Excretion kinetics of urinary metabolites in a patient addicted to richloroethylene.

Ikeda, M., Ohtsuji, H., Kawai, H., and Kuniyoshi, M. (1971). Brit. J. industr. Med., 28,203-206. Excretion kinetics of urinary metabolites in a patient addicted to trichloroethylene. A male Japanese subject, single, aged 38, who worked at a workshop washing metal parts with trichloroethylene, was admitted to our clinic due to addiction to the solvent. Analyses of urine revealed the presence of up to 160 ,tg/ml of trichloro-compounds (mostly trichloroacetic acid) which gradually disappeared in three weeks as the psychotic symptoms cleared up. The excretion half-lives of trichloroethylene metabolites for the initial rapid phase (succeeding slow phase in parentheses) were 5-8 (49 7) hours for trichloroethanol, 22 5 (72 6) hours for trichloroacetic acid, and 7-5 (72 6) hours for total trichloro-compounds.