Four seas network news, diarrhea, vomiting, leg burning, hair loss & hellip; & hellip; for half a month, Ms. Huang, 63, in Xiangtan City, has been suffering from a variety of unexpected diseases. She checked in the local hospital and failed to find out the cause. What's more strange is that Ms. Huang's husband has gradually developed similar symptoms. How is it that husband and wife fall ill at the same time hair to return a responsibility after all?
At the suggestion of friends, Ms. Huang and her husband came to Hunan occupational disease prevention and treatment hospital for further consultation. Lai Yan, chief physician of poisoning Medicine Department of the hospital, found that the content of a heavy metal element named "thallium" in the urine of Ms. Huang and her husband was as high as 7000 μ g / L, 1400 times of the normal value (not more than 5 μ g / L normally). Ms. Huang and her husband were diagnosed with thallium poisoning.
After the diagnosis, Lai Yan immediately carried out systematic treatment such as blood purification for Ms. Huang and her husband. The poisoning symptoms of Ms. Huang and her husband were obviously alleviated, and the thallium content in Ms. Huang's urine was also reduced to 1000 μ g / L at the time of admission. At present, both husband and wife are out of danger and will be able to recover and discharge after a period of treatment.
Thallium is a silvery white soft metal. Its aqueous solution is colorless, tasteless and odorless. Thallium is more toxic to mammals than lead and mercury, which is similar to arsenic. Thallium belongs to high toxicity category, and it is a strong neurotoxin. According to Lai Yan, thallium poisoning can cause acute gastroenteritis as early as possible, including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea; 2-5 days later, nervous system symptoms, numbness at the end of the patient's fingers (toes) accompanied by burning like pain, such as burning foot syndrome, which is also known as burning foot syndrome. Hair loss occurs in 1-3 weeks, and hair falls. If thallium poisoning is not treated in time, some patients may have acute thallium encephalitis, headache, drowsiness, insanity, hallucination, convulsion, tremor, delirium, coma, etc. Severe patients with pulmonary edema, dyspnea, respiratory failure, shock, etc., can die within a few days.
At present, thallium is mainly used in ore smelting processing, special glass manufacturing, rat medicine manufacturing, etc., which is hard for ordinary citizens to directly contact. It is understood that Ms. Huang and her husband have been running a small mahjong parlor since they retired. They have the habit of drinking a water glass together. As for the specific way of thallium intake, Lai said further investigation is needed.