Histo-Pathological Findings and Their Relationship With Age, Gender and Toxin Amounts in Paraquat Intoxication Publisher



Mood NE¹ ; Sabzghabaee AM¹ ; Ghodousi A² ; Yaraghi A¹ ; Massoumi G⁴ ; Shemshaki HR³
Source: Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences Published:2013

Abstract

Objective: Acute paraquat (PQ) poisoning which is taken either to commit suicide or by mistake has become a social concern worldwide. The present study was conducted to determine the histo-pathological findings in deceased PQ poisoning patients and evaluate their relationship with age, gender, amounts of ingested PQ, time from ingestion to admission. Methodology: Forty-two patients of PQ poisoning with positive urinary dithionate test were included in the study. Deceased patients underwent autopsy and their histo-pathological findings were examined. Results: The mean age of men and women were 29.06 ±10.6 and 16.66 ± 4.6 years respectively. Hepatocellular damage (60%), Tubular nephritis (60%) and pulmonary edema (50%) were the main pathological lesions. Logistic regression analyses identified the following significant predictors for poisoning-related liver lesions: age more than 20 years [odds ratio (OR), 13.75; 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.48 - 127.47], and ingested paraquat amounts more than 30 mg /kg (OR, 16; 95% CI, 1.32 - 194.62). There was also a significant correlation between liver lesions and age (Correlation Coefficient, 0.50; P value, 0.024); gender (Correlation Coefficient, 0.57; P value, 0.008); amount of ingested PQ (Correlation Coefficient, 0.55; P value, 0.012). There were no correlations between lung and kidney histopathological lesions with different variables. Conclusion: Age, amount of ingested PQ, and gender are important parameters which may correlate with histopathological liver lesions in deceased PQ poisoning patients.