ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the clinical features and diagnostic points of occupational acute dimethylformamide (DMF) poisoning and to explore the mechanism of occupational acute DMF poisoning.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A comprehensive analysis was performed on the clinical data of 16 cases of occupational acute DMF poisoning, including symptoms, signs, and laboratory testing results.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The main clinical features of occupational acute DMF poisoning were digestive system impairments, especially abdominalgia. Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis was not found by gastroscopy. There was no significant correlation between the degree of abdominalgia and alanine aminotransferase level (r(s) = 0.109, P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Abdominalgia is recommended to be one of the reference indices for the diagnosis and degrading of occupational acute DMF poisoning, The mechanism of DMF poisoning remains unclear but it is considered to be related to methyl isocyanate, the intermediate product of DMF metabolism.</p>