title: Encephalopathy and Neuropathy due to Glue, Paint Thinner, and Gasoline Sniffing in Trinidad and Tobago-MRI Findings.
abstract: A 29-year-old male petrol station pump attendant was admitted with ataxia and clinical evidence of a sensorimotor polyneuropathy which developed over the preceding 3 months. He had cognitive dysfunction, hearing loss, and cerebellar clinical abnormalities that came on slowly over the three years. He had a fifteen-year history of sniffing mostly glue, occasionally paint thinners, and, in the recent two years, gasoline. Magnetic resonance brain imaging showed abnormalities of the cerebral cortex, cerebral white matter, corpus callosum, hippocampus, brainstem and cerebellar atrophy, hypointensities of basal ganglia, red nuclei, and substantia nigra as previously described in toluene sniffing. Abstinence for six months led to partial clinical improvement. Clinicians need to be aware of this preventable entity which has peculiar radiological findings which are being increasingly accepted as typical.
authors.affiliation: Neurology Unit and Department of Medicine, San Fernando Teaching Hospital, University of the West Indies, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
authors.forename: Kanterpersad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramcharan
authors.affiliation: Neurology Unit and Department of Medicine, San Fernando Teaching Hospital, University of the West Indies, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
authors.forename: Amrit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramesar
authors.affiliation: Neurology Unit and Department of Medicine, San Fernando Teaching Hospital, University of the West Indies, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
authors.forename: Moshanti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramdath
authors.affiliation: Neurology Unit and Department of Medicine, San Fernando Teaching Hospital, University of the West Indies, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Teelucksingh
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Port of Spain General Hospital, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gosein