Citation

Hovda KE, Lao YE, Gadeholt G, Jacobsen D. Basic Clin. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Nordic Pharmacological Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/bcpt.13597

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Methanol poisoning kills thousands of people every year and remains a diagnostic challenge, especially where the resources are scarce, but also in high-income countries worldwide. We are in the course of developing a bedside strip to detect formate - the toxic metabolite of methanol. We hereby present the first clinical methanol case where formate was detected bedside from a drop of blood: The patient, a 61-year-old male, was admitted with a suspect methanol poisoning and severe metabolic acidosis. The test strip was positive after 3 minutes. Sodium bicarbonate (500mmol/L), fomepizole, dialysis, and folinic acid were given based on the positive test. The diagnosis was some hours later confirmed by GC-MS, showing a methanol concentration of 62 mmol/L (200 mg/dL) and a formate concentration of 19 mmol/L. Implementation of this technology into routine clinical use can potentially offer an opportunity for a step-change in the management of methanol poisoning.

Language: en

Keywords

analytical methods; clinical toxicology; toxicological agents; Toxicological methods