Background: Drug interactions may cause diverse clinical symptoms.
Material and methods: A case history.
Results: A 58-year-old man was admitted to hospital with suspected stroke. It turned out that his neurological symptoms were caused by phenytoin intoxication. The patient had previously taken phenytoin for epilepsy for nine years without being intoxicated. Hospital records revealed that he had received ticlopidine for two weeks in connection with a coronary stent procedure five to seven weeks earlier. The probable cause of the phenytoin intoxication was interaction between ticlopidine and phenytoin.
Interpretation: This case history demonstrates that apparently unrelated drugs may interact and result in serious toxicity.