Arsenic Poisoning
Basics
Description
Description
- Acute toxicity:
- Caused by intentional ingestion, malicious poisoning, or medication error
- Minimal lethal ingested dose ∼2 mg/kg
- Chronic toxicity:
- Resulting from occupational exposures, water or food contamination, or use of folk remedies containing arsenic
- Ingestion is the primary route of exposure
- Inhalational toxicity is possible from arsine gas exposure
Etiology
Etiology
- Most cases seen in the ED result from intentional ingestion or malicious poisoning
- Sodium arsenate, found in ant killer, is the most common acute exposure in the US
- Contaminated food and water supplies are the most common cause worldwide
- Inorganic arsenic trioxide has been recently approved as a chemotherapeutic agent for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
- Melarsoprol, an organic arsenical, has been used to treat trypanosomiasis since 1949
- Found in pesticides, certain folk remedies (herbal balls), industrial wood preservatives
- May be released as arsine gas from combustion of zinc- and arsenic-containing compounds
Mechanism
- Arsenic exists in several forms—gas (arsine, or lewisite), organic, elemental, and inorganic
- Inorganic forms (pentavalent and trivalent arsenic) are most frequently involved in toxic exposures:
- Pentavalent arsenic uncouples oxidative phosphorylation
- Most pentavalent arsenic is converted to the more toxic trivalent arsenic in the body
- Trivalent arsenic binds sulfhydryl groups and interferes in hemoglobin production
- Some trivalent arsenic may be methylated into species of varying toxicity
- The more reactive species are DNA damaging and genotoxic
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Citation
Schaider, Jeffrey J., et al., editors. "Arsenic Poisoning." 5-Minute Emergency Consult, 6th ed., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2020. Emergency Central, emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307390/1.0/Arsenic_Poisoning.
Arsenic Poisoning. In: Schaider JJJ, Barkin RMR, Hayden SRS, et al, eds. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2020. https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307390/1.0/Arsenic_Poisoning. Accessed December 3, 2024.
Arsenic Poisoning. (2020). In Schaider, J. J., Barkin, R. M., Hayden, S. R., Wolfe, R. E., Barkin, A. Z., Shayne, P., & Rosen, P. (Eds.), 5-Minute Emergency Consult (6th ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307390/1.0/Arsenic_Poisoning
Arsenic Poisoning [Internet]. In: Schaider JJJ, Barkin RMR, Hayden SRS, Wolfe RER, Barkin AZA, Shayne PP, Rosen PP, editors. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2020. [cited 2024 December 03]. Available from: https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307390/1.0/Arsenic_Poisoning.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
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