RESUMEN

This study presents two cases of lethal bentazone poisonings, their clinical presentation, the course of the disease and the autopsy findings. The first is a 50-year-old male who had sprayed corn with a solution of bentazone and was admitted to the hospital with sweating, fever, nausea, vomiting of aqueous and hemorrhagic content, and bloody, watery stools. He was treated according to the symptoms including extracorporeal hemodialysis, but eventually suffered from multiorgan failure (acute respiratory failure, acute liver failure, coagulopathy, acute renal failure, metabolic acidosis, and gastrointestinal bleeding) and died 11.35 h after admittance. The cause of death was probable bentazone intoxication. The second case, also a male, aged 49 who committed suicide by ingesting a bentazone solution. He was transferred to the hospital prostrated and cyanotic and died 14.15 h after admittance despite all efforts by the hospital staff. The cause of death was acute bentazone intoxication.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method with solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed and validated for the detection and quantitation of bentazone and its two hydroxylated metabolites, 6-hydroxybentazone and 8-hydroxybentazone, in postmortem blood. Sample cleanup was performed using a hydrophilic-lipophilic balanced (HLB) SPE cartridge and then separated on a C18 LC column using a gradient elution of 0.1% formic acid in distilled water and 0.1% formic acid in methanol. The identification of bentazone and its hydroxylated metabolites was performed using tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization in negative ion mode with selective reaction monitoring. The retention times of bentazone, 6-hydroxybentazone, 8-hydroxybentazone, and 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA, internal standard) appeared separately in the chromatogram. The matrix effect, recovery, and process efficiency of bentazone were 75.3%, 103.6% and 77.9%, respectively. In addition, good accuracy (88.2-110.5%), precision (0.5-7.5%, bias), and linearity (5-500ng/mL) were obtained with this method. The limit of detection (LOD) of bentazone, 6-hydroxybentazone, and 8-hydroxybentazone were 0.05, 0.5, and 0.5ng/mL, respectively. The method developed herein was applied to authentic samples from three fatal cases from 2016 for the determination of the corresponding bentazone and its metabolites levels. The concentration ranges of bentazone, 6-hydroxybentazone, and 8-hydroxybentazone in the heart blood from the three victims were 46.0-91.8, 4.2-6.2, and 0.2-0.6µg/mL, respectively.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Bentazone is a herbicide widely used in the agrochemical field and acts by interference in photosynthesis in plants. Case reports of bentazone poisoning in humans are rare, but hepatorenal damage and death have been described, though the mechanism of toxicity remains speculative. We describe 2 cases of acute bentazone poisoning and compare these with other literature reports. The clinical picture included nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain with gastrointestinal corrosive injury, dyspnea and acute hepatorenal dysfunction. Respiratory failure, acute hepatitis, acute renal failure requiring hemodialysis, and death occurred following a large ingested dose of 1,764 mg/kg. Bentazone may have direct organ toxicity, especially in liver and kidney, in subjects with renal hypoperfusion, rhabdomyolysis, preexisting renal disease or concomitant nephrotoxic drug consumption. Aggressive supportive therapy, hydration and measures to prevent renal hypoperfusion are essential to reverse acute renal failure.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A 59-year-old woman who intentionally ingested 100-200 ml Basagran was taken to the hospital with a cardiac arrest 2 days after she had consumed the herbicide. During this period she suffered vomiting, urination and diarrhoea and she was drowsy with a muddled speech. Biological samples obtained at the autopsy were analysed and presence of bentazone, alcohol and an active metabolite of citalopram were detected. Blood concentrations of bentazone, alcohol and desmethyl-citalopram were 625 mg/kg, 0.62 g/l and 0.03 mg/kg, respectively.