Educational Case: Ethylene Glycol Poisoning

[Ethylene glycol poisoning].

Although an uncommon cause of death in Great Britain, ethylene glycol poisoning is potentially serious in that renal and cardiopulmonary failure and central nervous system dysfunction can occur when doses of the order of 100 ml or more are ingested. A case is described in which a child who swallowed approximately 100 ml of ethylene glycol was treated by prolonged peritoneal dialysis. In additio...

A severe and fatal case of ethylene glycol poisoning.

A severe and fatal case of ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) poisoning in an unidentified vagrant man is reported and discussed. The case demonstrates the typical complications associated with this type of poisoning, in particular severe metabolic acidosis, acute renal failure and a deep comatose state. The importance of early diagnosis, aggressive treatment and intensive nursing care in order to o...

Current management of ethylene glycol poisoning.

Ethylene glycol, a common antifreeze, coolant and industrial solvent, is responsible for many instances of accidental and intentional poisoning annually. Following ingestion, ethylene glycol is first hepatically metabolised to glycoaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase. Glycoaldehyde is then oxidised to glycolic acid, glyoxylic acid and finally oxalic acid. While ethylene glycol itself causes intox...

Ethylene glycol poisoning and lactate concentrations.

We were interested to read the article by Manini et al. (1), which confirmed previous observations that a severe ethylene glycol poisoning may lead to falsely elevated lactate levels (2). High lactate levels were indeed measured by enzymatic spectrophotometry (Integra analyzer) but excluded by a specific GC analysis. A linear correlation was nicely demonstrated between the serially determined b...

Urine fluorescence in ethylene glycol poisoning.