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Plants and Mushrooms
Published in David J. George, Poisons, 2017
Water hemlock has small compound leaves, small white or green flowers, and tuberous large hollow roots. It can be confused with wild carrots, parsnips, wild celery, ginseng, and other edible plants. It contains cicutoxin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and death from untreatable, continuous severe seizures not responsive to treatment.
Rhabdomyolysis, Methamphetamine, Amphetamine and MDMA Use: Associated Factors and Risks
Published in Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 2020
John R. Richards, Colin G. Wang, Roderick W. Fontenette, Rory P. Stuart, Kerry F. McMahon, Samuel D. Turnipseed
Rhabdomyolysis is a syndrome due to direct or indirect muscle injury, myocyte death, and release of intracellular contents into the bloodstream leading to complications such as acute renal failure and death. The first historical description of rhabdomyolysis is found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible (Cervellin et al., 2017). This passage describes an episode of mass cicutoxin poisoning after ingestion of birds feeding on hemlock. The next written recording of rhabdomyolysis is the execution of Socrates in 399 BC by being forced to drink an extract of hemlock (Cervellin et al., 2017). Blunt trauma is another common etiology of rhabdomyolysis and was described in survivors of a 1908 earthquake and tsunami in Southern Italy, followed by an account of survivors from the German bombing of London from 1940 to 1941 (Bywaters et al., 1941). MA use has been associated with the risk of rhabdomyolysis in many case reports and studies dating back to the 1970s (Eilert & Kliewer, 2011; Gurel, 2016; Hendrickson et al., 2006; Kendrick et al., 1977; Lan et al., 1998; Paydar et al., 2015; Pillai et al., 2019; Prakobsrikul et al., 2019; Richards et al., 1999; Suchard, 2007). The etiology of MA-associated rhabdomyolysis was traditionally thought to be due to agitation and/or physical restraint with intense isometric muscle contraction. However, many patients who use MA are not agitated or restrained and go on to experience rhabdomyolysis, suggesting that other factors leading to direct and indirect myocyte injury are responsible. One such factor is the direct toxicity of MA on myocytes.