RESUMO
Adverse effects of acute exposure to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are well documented, but long-term effects of occupational exposure to low levels of the gas are not. To evaluate effects of such exposure we performed physical, neurologic, psychiatric, and chemosensory (smell and taste) examinations of four workers who were present but did not lose consciousness when the gas was accidentally released at a construction site. None of the four workers tested positive for functional problems, but all met diagnostic criteria for at least three, and up to eight, H2S-induced neuropsychiatric clinical disorders and from zero to two subclinical disorders. All four had abnormal P300 evoked responses (electrical neurophysiologic tests of brain waves). Our data indicate that exposures to even relatively low concentrations of H2S are hazardous. A rigorous epidemiologic investigation of persons who work with H2S is warranted.
Assuntos
Acidentes de Trabalho , Poluentes Atmosféricos/efeitos adversos , Sulfeto de Hidrogênio/efeitos adversos , Doenças Profissionais/induzido quimicamente , Exposição Ocupacional/efeitos adversos , Doenças do Sistema Nervoso Autônomo/induzido quimicamente , Encefalopatias/induzido quimicamente , Transtornos Cognitivos/induzido quimicamente , Doenças dos Nervos Cranianos/induzido quimicamente , Potenciais Evocados P300/efeitos dos fármacos , Cefaleia/induzido quimicamente , Humanos , Doenças do Nervo Óptico/induzido quimicamente , Polineuropatias/induzido quimicamente , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/etiologia , Ilhas Virgens Americanas , Nervo Vestibulococlear/efeitos dos fármacosRESUMO
Misoprostol, a synthetic analog of prostaglandin, has been widely used in Brazil as an abortifacient. Abortion is illegal in Brazil. An uncertain number of these abortion attempts are unsuccessful and the pregnancy continues. We report on 7 patients whose mothers attempted to abort using this drug in the first trimester of gestation without success. The 7 patients presented with limb defects and in 4 of them a diagnosis of Möbius sequence was made.