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Mercury toxicity-Family case report

2011; Galenos Yayinevi; Linguagem: Inglês

10.5152/tjh.2011.16

1300-7777

Rahşan Yıldırım, Fuat Erdem, Mehmet Ali Gündoğdu, Yusuf Bilen, Ebru Koca, Yalcin Yillikoglu, Yaşar Nuri Şahin,

Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity

background: Environmental pollution exposes humans to toxic substances.Herein we present 5 family members aged 20-54 years that were poisoned by liquid mercury.Case Reports: Case 1 presented to our clinic with cough, fever, and night sweats.The patient had neutropenia, anemia, and pneumonia, rapidly developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and died on day 4 of hospitalization.Her WbC count was 0.4 × 10³ mm -3 (normal range: 4.3-10.3× 10 3 mm -3 ) and Hb was 10.8 g dl-1 (normal range: 11.5-16.0g dl-1).Case 2 presented with bicytopenia; the leukocyte count was 1.3 × 10 3 mm -3 (normal range: 4.3-10.3× 10 3 mm -3 ) and the PlT count was 88 × 10 3 mm -3 (normal range: 150-400 × 10 3 mm -3 ).Cases 2 and 3 had toxic peripheral neuropathy.The PlT count in case 3 was 123 × 10 3 mm -3 (normal range: 150-400 × 10 3 mm -3 ).Cases 4 and 5 presented with fatigue and headache; these 2 patients did not have positive findings, apart from high levels of mercury in the blood.We have written informed consent. Conclusion:We think that heavy metal exposure-although rare-should be considered in patients that present with numerous symptoms involving multiple systems, including the cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological systems.The present report is unique in that in describes mercury poisoning in 5 members of the same family.