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A case of fatal suicidal bentazon poisoning is presented along with a description of the different analytical methods involved. A 56-year-old farmer was examined by the family doctor 1 h after voluntarily ingesting 500 mL of FIGHTER (bentazon, 480 g/L water). He presented a Glasgow score of 15, polypnea, diarrhea, and vomiting. During transport by ambulance to the hospital, he tossed, sweated, and suddenly presented breathing difficulty followed by heart failure. Tracheal intubation was impossible (H1.5) despite use of different diameter cannulas because of extreme general muscle rigidity. All attempts at resuscitation failed, and the patient died within 2 h postingestion. Blood and urine samples were taken just before death. General basic and neutral drug screening by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode-array detection and gas chromatography-nitrogen-phosphorus detection showed no strychnine or other drugs or toxics except for citalopram (< 0.1 mg/L) and bentazon, but this weak acidic molecule (pKa3.3) was badly extracted in alkaline conditions. Plasma and urine levels, measured after acidic extraction, protein precipitation, or simple dilution, were 1500 and 1000 mg/L, respectively. Bentazon (M.W. 240) was confirmed by its basic mass spectrum (ESI-, m/z 239, 197, 175, 132) or by that of methylated derivative (El+, m/z 254, 212, 175). An hydroxylated metabolite (ESI-, m/z 255, 213, 191, 148; El+, m/z 284, 242, 163) and the N1-glucuronide conjugate of bentazon (ESI-, m/z 415, 239) were also detected in urine. (Quantitation ions are underlined.) This first case of bentazon poisoning with available analytical data revealed the high toxicity of this compound after large dose ingestion with early and heavy symptoms such as muscle rigidity probably related to muscular toxicity. Comparison with another nonfatal case and with toxicological data on animals is discussed.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A 27-year-old robust man, without any medical and surgical history, attempted to commit suicide by consumption of 300 cc (44.1%, 132.3 g) basagran, a readily available herbicide. This poisoning resulted in vomiting, fever, sweating, pipe-like muscle rigidity, sinus tachycardia, drowsiness, leukocytosis, rhabdomyolysis and hepatorenal damage. Emperical treatment with bromocriptine was temporally associated with resolution of above signs and symptoms. His clinical presentations and the effect of bromocriptine may be indicative that basagran poisoning mimicks neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Hematological changes at poisoning with the bentazone herbicide manufactured by the Research Institute of Chemical Technology in Bratislava were investigated in sheep of the Slovak Merino breed. Acute intoxication in seven head of sheep was induced by a single application of bentazone with cannula at a sublethal dose of 1,450 mg/kg live weight. Bentazone was diluted with sunflower oil at a ratio 1:5. Subchronic intoxication was induced by an administration of bentazone in feed to the sheep for 84 days: a dose of 175 mg/kg live weight (1/10 of LD50) for the first experimental group (six head), and a dose of 97.5 mg/kg live weight (1/12 of LD50) for the second experimental group (six head). The control group did not receive any dietary bentazone. Acute intoxication with herbicide did not cause any statistically significant changes in hemoglobin, erythrocyte and leucocyte counts in the sheep within 120 hours after application. In comparison with the physiological standard, a slight increase in the percentage of neutrophils and a decrease in the lymphocyte percentage were observed. The values of eosinophils, basophils and monocytes remained unchanged. Observation of subchronic intoxication did not reveal any significant negative effect of the two doses of the herbicide within 84 days on the hematological parameters. Our experiments demonstrate that bentazone does not negatively influence blood formation.

Asunto(s)

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A three-month feeding trial was conducted with sheep of the Slovak Merino breed (13-14 months of age, males and females) as a part of the obligatory toxicological tests of the Czechoslovak developmental herbicide bentazone (Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Bratislava). Partial results are shown describing the action of this herbicide on the overall health of sheep with respect to weight gains, trias values and intrauterine foetus development. The sheep of the first experimental group were fed bentazone as an additive to molasses feed M at a daily rate of 195 mg/kg lwt. (1/10 from LD50), and the sheep of the second group were fed a rate of 97.5 mg/kg lwt. (1/20 from LD50). No symptoms of the toxic effects of bentazone were observed in the course of the experiment. There were no differences between the experimental and test animals in the dynamics of pulse value changes (Fig. 1), breathing value changes (Fig. 2) and body temperature value changes (Fig. 3) from the beginning till the end of the trial. A slight increase in the pulse and breathing values above the upper reference value observed in the experimental groups in the last two to three weeks of the trial cannot be associated with the bentazone action. This increase reflects the physiological condition of the animals in the given conditions because the identical changes were also found in the control group. We assume that the changes were evoked by the elevated temperature of the external environment due to the fact that the sheep were not sheared.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Asunto(s)