A Fatality Associated with Trichloroethylene Inhalation

On the occasion of autopsies of 4 toxicomaniac adolescents sniffing and occasionally drinking trichlorethylene, carbon tetrachloride and gasoline severe arteriosclerotic damage of the coronary vessels was encountered. Experimental intoxication of 12 rabbits with these solvents over a period of 10 weeks, each time until a prenarcotic stage, provoked pathological changes in accordance with well known findings but no arteriosclerosis. Ergometrical examination with simultaneous recording of the E.C.G. of 6 adolescents with solvent-sniffing history and of 1 man, working for years under trichlorethylene exposure conditions and showing symptoms of chronic intoxication, revealed no signs of coronary-artery insufficiency. These findings are not inconsistent with the assumption -- though not substantiating it -- of a causal relationship between the intoxication with trichlorethylene, carbon terachloride and gasoline and the development of arteriosclerosis, as the coronary sclerosis may be of the elstic type with a very high degree of adaptability and the probands proved unable to reach the limit of maximum stress. In addition to the main purpose the occurrence of epileptic seizures following chronic trichlorethylene sniffing in one case and the manifestation of pulmonary obstruction following i.v. application of Methyl-Phenidat (Ritalin) in two cases are reported.

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