[Atypical poisoning with mixture of toxic alcohols--a case report]. / Nietypowe zatrucie mieszanina alkoholi niespozywczych--opis przypadku.

UNLABELLED: We presented the male who was addicted to ethanol, and who drank the mixture of different toxic alcohols. Toxicological screening of ingested fluid found 42% vol propan-1-OL, and 17% vol propan-2-OL (isopropanol). After regaining consciousness, the patient stated that substance is becoming more and more popular as a new type of cheap alcohol, and because of its "low price and high power". CONCLUSIONS: 1. It is advisable to consult all cases of poisoning with inedible alcohols with Regional Centers of Toxicology. 2. There is an urgent need to create a reference toxicological laboratories, which would have the ability to diagnose poisoning with different xenobiotics. 3. Further training for students and doctors, about diagnosis and therapy of acute poisonings, should be done. 4. The endemic foci of intoxication with inedible alcohols should be checked and discovered.

Rapid identification and determination of the rodenticide valone in serum by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Valone is a chronic anticoagulant rodenticide that has come into wide use in China. Current literature lacks analytical methods for the determination of valone. In this paper, a sensitive and selective assay was established for the identification and quantification of valone in serum by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. After addition of the internal standard, warfarin, serum samples were extracted with 10% methanol in acetonitrile and cleaned using Oasis HLB solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. The compounds were separated on an Agilent SB C18 column with a mobile phase of methanol/acetic acid-ammonium acetate (5 mmol/L, pH 6.3) (75:25, v/v). Detection was performed by electrospray ionization ion trap mass spectrometry in the negative multiple reaction monitoring mode. The transition ions of m/z 229 --> 145 and m/z 307 --> 161 were selected for quantification of valone and the internal standard, respectively. The overall extraction efficiency was between 81.1% and 91.1%. The limit of quantification was 0.5 ng/mL. Regression analysis of the calibration data revealed good correlation (r(2) > 0.99) for valone. Intra- and interday precisions for quality-control samples were less than 7.8% and 12.8%, respectively. This method combines a rapid SPE procedure with an extremely fast chromatographic analysis, which is especially advantageous or clinical laboratories.

[Proposal for threshold limit values for organic solvent concentrations in alveolar air]. / Proposta di valori limite di concentrazione di solventi organici nell'aria alveolare.

The n-hexane concentration was determined in upper factory environmental air and in worker alveolar air. The relationship between the hexane alveolar concentration, and the hexane environmental concentration (Ca/Ci) was found to be steady during the 4,5 hours exposure and independent of the alveolar ventilation and hexane environmental concentration. These results suggest the hypothesis that alveolar TLV's can be fixed for hexane and other solvents.