ABSTRACT
This study, based in a psychiatric hospital, reviews the incidence of breast cancer in 93 patients who had received phenothiazines prior to developing breast cancer compared with a control group of 28 patients who did not receive phenothiazines. The results indicate no significant difference in the incidence of breast cancer between those patients receiving phenothiazines and those that did not. The retrospective study covered a period of 21 years. The overall incidence of breast cancer in 63,000 female patients was found to be 1.85/1,000 as compared with 2/1,000 in the general population.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/chemically induced , Phenothiazines/adverse effects , Actuarial Analysis , Adult , Aged , Breast Neoplasms/mortality , Female , Humans , Mental Disorders/drug therapy , Middle Aged , Phenothiazines/therapeutic use , Retrospective StudiesSubject(s)
Pain , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Headache/etiology , Humans , Spinal Puncture/adverse effectsSubject(s)
Mental Disorders/blood , Mercury/blood , Age Factors , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
Mercury concentrations in whole blood of 210 patients admitted to two urban hospitals ranged from 0 to 298 ppb with a mean of 14.2 ppb. When corrected by omission of nine values over 50 ppb the mean was 8. 1 ppb. Althouth mean values for men were slightly higher than those for women, this difference was not significant. Results of a 12-test blood chemistry screening profile were available for 196 subjects, but no correlation between mercury concentrations in blood and those chemistry measurements could be detected. Simultaneous determinations of mercury in whole blood and plasma were performed for 65 subjects; the mean for plasma was 5.0 ppb. somewhat below the mean of 6.3 ppb for whole blood in the same group. Other surveys have shown corrected values of 13.3 and 6.7 ppb for normal populations. These values are very much higher than current estimates of 0 to 2 ppb for normals. Levels are higher in urban residents than in rural probably because of increased exposure to combined industrial and environmental sources. The mean level appears to be 8 ppb with a range of 0 to 30 ppb.
Subject(s)
Mercury/blood , Urban Population , Adult , District of Columbia , Female , Humans , Male , Maryland , Middle AgedABSTRACT
Vacuolization of the white matter of the brain is produced by a number of disease entities and chemicals, including hexachlorophene. Brains of 135 stillborn infants and infants dying in the neonatal period were examined for vacuole formation in the white matter to determine if any hexachlorophene-like lesions could be found. A nonsignificant excess of vaculoes was found in infants bathed in hexachlorophene at birth compared with infants not bathed in it. Analysis of 11 brains for hexachlorophene showed that detectable levels were present in five, all of which showed vacuolization. None was detected in the remaining six, three of which also showed vacuolization. In two of these there was no hexachlorophene exposure.
