Acute Toxic Herbal Intake in a Suicide Attempt and Fatal Refractory Ventricular Arrhythmia

Acute Toxic Herbal Intake in a Suicide Attempt and Fatal Refractory Ventricular Arrhythmia

:  This report involves a 54‐year‐old man who died following refractory ventricular fibrillation after ingestion of a plant in a suicide attempt. Repeated direct‐current cardioversions were unsuccessful and no single anti‐arrhythmic agent was effective for arrhythmia control. The routine blood toxic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology Vol. 107; no. 2; pp. 698 - 699
Main Authors: Strzelecki, Antoine, Pichon, Nicolas, Gaulier, Jean M., Amiel, Jean B., Champy, Pauline, Clavel, Marc
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-08-2010
Blackwell
Subjects:
Aconitine - blood
Aconitine - chemistry
Aconitine - poisoning
Aconitum - chemistry
Aconitum - poisoning
Aconitum napellus
Biological and medical sciences
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
Fatal Outcome
Forensic Toxicology - methods
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Plant Poisoning - etiology
Plant poisons toxicology
Plant Preparations - chemistry
Plant Preparations - poisoning
Plants, Toxic - chemistry
Plants, Toxic - poisoning
Suicide
Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Toxicology
Ventricular Fibrillation - chemically induced
Ventricular Fibrillation - physiopathology
Human
Arrhythmia
Toxicity
Ranunculaceae
Acute
Cardiovascular disease
Excitability disorder
Ventricular fibrillation
Suicide attempt
Case study
Heart disease
Dicotyledones
Angiospermae
Plant origin
Death
Spermatophyta
Aconitum
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Summary::  This report involves a 54‐year‐old man who died following refractory ventricular fibrillation after ingestion of a plant in a suicide attempt. Repeated direct‐current cardioversions were unsuccessful and no single anti‐arrhythmic agent was effective for arrhythmia control. The routine blood toxicological screening was negative. Aconitine, the main toxin of Aconitum napellus was identified using a specific liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS) method. The whole blood concentration (24 μg/l) was higher than those reported in other aconitine‐related deaths. The patient had found information about the life‐threatening nature of such a toxic herb intake on a free medical encyclopaedia online.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:1742-7835
1742-7843
DOI:10.1111/j.1742-7843.2010.00566.x