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©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Early diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of five patients with acute thallium poisoning
Ting-Ting Wang, Bing Wen, Xiu-Nan Yu, Zhang-Ge Ji, Yi-Yong Sun, Ying Li, Shou-Lian Zhu, Yong-Liang Cao, Mei Wang, Xiang-Dong Jian, Tan Wang
Ting-Ting Wang, Xiu-Nan Yu, Zhang-Ge Ji, Yi-Yong Sun, Ying Li, Shou-Lian Zhu, Yong-Liang Cao, Mei Wang, Department of Neurology, Zibo Municipal Hospital, Zibo 255400, Shandong Province, China
Bing Wen, Department of Neurology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China
Xiang-Dong Jian, Department of Poisoning and Occupational Diseases, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China
Tan Wang, Department of Geriatrics, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China
Tan Wang, Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Proteomics of Shandong Province, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Wang TT and Wen B analyzed and interpreted the patient data and designed the follow-up work; Yu XN, Ji ZG, Sun YY, Li Y, Zhu SL, Cao YL, and Wang M provided the patient data; Jian XD supervised the data collection and the conduct of follow-up; Wang T analyzed the data and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81701058; Shandong Academy of Sciences, No. ZR2017PH027; and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 2017M612288.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Science and Research Office of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Tan Wang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Geriatrics, Qilu hospital of Shandong University, No. 107 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China. olivelwang@sdu.edu.cn
Received: February 6, 2021
Peer-review started: February 6, 2021
First decision: March 25, 2021
Revised: March 27, 2021
Accepted: May 17, 2021
Article in press: May 17, 2021
Published online: July 6, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Acute thallium poisoning is rare and hard to identify. Patients with thallium poisoning are usually misdiagnosed at the early stage and develop permanent sequelae.
Research motivation
We hope that this study can provide a reference for the early diagnosis and treatment of patients with acute thallium poisoning.
Research objectives
To analyze the clinical characteristics of five patients with early diagnosis of acute thallium poisoning, and to evaluate the efficacy of treatments and outcomes.
Research methods
The symptoms, treatment, and outcomes of five patients with acute thallium poisoning after consuming a thallium-contaminated meal were recorded and analyzed.
Research results
Patients with acute thallium poisoning developed hyperalgesia of the limbs and abdominalgia, which may differ from common peripheral neuropathy. With early diagnosis and intervention, only one patient developed serious sequelae during the 24-mo follow-up.
Research conclusions
Identification of incident cluster and characteristic symptoms is crucial for the early diagnosis of acute thallium poisoning. Hemoperfusion and Prussian blue could be an effective therapeutic option to improve the prognosis of acute thallium-poisoned patients.
Research perspectives
More patients should be observed with a control group to make the conclusions more reliable.
