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Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations

BACKGROUND: Methylmercury (MeHg) easily crosses the blood–brain barrier and accumulates in the brain. Accumulated MeHg will cause neurological symptoms. We report four pediatric cases of neuropsychological findings with high blood MeHg concentrations. CASE PRESENTATION: Four children were admitted f...

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Autores principales: Hong, Young-Seoub, Kim, Dae-Seon, Yu, Seung-Do, Kim, Seong-Hwan, Kim, Jong-Kuk, Kim, Yu-Mi, Yu, Jae-Ho, Jung, Ji-Hyun, Kim, Byoung-Gwon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3923355/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24472601
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2052-4374-25-18
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author Hong, Young-Seoub
Kim, Dae-Seon
Yu, Seung-Do
Kim, Seong-Hwan
Kim, Jong-Kuk
Kim, Yu-Mi
Yu, Jae-Ho
Jung, Ji-Hyun
Kim, Byoung-Gwon
author_facet Hong, Young-Seoub
Kim, Dae-Seon
Yu, Seung-Do
Kim, Seong-Hwan
Kim, Jong-Kuk
Kim, Yu-Mi
Yu, Jae-Ho
Jung, Ji-Hyun
Kim, Byoung-Gwon
author_sort Hong, Young-Seoub
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Methylmercury (MeHg) easily crosses the blood–brain barrier and accumulates in the brain. Accumulated MeHg will cause neurological symptoms. We report four pediatric cases of neuropsychological findings with high blood MeHg concentrations. CASE PRESENTATION: Four children were admitted for follow-up study because their total mercury (THg) concentration in the blood was found to be high during a national survey. Case 1 was a 9-year-old female with a 16.6 μg/ℓ blood THg concentration in the survey. During admission, the blood THg, hair THg, and blood MeHg concentration(mercury indices) were 21.4 μg/ℓ, 7.2 μg/g, and 20.1 μg/ℓ, respectively. In our neuropsychological examination, cognitive impairment and attention deficit were observed. Her diet included fish intake 2–3 times per week, and she had been diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 years of age. Case 2 was a 12-year-old male with blood THg of 15.4 μg/ℓ in the survey and the mercury indices were 12.7 μg/ℓ, 5.7 μg/g, and 11.8 μg/ℓ, respectively, on admission. He was also observed to have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Case 3 was a 10-year-old male child with blood THg of 17.4 μg/ℓ in the survey, and the mercury indices on admission were 21.6 μg/ℓ, 7.5 μg/g and 21.5 μg/ℓ, respectively. In his case, mild attention deficit was observed. Case 4 was a 9-year-old male with blood THg of 20.6 μg/ℓ in the survey and the mercury indices were 18.9 μg/ℓ, 8.3 μg/g, and 14.4 μg/ℓ, respectively, on admission. Mild attention difficulty was observed. CONCLUSION: We suggest that fish consumption may be the main source of MeHg exposure, and that MeHg may have been the cause of the neuropsychological deficits in these cases.
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spelling pubmed-39233552014-02-14 Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations Hong, Young-Seoub Kim, Dae-Seon Yu, Seung-Do Kim, Seong-Hwan Kim, Jong-Kuk Kim, Yu-Mi Yu, Jae-Ho Jung, Ji-Hyun Kim, Byoung-Gwon Ann Occup Environ Med Case Report BACKGROUND: Methylmercury (MeHg) easily crosses the blood–brain barrier and accumulates in the brain. Accumulated MeHg will cause neurological symptoms. We report four pediatric cases of neuropsychological findings with high blood MeHg concentrations. CASE PRESENTATION: Four children were admitted for follow-up study because their total mercury (THg) concentration in the blood was found to be high during a national survey. Case 1 was a 9-year-old female with a 16.6 μg/ℓ blood THg concentration in the survey. During admission, the blood THg, hair THg, and blood MeHg concentration(mercury indices) were 21.4 μg/ℓ, 7.2 μg/g, and 20.1 μg/ℓ, respectively. In our neuropsychological examination, cognitive impairment and attention deficit were observed. Her diet included fish intake 2–3 times per week, and she had been diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 years of age. Case 2 was a 12-year-old male with blood THg of 15.4 μg/ℓ in the survey and the mercury indices were 12.7 μg/ℓ, 5.7 μg/g, and 11.8 μg/ℓ, respectively, on admission. He was also observed to have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Case 3 was a 10-year-old male child with blood THg of 17.4 μg/ℓ in the survey, and the mercury indices on admission were 21.6 μg/ℓ, 7.5 μg/g and 21.5 μg/ℓ, respectively. In his case, mild attention deficit was observed. Case 4 was a 9-year-old male with blood THg of 20.6 μg/ℓ in the survey and the mercury indices were 18.9 μg/ℓ, 8.3 μg/g, and 14.4 μg/ℓ, respectively, on admission. Mild attention difficulty was observed. CONCLUSION: We suggest that fish consumption may be the main source of MeHg exposure, and that MeHg may have been the cause of the neuropsychological deficits in these cases. BioMed Central 2013-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3923355/ /pubmed/24472601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2052-4374-25-18 Text en Copyright © 2013 Hong et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Case Report
Hong, Young-Seoub
Kim, Dae-Seon
Yu, Seung-Do
Kim, Seong-Hwan
Kim, Jong-Kuk
Kim, Yu-Mi
Yu, Jae-Ho
Jung, Ji-Hyun
Kim, Byoung-Gwon
Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations
title Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations
title_full Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations
title_fullStr Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations
title_full_unstemmed Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations
title_short Four Cases of Abnormal Neuropsychological Findings in Children with High Blood Methylmercury Concentrations
title_sort four cases of abnormal neuropsychological findings in children with high blood methylmercury concentrations
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3923355/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24472601
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2052-4374-25-18
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