Persistent mercury in nerve cells 16 years after metallic mercury poisoning.
A male subject, after exposure to mercury metal at work in 1968, developed classical signs of mercurialism from which he made a slow clinical recovery. He subsequently developed psychoneurotic symptoms and became an alcoholic; he never returned to work and died in 1984. No histological changes relevant to mercury intoxication were found in the brain, but staining by Danscher & Schroeder's method for mercury showed many positively staining lysosomal dense bodies in a large proportion of nerve cells, and the presence of mercury was confirmed by elemental X-ray analysis. The mercury content of the brain was increased, much of it being present in colloidal form.
Hargreaves
R J
RJ
BIBRA, Carshalton, Surrey.
Evans
J G
JG
Janota
I
I
Magos
L
L
Cavanagh
J B
JB
D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008630:Mercury Poisoning / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors