End Organ Toxicities of Adverse Drug Reactions

Many commonly prescribed medications are capable of causing organ specific adverse effects that can involve every organ system of the body. This situation presents the clinician with a diagnostic problem, since the drug-induced illness often mimics the clinical - disease. Clinicians must be alert to the possibility that drugs can cause or exacerbate any disease. In order to assess effectively the possibility of an illness being a result of an adverse drug reaction, it is necessary to recognize the manifestations of that drug's adverse effects and indict the drug on the basis of its use and the subsequent development of illness. This article reviews the organ-specific toxicities of drugs known to affect the liver, kidney, blood and bone marrow, and ear.