Ergotism: a change of persepective.

Cerebral manifestations of ergotism. Report of a case and review of the literature.

A patient with diffuse and focal cerebral dysfunction was found to have absent peripheral pulses. Cerbral angiography revealed evidence of an arteritis with bilateral high grade carotid stenosis. When there was no laboratory confirmation of the arteritis, an iatrogenic etiology (ergotism) was suspected. This was later confirmed by the patient. The pertinent literature on ergotism is reviewed, a...

Ergot intoxication: historical review and description of unusual clinical manifestations.

Clinical ergotism as seen today results almost exclusively from the excessive intake of ergotamine tartrate in the treatment of migraine headache. Although both gangrenous and convulsive symptoms are seen in naturally occurring ergotism resulting from the ingestion of fungus infected rye, only gangrenous ergotism has been reported following the excessive ingestion of ergotamine tartrate. The sy...

Ergotism masquerading as arteritis.

fits inside the box

Ergotism and the Salem Village witch trials.

Ergotism unresponsive to multiple therapeutic modalities, including sodium nitroprusside, resulting in limb loss.

Unlike epidemics in past centuries, patients suffering from peripheral vascular ischemia related to ergotism now rarely lose a limb because of vasodilator therapies. We report a patient with ischemia from ergotamine tartrate who failed to recover with medical therapy, resulting in limb amputation.