University of British Columbia is investigating a now-deleted social media post from one of its faculty members that appeared to be wishing an assassination attempt on Donald Trump had been successful.
For some airline passengers, flying can be a daunting and stressful journey. For others, it's a welcome experience to see the world from hundreds of feet high. CTVNews.ca spoke with a Canadian flight attendant to find out what he wouldn't advise passengers to do before and during flights.
King Charles III is preparing to visit Australia and Samoa in October, an itinerary that will span 12 time zones and test the monarch’s stamina as he recovers from cancer treatment.
The LCBO has reversed its plan to open select stores on Friday as retail workers continue to strike across the province, according to a statement from the Crown corporation on Sunday.
A volunteer human chain was walking the water’s edge in Port Stanley, Ont. Sunday in search of a boy went missing in Lake Erie. Around 2:30 p.m. OPP and Central Elgin Fire were dispatched to the main beach after a 14 year old entered the water and did not resurface.
Argentina won its second straight Copa America championship, overcoming Lionel Messi’s second-half leg injury to beat Colombia 1-0.
An apparent assassination attempt has many questioning how a shooting that wounded former U.S. president Donald Trump was even possible.
A rare ammonite fossil – about 75 million years old - has been discovered in eastern Saskatchewan.
Seven-year-old goalie Hudson Hardill is an unlikely Calgary Flames fan, being that he lives in Peterborough, Ont., and his dad Chris is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
A WestJet employee's chance encounter on a recent flight spiced up her life in a big way.
A Kelowna, B.C., man says he's always liked gnomes because they have a 'bit of mystery' to them. And he recently got a taste of that whimsy when his garden gnomes disappeared, and came back to him in a peculiar fashion.
After more than 50 years, Toronto's iconic 'Leslieville dollhouse' will soon have a new owner.
One man is bringing a blast from the past to a Winnipeg community.
Some say a photograph is simply a memory frozen in time – and a high school graduation photo taken in Churchill, Man. takes that adage to a completely new level.
A rising track and field star overcame a big hurdle in his dream to represent Canada at the Olympics.
Would-be homebuyers who backed out of a deal to purchase a B.C. property in a hot real estate market have been ordered to pay the seller the difference between what they offered and what he was able to sell the home for when the market cooled.