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Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan

As a result of population growth and the development of tube wells, humans’ exposure to arsenic has increased over the past few decades. The natural course of organ damage secondary to arsenic exposure is not yet well understood. In Toroku, Japan, an arsenic mine was intermittently operated from 192...

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Autores principales: Sugiyama, Takashi, Ishii, Nobuyuki, Ebihara, Yuka, Shiomi, Kazutaka, Mochizuki, Hitoshi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682489
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010749
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author Sugiyama, Takashi
Ishii, Nobuyuki
Ebihara, Yuka
Shiomi, Kazutaka
Mochizuki, Hitoshi
author_facet Sugiyama, Takashi
Ishii, Nobuyuki
Ebihara, Yuka
Shiomi, Kazutaka
Mochizuki, Hitoshi
author_sort Sugiyama, Takashi
collection PubMed
description As a result of population growth and the development of tube wells, humans’ exposure to arsenic has increased over the past few decades. The natural course of organ damage secondary to arsenic exposure is not yet well understood. In Toroku, Japan, an arsenic mine was intermittently operated from 1920 to 1962, and residents were exposed to high concentrations of arsenic. In this paper, we analyzed 190 consecutive residents for whom detailed records of neurological symptoms and findings were obtained from 1974 to 2005. All participants were interviewed regarding the presence of general, skin, hearing, respiratory, and neurological symptoms. Neurological symptoms were classified into extremity numbness or pain, constipation, dyshidrosis, sensory loss, and muscle atrophy. Superficial and vibratory sensation was also evaluated. More than 80% of participants experienced extremity numbness, and numbness was the most common neurological symptom. Numbness was associated with superficial sensory disturbance, and was correlated with the subsequent development of other neurological symptoms, including autonomic and motor symptoms. No previous studies have investigated the natural course of chronic arsenic intoxication; thus, these data serve as a guide for detecting early symptoms due to arsenic exposure.
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spelling pubmed-85354502021-10-23 Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan Sugiyama, Takashi Ishii, Nobuyuki Ebihara, Yuka Shiomi, Kazutaka Mochizuki, Hitoshi Int J Environ Res Public Health Article As a result of population growth and the development of tube wells, humans’ exposure to arsenic has increased over the past few decades. The natural course of organ damage secondary to arsenic exposure is not yet well understood. In Toroku, Japan, an arsenic mine was intermittently operated from 1920 to 1962, and residents were exposed to high concentrations of arsenic. In this paper, we analyzed 190 consecutive residents for whom detailed records of neurological symptoms and findings were obtained from 1974 to 2005. All participants were interviewed regarding the presence of general, skin, hearing, respiratory, and neurological symptoms. Neurological symptoms were classified into extremity numbness or pain, constipation, dyshidrosis, sensory loss, and muscle atrophy. Superficial and vibratory sensation was also evaluated. More than 80% of participants experienced extremity numbness, and numbness was the most common neurological symptom. Numbness was associated with superficial sensory disturbance, and was correlated with the subsequent development of other neurological symptoms, including autonomic and motor symptoms. No previous studies have investigated the natural course of chronic arsenic intoxication; thus, these data serve as a guide for detecting early symptoms due to arsenic exposure. MDPI 2021-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8535450/ /pubmed/34682489 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010749 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sugiyama, Takashi
Ishii, Nobuyuki
Ebihara, Yuka
Shiomi, Kazutaka
Mochizuki, Hitoshi
Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan
title Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan
title_full Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan
title_fullStr Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan
title_full_unstemmed Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan
title_short Detailed Analysis of Neurological Symptoms and Sensory Disturbances Due to Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Toroku, Japan
title_sort detailed analysis of neurological symptoms and sensory disturbances due to chronic arsenic exposure in toroku, japan
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682489
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010749
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