Misidentification of propionic acid as ethylene glycol in a patient with methylmalonic acidemia.
Reexamination of serum from a child thought to have died of ethylene glycol poisoning showed that the child had methylmalonic acidemia. The gas chromatographic peak identified as ethylene glycol by a clinical laboratory was actually due to propionic acid. Proof of a metabolic basis for the child's symptoms eventually exonerated his mother of the charge of murder.
Shoemaker
J D
JD
E. A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, St. Louis University Medical Center, MO 63104.
Lynch
R E
RE
Hoffmann
J W
JW
Sly
W S
WS
D000138:Acidosis / Q000139:chemically induced; D000592:Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors / Q000175:diagnosis; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D019855:Ethylene Glycol; D005026:Ethylene Glycols / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008764:Methylmalonic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D011041:Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis; D011422:Propionates / Q000097:blood*
D005026:Ethylene Glycols; D011422:Propionates; D008764:Methylmalonic Acid; D019855:Ethylene Glycol; C029658:propionic acid