A 19-year-old woman was referred to the Emergency Surgery Department with severe abdominal pain, icterus, and anemia. The patient's clinical and paraclinical findings in addition to her occupational and social history, convinced us to assay blood lead level (BLL), which was 41/5 μg/dL. Therefore toxicology consult was performed to treat lead toxicity. Recheck of the BLL showed the level as 53/7...

Microorganisms in biofilms, cells attached to a surface and embedded in secreted insoluble extracellular polymers, are recalcitrant to chemical biocides and antibiotics. When Pseudomonas aeruginosa ERC1 biofilms were treated continuously with 1 x MIC of bismuth dimercaprol (BisBAL), biofilm density determined by both total cell counts and viable cell counts increased during the first 30 h perio...

For the treatment of acute poisoning from the inhalation of nickel carbonyl, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (Dithiocarb) has proved to be a specific antidote; tetraethylthiuram (Antabuse) is effective to a lesser degree; d-penicillamine and dimercaprol (BAL) have limited therapeutic value. For the treatment of nickel eczema and dermatitis, favorable response has been obtained by placing patients...

Intravenous mercury administration is a rare occurrence that is typically associated with accidental injections or suicide attempts. We report the case of a 42-year-old man who attempted suicide by injecting mercury into the left cubital vein. Upon arrival at the emergency department, he was in a state of alcohol intoxication and there were signs of vein puncture and cellulitis in his left arm....

Eye exposure to hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) acid can cause blindness. A 42-year-old man working in a plating operation presented the emergency department following workplace incident. He had unintentionally fallen into tank containing mixture of 25% Cr(VI) and sulfuric (2.0 g/L) at temperature approximately 40 °C. The dimensions were 8 (depth) × 4 (width) 3 (length) meters. colleague rescued h...

We show that N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has the ability to cause statistically significant diminishment in the in vitro formation of irreversibly sickled cells (ISCs) at concentrations greater than 250 micromol/L. Other antioxidants, approved for human use (cysteamine, succimer, dimercaprol), were not efficacious. NAC had the ability to cause statistically significant conversion of ISCs formed in v...

Chelation therapy is the preferred medical treatment for reducing the toxic effects of metals. Chelating agents are capable of binding to toxic metal ions to form complex structures which are easily excreted from the body removing them from intracellular or extracellular spaces. 2,3-Dimercaprol has long been the mainstay of chelation therapy for lead or arsenic poisoning, however its serious si...