title: Toxico-surveillance of infant and toddler poisonings in the United States.
abstract: Infant and toddler poisonings are important to capture and may be challenging to manage. We aim to describe the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC) Case Registry as a tool for toxico-surveillance of this problem in the United States. Using the ToxIC Case Registry database of the American College of Medical Toxicology, we identified infant and toddler poisonings over a 15-month period between April 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 reported to the 31 Registry sites. Of 6,810 poisoning cases reported to the ToxIC registry, 248 (3.6 %) involved children younger than 2 years (51 % males). Fifty-four percent were hospital inpatients, 42 % were in the Emergency Department and 4 % were outpatients. Sixty-three percent were symptomatic. The most common ingested compounds were highly toxic-cardiac drugs (16 %), psychotropics (15 %), recreational drugs, alcohols, and controlled narcotic drugs (13 %), analgesics (9 %), and cleaning compounds (7 %). Fourteen percent of cases involved multiple agents. The ToxIC registry is a potentially useful toxico-surveillance tool to identify and trend clinically significant poisonings in young children, and potentially other populations. These data could be used to target specific preventive interventions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Yaron.Finkelstein@sickkids.ca
authors.forename: Yaron
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
authors.forename: Janine R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hutson
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Wax
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brent
mesh_terms: D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000633:toxicity; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000633:toxicity; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000633:toxicity; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000633:toxicity; D015331:Cohort Studies; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D010045:Outpatients; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000633:toxicity; D012042:Registries; D014116:Toxicology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs