Citation

Zivot U, Castorena JL, Garriott JC. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 1993; 14(1): 51-53.

Affiliation

Bexar County Forensic Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78207.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8493970

Abstract

We report a case of suicide due to organophosphate poisoning in an 80-year-old woman who ingested malathion mixed with a fruit drink. She presented with signs and symptoms of cholinergic crisis and initially improved with therapy. Her plasma cholinesterase (ChE) level remained low, her course progressively deteriorated with respiratory and renal failure, and she died 12 days after hospital admission. The antemortem blood malathion level of 23.9 mg/L is the highest reported in the literature, as determined by modern methods. Postmortem toxicologic analysis revealed still greatly reduced ChE activity.

Language: en