Fetal methylmercury poisoning: new data on clinical and toxicological aspects
Before the widespread outbreak of methylmercury (MeHg) poisoning that occurred in Iraq during the winter of 1971 to 1972 due to the eating of MeHg-contaminated bread, the reported data on human fetal MeHg poisoning were restricted to 1 report by Y. Harada about a group of severely affected children in Japan and 1 case in the USA reported by R.D. Snyder. Since the mothers had few or no symptoms, the concept arose that in the pregnant woman the target organ for MeHg toxicity is the fetal brain. The affected children had severe psychomotor deficits. Appropriate analyses of maternal and infant index media were not available until the 1974 report of L. Amin-Zaki et al., which provided data on 15 mother-infant pairs who had been exposed to high levels of MeHg while the infant was in utero. The lowest blood mercury level in an infant with neurological signs was 564 ng/ml (or parts per-billion, ppB). The results reported here are part of an extension of the Amin-Zaki study that includes a larger number of children who were exposed to lower ranges of MeHg in utero and explores dose-response relationships in fetal MeHg poisoning by relating peak material hair mercury concentrations to neurological deficits in the children.
- OSTI ID:
- 5577126
- Journal Information:
- Trans. Am. Neurol. Assoc.; (United States), Vol. 102
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Fetal methylmercury poisoning: new data on clinical and toxicological aspects
Varying coefficient function models to explore interactions between maternal nutritional status and prenatal methylmercury toxicity in the Seychelles Child Development Nutrition Study
Related Subjects
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
CHILDREN
NERVOUS SYSTEM DISEASES
METHYLMERCURY
TOXICITY
BRAIN
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
FETUSES
HAIR
NEONATES
NEUROLOGY
PREGNANCY
ANIMALS
BODY
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
DISEASES
MAMMALS
MAN
MEDICINE
NERVOUS SYSTEM
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC MERCURY COMPOUNDS
ORGANS
PRIMATES
SKIN
VERTEBRATES
560306* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology- Man- (-1987)
550600 - Medicine