Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2021; 9(19): 5082-5091
Published online Jul 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i19.5082
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
Core Tip

Core Tip: Thallium poisoning is rare and easily to be misdiagnosed. In this study, dysesthesia of limbs, hyperalgesia, and abdominalgia were the main initial symptoms of the five patients who had a thallium-contaminating meal together. The diagnosis was confirmed by high thallium concentrations in the blood and urine samples which were detected 8 to 12 d after exposure. We found that early treatment with the combination of hemoperfusion and Prussian blue significantly decreased the concentration of thallium in the body and improved the prognosis. Our study provided valuable experiences on early diagnosis and therapeutic regimen for thallium-poisoned patients.