title: Massive penny ingestion: the loot with local and systemic effects.
abstract: A 57-year-old schizophrenic woman presented with lethargy, nausea, vomiting, and anorexia after coin ingestion. She was found to have multiple organ dysfunction manifested as hepatitis, pancreatitis, severe anemia with markedly depressed bone marrow response, extravascular hemolysis, and acute renal failure. Prolonged exposure to zinc from massive coin ingestion was responsible. Zinc poisoning is an unusual consequence of coin ingestion in the adult human literature. A detailed discussion on zinc poisoning, as well as the pitfalls in radiological diagnosis of massive coin ingestion, is presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee 38103, USA.
authors.forename: Saurabh S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Dhawan
authors.forename: Katherine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ryder
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pritchard
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009102:Multiple Organ Failure / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009717:Numismatics; D011859:Radiography; D015032:Zinc / Q000506:poisoning*
chemical_list: D015032:Zinc