Citation

Kasamo K, Okuhata Y, Satoh R, Ikeda M, Takahashi S, Kamata R, Nogami Y, Kojima T. Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 1993; 243(2): 71-74.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF02191567

PMID

8218429

Abstract

A 31-year-old male technician in an electroplating factory, who had been suffering from the temporal lobe epilepsy for 24 years and from hypertension for 2 years, took an unknown amount of potassium cyanide apparently over the lethal dose, in an attempt to commit suicide. He was treated successfully and survived without any neurological sequelae. The electroencephalograms and the nature of the seizures were not different before and after the poisoning. The T2-weighted magnetic resonance images at 9 and 51 days after the poisoning showed bilateral elevation of signals in the caudate nuclei and the putamina. At the 143th and 286th days. T2-weighted high-resonance areas were restricted to the lateral portion of the putamina. The T1-weighted images at the 51st day showed abnormal signal elevations in both putamina, while those of 9th, 143th and 286th days were mainly normal. Selective vulnerability of the putamen and the caudate nucleus may be due to their specific structural properties of high oxygen and glucose utilization, and enzyme distribution. Both chronological changes of striatal damage and the absence of neurological sequelae in this patient suggest the possibility that anti-epileptics and a calcium antagonist played a neuroprotective role in the acute cyanide intoxication.

Language: en

Keywords

Adult; Basal Ganglia; Brain Diseases; Carbamazepine; Corpus Striatum; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Nifedipine; Phenobarbital; Phenytoin; Potassium Cyanide; Suicide, Attempted